Shanaia Rivera's List: Philadelphia Sports

• Injuries to Mike Schmidt's knees and back caused him to miss much of the 1988 season. After a poor start to the 1989 season, Schmidt chose to suddenly announce his retirement in San Diego, on May 29. Known as "Captain Cool" by many in Philadelphia sports circles, Schmidt surprised many with an emotional, and occasionally tearful, retirement speech. In honor of his career, fans voted Schmidt to the NL All-Star team; Schmidt declined to play but was announced with the team. His last game was May 28, 1989 against the San Francisco Giants.^[7]

   

  On June 8, 1989, Steve Jeltz hit two of his five career home runs in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, despite not starting the game. A switch-hitter, Jeltz hit one of these homers from the right side of the plate and one from the left side. This was the first time in the history of the Phillies that this feat had been accomplished. It was in this same game that, after the Pirates scored 10 runs in the top of the first, Pirate broadcaster Jim Rooker said on-air, "If we lose this game, I'll walk home." The Phillies came back to win 15-11, and after the season Rooker conducted a 300-mile charity walk from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.

• Despite an 8-2 loss Aug. 22, 1969 to the Houston Astros, the Cubs were still a solid 77-48 and six games ahead of the New York Mets in the National League East.
• “That was a great ball club,”
• “That was going to be our year,”
• Married to Chicago department store heiress Lynne Walker Goldblatt, in late July, Durocher surprisingly turned the team over to coach Pete Reiser, vanishing for two games.
• “A lot of us from that team remain close friends,”
• “While that team didn’t win, I think what we did was bring about a renaissance for the Cubs. We drew one million fans for the first time in franchise history in 1968 and today, there never seems to be an empty seat at a Cubs game.”

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