COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County community will be watching Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night with a great deal of pride, as one of their own takes the hill at Yankee Stadium.
Clarke Schmidt is New York's starting pitcher in what is essentially a must-win situation for the Yankees, who are down 2-0 in the series to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Schmidt got his start in Cobb at the Oregon Park Baseball Association. He also later starred at Allatoona High School.
"Once an OP kid, now in the Show!" the baseball program posted on Facebook on Sunday. "Dreams can come true! We will all be watching and cheering him on!"
The post included pictures of Schmidt, a 28-year-old right-hander, back during his Oregon Park days.
Who is Clarke Schmidt?
After getting his start in Cobb County, Schmidt went to the University of South Carolina and then was taken with the 16th overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft.
He made his debut in 2020, and earned a significant bullpen role with the Yankees in 2022. He's been a member of the team's rotation the last two years.
Schmidt missed a large portion of this season with an injury, but was solid upon his return. From Sept. 7 to the end of the season, he made five starts and recorded a 3.65 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 24 2/3 innings.
He'd been red hot before his injury - with a 1.82 ERA in May, and his overall season numbers were the best he's ever posted 2.85 ERA in 16 starts, 93 strikeouts to 30 walks in 85 1/3 innings.
He's made two previous starts so far this postseason, with identical lines of two runs allowed in 4 2/3 innings each time -- both of them wins for the Yankees.
Monday night of course will be the biggest start of his life -- Game 3 of the World Series, pitching for the home team in Yankee Stadium with their hopes of making this a competitive series on the line.
Who is Clarke Schmidt's dad?
Dwight Schmidt pilots the team’s family charter flights during the World Series and has been at the controls of the club’s plane for some trips during the season, too.
“Everybody feels like the pilot’s a little bit more personally invested into the flight, so they feel a little safer,” Clarke joked.
Dwight Schmidt, 59, is a retired Marine Corps colonel and Delta Air Lines captain who has worked for the company for 25 years, handling MD-88s, 727s and 757s and 767-400s. He’s twice piloted the Yankees on road trips, including ahead of 2021’s Field of Dreams game in Iowa.
“Growing up, we used to have the printout of what it was like in a cockpit in my room. So we knew all the buttons and stuff. I didn’t really know what it was. We were just messing around,” Clarke said. “I’ve flown with him a few times in smaller planes and stuff like that. And he’s tried to kind of bestow his knowledge on me, but I was always baseball first.”
Dwight Schmidt arranged for Yankees manager Aaron Boone to use a Delta flight simulator during a visit to Atlanta. A landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport was programmed.
“It was really cool. Mr. Schmidt said I did a good job,” Boone recalled. “I was in there for probably 10, 15 minutes flying and then landing the plane and everything. It was something I was pretty fortunate to get a chance to do.”
Dwight and wife Renee were at Dodger Stadium for the Series, though Clarke wasn’t scheduled to pitch.
When New York’s World Series family charter took off from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Dwight had Delta collectors cards ready for the kids. He landed the 757 at Hollywood Burbank Airport, the families deplaned and Schmidt flew the aircraft 18 miles (29 kilometers) to Los Angeles International Airport.
“I’ve heard a lot of really good things about the landing this time,” Clarke said. “Everyone said it’s the best flight they’ve ever been on, and they felt no turbulence.”
Dwight Schmidt planned to head to LAX with his copilot on Sunday, fly back to Burbank, pick up the families and return to Newark.
Much of the time, Dwight Schmidt is on long-haul routes to Europe and South America. The Yankees charters are a special route.
“We bid for those, to try and get a trip,” Schmidt said. “That’s how I was able to get it.”
Clarke’s 30-year-old older brother, Clate, was a 32nd-round draft pick by Boston in 2015 and spent 2016-19 in the low minors. Now he’s following his father into aviation.
“Fifteen hundred hours is what you need to be an airline pilot,” Dwight said. “Clate has just hit that. He’s been an instructor for literally the last two years and so he is now getting ready to get hired.”
Clarke has no desire to join his father’s profession when he’s done pitching.
“That’s a hard no on that,” Clarke said.