It was a year of missed opportunities, as the players' strike cut a third out of the season. An extra round of playoffs were added, so that the teams with the best records in each division in each half of the season made the playoffs. Four teams, then, went to the postseason. Unfortunately, the plan backfired when the two teams with the best overall records — St. Louis and Cincinnati — didn't make the playoffs because they didn't have the best record in either half of the season.
        The strike also prevented Mike Schmidt from having the greatest season ever by a third baseman. He won the MVP.

         Schmidt dominated the league, hitting seven more home runs than Andre Dawson, who had the next highest total. The AL home run leader had only 22. This was the only year that Schmidt topped the .300 mark in batting average; he was also on pace to match his 48 home runs from the previous year.
        Mike Schmidt had the kind of career that you don't ever expect to see the likes of again; kind of like Rogers Hornsby or Stan Musial or Henry Aaron. He may or may not have been as good as those guys, but he remains the best third baseman in baseball history. He smashed 548 home runs in his career, led the NL in homers eight times, and also led the NL in RBI four times. His batting averages fluctuated from year to year, but he drew a huge number of walks, and three times led the league in on-base percentage. He was a three-time MVP, and an All-Star eleven times.
        Defensively, Schmidt won ten Gold Gloves at third base. He has some of the best raw defensive statistics of any third baseman in history. We can debate about whether he was as good as Brooks Robinson or others with the glove, but clearly he also ranks among the best defensive third sackers ever. With Schmidt in the hot corner, the Phillies had some of the best years in team history. They made six trips to the postseason, won two pennants, and in 1980 won their first and only World Series. Schmidt was the Series' MVP.
        Eddie Mathews was another third baseman who had great power and could get on base, but Mathews wasn't the defensive player that Schmidt was. George Brett was also great, but again did not have Schmidt's glove, and wasn't as healthy. There have been other outstanding third basemen, but none were the total package that Schmidt was. I said it before, and I'll say it again: Schmidt led the league in home runs eight times.
        Andre Dawson, Tim Raines and Gary Carter all starred for the Montreal Expos. One result of the crazy playoff system was that the Expos made the playoffs for the first (and as of 2002, only) time in franchise history. The team was young, and very good, and was expected to dominate the league for some time. It didn't happen; a pair of key pitchers hurt their arms; some of the young players didn't develop; drugs entered the clubhouse; a battle of wills developed between the ownership and manager Dick Williams, who was fired during this season. A few years later, both Dawson and Carter were starring for other teams.
         The top four MVP vote getters were Schmidt, Dawson, George Foster and Dave Concepcion. This seems like a reasonable order to me.