Victorino, Howard reunite for retirement’s sake
PHILADELPHIA » It was Shane Victorino’s retirement night Friday, which gave everybody the chance to see a video that reminded them of how good Harry Kalas’ calls were.
Anyway, Victorino was on hand to call it a career at Citizens Bank Park prior to a game against the Miami Marlins, waving to fans as he approached a microphone to the wailing tune of his old walkup music, Bob Marley’s “Buffalo Soldiers.”
Hugging chairman Dave Montgomery and thanking managing partner John Middleton, Victorino then reminded the crowd that when he came here in 2005 as a Rule 5 player, “the city and me shared DNA - an expectation for mediocrity.”
Through hard work and teammwork, Victorino said, he learned “a formula for success.
“Philadelphia, I can you look you in the eye and say this: We succeeded,” he
added.
Earlier, Victorino, the Hawaii native, fleshed out his feelings about his Philadelphia experience.
“The city made me the person that I am,” Victorino said. “I was a 25-year-old kid bouncing all over the place, just looking for an opportunity. I got to come to a first-class organization led by first-class people.”
His career highlight, of course, would come three years later, when during the run-up to the World Series, Victorino hit a grand slam off Milwaukee’s premium starter CC Sabathia.
“When it’s all said and done, it’s moments like that that will always be on the highlight reel,” Victorino said. “That’s the kind of stuff I looked forward to as an athlete.”
Helping celebrate the moment on the field was special guest and former teammate Ryan Howard.
One of the architects of their unlikely ‘08 championship team, of course, was then-general manager Pat Gillick, who Saturday will be inducted into the Phillies Wall of Fame along with the late Roy Halladay, who was killed last year in a light aircraft accident near his Florida home.
“I probably wouldn’t have been elected to the (Baseball) Hall of Fame if I hadn’t come to Philadelphia,” Gillick said. “I got the opportunity (in 2006) to come here and I think that, if you want to say looking back on the resume, winning the World Series in 2008 probably did a lot toward at least giving me the opportunity to get into the Hall of Fame.”
Gillick mentioned that while nearing the end of his long tenure as the Toronto Blue Jays general manager, he got a chance to scout a Colorado high school pitcher by the name of Roy Halladay during a tourney in Mesa, Ariz.
“We went from there and picked him in the first round (in 1995),” Gillick said. “It’s really an honor going into the Wall of Fame, especially with Halladay, someone that really is kind of legendary from the standpoint of his preparation and the way he went about preparing for games.
“The type of person (he was), and the preparation he went through physically and mentally to get ready for games ... he kept himself in tremendous condition. So it’s really an honor to go on the Wall but to do it with Halladay is really something special.”