Mike Schmidt Responds to Winning Our March Madness Tournament

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Enrico: We held a March Madness-style bracket last month in which we picked the 64 greatest Philly athletes of the last 30 years. You were a No. 1 seed and defeated guys like Von Hayes, Wilbert Montgomery, Ron Hextall, Brian Dawkins, Ryan Howard... you met up with Dr. J in the finals and you actually beat out Doc to win the tournament. What are your thoughts on the fans picking you as the greatest Philadelphia athlete of the last 30 years?

Mike Schmidt: [laughs] I'm honored. Sounds like a fun thing.

We've had a lot of pretty great athletes come through Philly over the last 30 years, obviously Dr. J is one of them. I'll never forget when he came from the Nets to the 76ers. I think my whole off-season life changed when that happened. I'll never forget when Julius Erving came to Philadelphia and the NBA. I couldn't wait to go see him play. I think Philadephia sports fans to the person were all pretty much like me. That was a real exciting time in our town, so if the fans allowed me to get to the end of the bracket and had to decide between Dr. J and myself, I'm quite honored… I can't imagine they would, but I'm quite honored they chose me over him, because I surely can't dunk.

Read much more of our conversation with the greatest Phillie ever here... Topics include the Phillies first 14 games, Pat Jordan's New York Times Magazine article on the Four Aces, mustaches, and wine, among other things...

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