WIP Blog By Joe Santoliquito- King Utley
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They all seem to shake their heads in disbelief. No matter where they pitch him—or try to pitch him, no matter how much they try to pitch around him, Chase Utley finds a way to smash the ball some place safe.
“I can’t get the [expletive] guy out,” one National League pitcher said.
It’s been a common refrain this season by opposing pitchers that visit Citizens Bank Park, and I happened to be privy of one such occurrence in May.
“I threw the guy low and away, a pitch I didn’t think anyone could reach, and that $%#@& reached it,” one National League pitcher said to another about Utley. “I was trying to walk the guy, keep it away with what I thought was an impossible pitch to hit. I just couldn’t get the guy out.
“Good luck tomorrow,” he said to his teammate, who really didn’t fair much better the next day—when Utley slammed a homer against him.
When the San Francisco Giants visited earlier in May, former Phillie centerfielder Aaron Rowand, who is experiencing a pretty good season of his own, wasn’t surprised by how Utley has been playing.
“In the time I was in Philly, you could see Chase was a star, but now, he’s just taking over the game,” Rowand said. “He’s the best player in the game today. I have no problems saying that. I mean the guy does it all. He does everything and he’s a great teammate on top of that. You won’t hear anything from Chase. He just does his thing—and barring injury, I don’t see anyone stopping the guy from being a strong consideration for MVP this year. Probably the only guys who might stop that are on his team-Jimmy [Rollins] and Ryan [Howard].
“Other than that, who’s better than Chase Utley right now? No one. The guy’s a superstar, I mean on the scale with the Alex Rodriguezes, Derek Jeters, guys like that. I think it’s about time everyone realizes it.”
And that was back in early-May, when Utley was just heating up.
Utley appears to be the hat trick man, following Howard and Rollins in becoming the third-straight Phillie to win the National League MVP award. It would mark the first time it’s happened in the Major Leagues since the Big Red Machine of the mid-1970s did it, with Joe Morgan winning back-to-back MVPs in 1975 and ’76, with George Foster following in ’77.
It would be the first time that three separate players from the same team won three-consecutive MVPs since New York Yankees’ Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle and Elston Howard won it in 1961, ’62 and ’63.
When Utley is done, who knows, maybe he can finish on the same pantheon as those greats.
My only concern as I watch Utley, whose 21 homers on June 2 were just one short of the 22 he hit in 530 at-bats last season, is how hard Chase plays. His non-stop, barreling style came to mind in the third inning Monday night when he tried bulling through Reds’ catcher David Ross trying to score on a Howard double.
I cringe every time I see Utley involved in those collisions—but Utley wouldn’t be Utley if he wasn’t crashing into a catcher at home, or laying his body out there to prevent a line drive from going through the infield, or sliding head first into third.
We’re in the midst of something special—a season for the ages that every fan can refer to as a standard of greatness. Just imagine 10, 15 years from now, going over some of the great seasons in baseball history and saying, “They never had a year like Chase Utley’s 2008 year. The guy did everything.”
Now let’s hope Utley’s amazing season spills over into something more, rather than have it go to waste as future barstool fodder.
Joseph Santoliquito is an Emmy Award-nominated writer based in the Philadelphia area who can be contacted at Jsantoliquito@yahoo.com.
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