Stott treats praying fan to special moment
PHILADELPHIA » Phillies infielder Bryson Stott doesn’t remember the exact exchange before a game in Seattle during a West Coast trip.
The fan does. Brendan Cruz, who grew up in the area is a diehard Phillies fan now living in the Coffee Capitol of the World. On a day when he finished one spot out of the running for a Rhys Hoskins signature, he never will forget how accommodating Stott was.
“That’s awesome, first time I got to see them play in four or five years,” Cruz wrote on Facebook. “I was able to get one Phillie to sign my hat and that was the rookie, Bryson Stott.”
Obliging fans home or away is a natural, organic thing for Stott, who played host to a visit by eightyear-old Caden Marge of West Chester, the youngster shown on TV praying before Stott’s threerun walk-off homer defeated the Los Angeles Angels the last time the Phils were in town.
“When I was a kid and going to games, even when I was a teenager, when those guys would take time out of the day to do something that always meant a lot to me,” Stott said. “You remember that for a long time.”
Stott is creating good memories almost each day he hits the field. Not just with the bat, although he’s hitting .345 with 10 hits in his last 29 at bats, including two doubles, three home runs and a 1.130 OPS.
“He’s been great,” Phils manager Rob Thomson said. “He’s played very well defensively, whether he’s playing short or second. Now he’s really getting comfortable at the plate. He looks like the guy I saw in the Arizona Fall League last fall. Having great at bats. It looks like he’s seeing the ball very well and working counts. Now he’s got this two-strike approach that (hitting coach) Kevin Long gave him, and he feels really comfortable with that. He hit a big home run with the two-strike approach the other day in Milwaukee. And the energy, all the energy the young guys are bringing. The veterans are catching on to that. In that way, they’re kind of setting the tone.”
The Phillies towed a seven-game win streak into their three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks, six of those victories since
Thomson took over after the Phillies fired Joe Girardi..
That moved the Phillies within one game of the .500 mark and just 2.5 games out of the Wild Card hunt.
“It’s fun,” Stott said. “This is our job but it’s still a game and it’s still supposed to be fun. It’s been a ton of fun just having kind of the older guys’ presence in there trying to give us young players some people to look up to. They’re not just great baseball players, they’re great individuals and quality people. People you want to talk to and look up to. Hitting eighth and ninth with the tough bats that
are behind me, you’re kind of just staying in your zone. They don’t want to pitch to (Kyle) Schwarber. They don’t pitch to Rhys. So, it’s just kind of not missing pitches and staying with that mentality.”
Stott got together with Marge before batting practice. He had any number of things on his mind before that three-run blast rallied the Phillies to victory.
“I didn’t watch it at first,” Stott said. “My phone was going crazy. I was kind of just letting it be. But everyone just kept saying you’ve got to see this little kid on there. So,
I watched it. He was praying and jumping up and down. That was really cool.”
For Stott, who idolized his older brother Brennen, the future is bright. He vows to carry the message, not just the game.
“I was never really like an autograph guy growing up,” Stott said. “But just like to get a ball or something like that was real big. And I have an older brother who played with a lot of guys who are still playing and stuff and they would give me bats or they would give me gloves or something. You remember it.”