History of the Mike Schmidt Winners Circle
GOLDEN GLOVE TO GOLDEN HEART
Mike Schmidt's Journey To The Winner's Circle
During his famed baseball career with the Philadelphia Phillies, Mike Schmidt won a record eight National League home run titles with 548 home runs, and earned three Most Valuable Player awards and ten Gold Gloves. He was voted 80’s Player of the Century, and was the youngest player ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995. Mike is considered one of the greatest players of all time due to his combined records in fielding, power hitting and base running. Today, he resides in Jupiter, FL with his wife, Donna.
Considered a baseball icon, Mike longed for a private life in retirement. His success afforded him a wonderful lifestyle. He’s involved in church, local and national fundraisers, an avid golfer and fisherman, and cherishes time with family. Despite this, his retired life was all about him, and he felt empty, he longed for substance that only doing for others can provide.
The tragedy in one family’s life became a timely motivating force in his. Mike laughs when his challenges as an athlete are spoken of in the same breath as those of Brett Weinstein’s battle against CF. Brett, a classmate and friend of Mike’s kids, battled CF as long as they new him. The Weinstein’s and Schmidt’s became friends on a trip to the Bahamas, where Mike and his family got to watch first hand the daily therapy that accompanies a CF family. “They’d take Brett into a bedroom three times a day and pound on his back in an effort to dislodge mucus from his lungs”. “Imagine having a severe chest cold your entire life?”
Brett started on the decline as he approached his twenties. Life expectancy today has many CF patients reaching mid to late 30’s, even older, but quality of life, with the coughing and therapy is awful. Brett was not one of the fortunate ones.The only way for him to survive was to find a replacement set of lungs. The family went to North Carolina for a lung transplant, waited almost a year, and it never happened. They lost Brett in his early 20’s. He died in his Mom and Dad’s arms.
Following the funeral service, Marie Cook, of the Palm Beach CF Foundation approached Mike and asked if he’d like to chair a fundraising program, called Winner’s Circle. The timing was perfect, Schmidt gathered friends and held a kickoff dinner, which raised $27,000. “It was funny, a dozen of my friends and their wives came to dinner to get a signed baseball, and a photo, likely something they already had”. Many of these friends were fisherman, who suggested their annual spring trip to the Bahamas would be the perfect foundation for a fishing competition and fundraiser.
The Mike Schmidt Winner’s Circle Invitational was born. “There are hundreds of golf fundraisers, my idea was to host an exclusive, invitational offshore, fishing tournament, and we pulled it off”. The first several years the event was held at Walker’s Cay, where the guys could really experience the “getaway” feeling. Walkers came upon financial hardship causing the event to move to Lucaya for two years, and now its home is Old Bahama Bay. 2009 was the 10th Anniversary of the MSWC, and the first year of the road to $2,000,000. That’s right, the first 9 years raised over $1,000,000 to help the fight against CF and approaching year 11, the event is ¼ of the way to $2,000,000.
“This fundraiser is a labor of love, as we have numerous patrons who have competed and donated every year. Imagine, in the current economy we set an attendance record and raised almost $200,000”. All of the credit goes to my friends in the Winner’s Circle family.
“I can’t imagine how much Harris and Debbie must miss Brett. I can’t imagine the courage displayed during those trying months while waiting for the lung transplant. Mostly, I can’t image dealing with the daily pain of fighting cystic fibrosis as thousands of young people, like Brett do. All we can do is use Brett’s example to expose the masses to the challenge of living with CF, and preserve his legacy, which we are doing, thanks to the loyalty and commitment of all of you.”
“On behalf of Harris and Debbie Weinstein, I want to thank all of you for taking time out of your busy lives to support this cause. You are making a difference in the fight against cystic fibrosis, if we continue this, someday it will be history.”Mike Schmidt
