McCaffery: Utley’s eternal popularity not hard to explain
PHILADELPHIA » For his 1,913th major-league game, the most popular Phillies player of his era would have a plan Monday. He’d play it like he did his first 1,912. In Citizens Bank Park, he knew, that would be plenty.
He would play hard and he would run hard. He would take a fastball to the ribs if it meant reaching base. If necessary, he would create a collision at second base. If necessary, he would avoid one, spin, fake a throw one way and toss one another.
He would do all of that, Chase Utley would. He would do that, because that’s how he became so firmly popular in a city that doesn’t embrace many.
He would do that for the Dodgers, and he would be cheered, all night, from the lineup introductions to the final innings. And this time, unlike the other times he’d been back in the past three seasons, those innings would be oh so few.
Utley will retire at the end of the season. He’s 39 and wants to spend more time with his kids. But he also had one home run in the first 62 games of his 16th major-league season. So it was time. Yet as he always had, he first would think through every possible ramification of the play. One that he knew would matter: Announcing his retirement before the Dodgers made their only appearance of the season in a park that someday will include a tribute to him in some form of bronze or another.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and I’ve been trying to figure out how I’m going to go out,” Utley said before the game. “I thought it was important to let the Philadelphia Phillies’ fans know that this is going to be the last time that I’m going to have the chance to play in this ballpark. So yeah, this was a huge factor in the timing of the announcement.”
He didn’t have the power of Jim Thome, the accomplishments of Richie Ashburn, the arm of Manny Trillo or even as many hits as Larry Bowa, who was never considered a hitter. But unlikely as it would have seemed that a private, Los Angeles-raised, UCLA product who never had any connection to the city could have done it, Utley drove himself into that company of eternal fan favorites.
“I’m not sure that’s the case, but it obviously makes me feel good that they’ve been so supportive of me over the years,” Utley said. “It’s a bluecollar city. It’s a city that respects guys that play hard, guys that want to win. I feel like I did that when I was here. I still do that. I think the success that we had, the team that we had, really helped that. It wasn’t just me over those years. It was a number of guys. And we fed off the energy here in this park. It’s something that I’ll never forget. It gives me chills just thinking about it.”
The 2008 World Series championship helped. Had the Phillies’ division champions of 2007 through 2011 only failed in the playoffs, Utley would have been closer to Scott Rolen on the popularity scale than to Tug McGraw. But the parade, and his behavior at the after-party, solidified his status as a legend.
He wasn’t just a world champion. He was a world champion with an expletive-adjective. And that made 2.6 million people at the party feel that way, too.
“It’s what was on my mind at the time,” Utley recalled. “It was a pretty exciting moment, not only for myself but for my teammates and the coaching staff and the whole city of Philadelphia.
“I know some people didn’t like it so much.”
Some didn’t. Most did. And that’s why he always receives standing ovations when he returns, as he did Monday, when Dan Baker’s pregame mention of his name resulted in such applause that Utley needed to pounce from the dugout for a two-handed thankyou wave.
“It’s obviously humbling,” he said. “I’m still playing. But I can’t thank the fans enough for what they brought out in us. A lot of us had long careers, had a lot of success, and I don’t think we would have been as good without that type of support.”
The fans supported most of the players from that era, reserving some bitterness for Jayson Werth, who signed with Washington for more money than the Phillies were willing to pay. They can be that way. But they can be the way they are toward Utley, too. He didn’t field like Jimmy Rollins or hit with Ryan Howard’s power. He was not as perfect as Brad Lidge. He didn’t have a fun-to-chant nickname, the way Carlos Ruiz had a fun-to-chant nickname. All he did was prepare, and try, and, usually, succeed.
That’s why when he came to bat in the second inning Monday, and Led Zeppelin’s familiar “Kashmir” blasting through the stadium, the crowd stood to applaud. Even the Phillies joined in the clapping.
“The word ‘respect’ comes to mind,” Rhys Hoskins said. “He’s the kind of person that, when he walks in a clubhouse, he demands respect. And he’s earned that throughout his career. He was a big part of that group in ‘08 that brought the World Series to this city. And I don’t think that would have happened without him on that team.
“He has earned that legacy. And his legacy will be stuck with the city of Philadelphia for as long as it’s around.”
The Dodgers will be back Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon, then be gone. Utley, with games still to play, will be on their flight. But in so many ways, the most popular Phillie of his era never really will be gone.