Clarke Schmidt’s father flies Yankees families to World Series, excited for son’s start in Game 3

The Yankees’ trip to the World Series has Clarke Schmidt and his family flying high.

The pitcher’s father, Dwight Schmidt, piloted the Delta plane that transported the Yankees’ families to Los Angeles for Games 1 and 2 against the Dodgers.

“I’ve heard a lot of really good things about the landing this time,” Clarke said Saturday at Dodger Stadium. “Everyone said it’s the best flight they’ve ever been on, and they felt no turbulence, so it was all good things that came out of this one.”

Dwight, a former Marine pilot who has flown for Delta for more than two decades, took the families from Newark to Burbank and is set to pilot the return flight on Sunday as well.

That will get them back to the Bronx in plenty of time for Monday night’s Game 3, which his son is set to start.

“I want to see him go out there and succeed on the biggest stage,” Dwight told the Daily News. “That’s what we want, [for him] to go out there and pitch his game, the game he has grown up to pitch, and be successful in his and the Yankees’ endeavor.”

Dwight previously flew Clarke and his Yankees teammates to Tampa for an August 2023 series against the Rays.

“I’ve flown with him a few times in smaller planes and stuff like that,” Clarke said Saturday. “He’s tried to bestow his knowledge on me, but I was always baseball first. But my brother, who’s two years older than me, he used to play baseball as well and now he’s becoming a pilot. He just got hired by an airline, and he’s kind of following in the footsteps.”

Selected by the Yankees in the first round of the 2017 draft, the 28-year-old Clarke delivered a breakout campaign in 2024, pitching to a 2.85 ERA over 16 starts.

The right-hander missed more than three months with a lat strain but returned to the Yankees’ rotation in September and recorded a 3.86 ERA through his first two playoff starts.

“He has been singularly minded and focused on being able to achieve success at all levels of his career,” Dwight said of his son.

“He is one of those rare people that is able to separate the wheat from the chaff and be able to be that kind of individual that learns more from something that doesn’t go correctly and then capitalize on things that do go correctly.”

Dwight said flying the Yankee families to Los Angeles was “really special,” likening the close-knit group to military families who support each other when a loved one is deployed.

He said he feels “honored” and “blessed” to be part of his son’s World Series experience and plans to attend every game of the Fall Classic.

“As I’ve traveled the world as a Delta pilot, you generally see one hat only, all over the world,” Dwight said. “Whether it’s Rome, Italy, or Munich, Germany, or Buenos Aires or Lima, Peru, it’s a New York Yankee hat.

“It does not fall easily on shoulders, and I recognize the level of success that it brings and also the level of press that it brings for him to be on that stage and achieve it. Just watching him from afar — relatively close as a family — but watching him from afar is pretty awe-inspiring.”