The Schmidt family has played an important role in the New York Yankees’ season this year.
Pitcher Clarke Schmidt is set to start Game 3 of the World Series on Monday, but his dad, Dwight Schmidt, has also contributed by flying the team’s charter flights during the Series and on some trips throughout the season.
“Everybody feels like the pilot’s a little bit more personally invested into the flight, so they feel a little safer,” Clarke joked before his start at Yankee Stadium, where the Yankees aim to come back from a 2-0 deficit in the Series.
Dwight Schmidt, 59, is a retired Marine Corps colonel and has been a captain at Delta Air Lines for 25 years, flying various aircraft including MD-88s, 727s, and 757s.
He has flown the Yankees on road trips before, including one before the 2021 Field of Dreams game in Iowa. Unfortunately, Clarke was sent to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre the day before that game.
“As a kid, we had a printout of what it was like in a cockpit in my room. So we knew all the buttons and stuff. I didn’t really understand it, we were just playing around,” Clarke said. “I’ve flown with him a few times in smaller planes, and he’s tried to teach me, but baseball always came first for me.”
Dwight Schmidt set up a chance for Yankees manager Aaron Boone to use a Delta flight simulator during a trip to Atlanta, where a landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport was programmed in.
“It was really cool. Mr. Schmidt said I did a good job,” Boone remembered. “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.”
Clarke Schmidt, a 28-year-old right-handed pitcher, had a regular season record of 5-5 with a 2.85 ERA in 16 starts and has a 3.86 ERA in two postseason starts, both no-decisions in Game 3s against Kansas City and Cleveland.
Dwight and his wife Renee attended the World Series at Dodger Stadium, even though Clarke wasn’t scheduled to pitch.
When the Yankees’ charter took off from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Dwight had Delta collector cards ready for the kids. He landed the 757 at Hollywood Burbank Airport, and after the families got off, he flew the plane 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.”
On Sunday, Dwight planned to go to LAX with his copilot, fly back to Burbank to pick up the families, and return to Newark.
Most of the time, Dwight Schmidt works on long-haul flights to Europe and South America, but the Yankees charters are special routes.
“We bid for those to try and get a trip,” Schmidt said. “That’s how I was able to get it.”
Clarke’s older brother, Clate, who is 30, was drafted by Boston in the 32nd round in 2015 and played in the low minors from 2016 to 2019. Now he is following in their father’s footsteps in 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, so he is now getting ready to get hired.”
Clarke has no interest in pursuing a career like his father’s after his pitching days are over.
“That’s a hard no on that,” Clarke said.
