Tuesday, April 29, 2014

"HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 1970'S" #6: MIKE SCHMIDT'S 4-HOMER GAME IN 1976

Being that Mike Schmidt was the first player in 15 years to blast four homers in a single-game, you would think Topps would have had some sort of highlight card for him in the 1977 set.
Turns out Schmidt's power display would be the only such game of the entire decade.
Not until Bob Horner matched this feat in 1986 would we even see a four-homer game again.
So I went ahead and made a highlight card for Schmidt to celebrate his epic day at the plate, take a look:


I basically took the "Record Breaker" design from the 1977 set and turned it into a 
"Highlight" card, since Schmidt didn't actually break any records here.
The game took place at Wrigley Field on April 17th, 1976, and Schmidt helped bring the Phillies back from an 11-run deficit when they beat the Cubs 18-16 in 10 innings.
He actually hit the homers in four straight at-bats, making him the first to do it since Bobby Lowe in 1894!
For the game Schmidt's line read 5 for 6 with eight runs batted in and four runs scored. Monster game to say the least!
Also of note is that he hit three of his homers off the Reuschel brothers: two off Rick and one off of Paul (his other homer of the game was off Mike Garman).