1985 Game 70 - 1985 O-Pee-Chee #67 Mike Schmidt

Expos 5, Phillies 3
Game 70 - Friday Night, June 28th in Montreal
Record - 30-40, 5th Place, 11 1/2 games behind the Expos

One Sentence Summary:  The first place Expos chipped away at the Phillies on their way to a 5-3 win.

What It Means:  This game took a little over two hours to play inside Olympic Stadium in front of a little over 15,000 paying customers.  We visited Olympic Stadium during the final year of the Expos in 2004, and I remember the lighting inside the stadium was fairly dim.  Everything sounded strange too.  There weren't many fans in attendance, and you could hear muffled shouts from the dugouts or from the opposite side of the field.  It would be nice to see Montreal get a second chance at a franchise, and hopefully they'd get a nice outdoor ballpark or at least something with a retractable roof.

What Happened:  Charles Hudson was in trouble or had runners on base in every inning of his seven-inning outing.  He departed with the Expos leading 4-2, having allowed 10 hits, a pair of walks and a wild pitch for good measure.  Larry Andersen surrendered a solo home run to Mike Fitzgerald, the catcher's second of the game, to put the game out of reach.

For the Phillies, Juan Samuel had three hits including a double.  Mike Schmidt had a double and a home run, his 9th of the season.  Schmidt's average continued to steadily climb upward and he was now hitting .232.

Featured Card:  This is the infamous trip when Schmidt decided to let loose on the Philadelphia fans, calling the collective group "beyond help" in a scathing interview he gave to the Montreal Gazette.  Schmidt's quotes would be printed in a story that ran the day after this, on June 29th, so I'm assuming he vented to the reporter either before or after this Friday night loss.  Here's the crux of the comments:

Upon returning to Philadelphia following the Expos' series, Schmidt took the field in sunglasses and a long-haired wig borrowed from reliever Larry Andersen.  The Phillies fans, recognizing that the disguise was Schmidt's way of indirectly apologizing, gave him a standing ovation when he took the field with his new look.

1985 Virtual Phillies Wall / 1985 Season Summary Index