Parent: MLB pitchman Chase Utley in town hawking Phillies-Mets across the pond
PHILADELPHIA — OK, so he didn’t go barreling into his old home dugout with spikes held high Thursday, but Chase Utley still showed he has the personality mettle of a world bleepin’ champion.
At least outside of New York, he does.
“It’s kind of invigorating,” Utley, somehow now 45, said of his return to Citizens Bank Park, a stadium in which some baseball romanticists say he helped build. “Can you believe that? … It’s great. Good to be back in the city, good to feel the energy that I remember so well, and it’s great that the guys are playing fantastic baseball. So I’m happy to be back.”
Since Alumni Weekend isn’t for another three months or so, you might wonder why Utley was doing here, and not-so coincidentally on a night that featured the Mets, long a chief Phillies rival, and even more so an organized collection of Utley haters not so long ago.
On this rare trip to a place he once called home, Utley, Major League Baseball’s Ambassador to Europe — apparently a real title — came along with two “stars” of the BBC’s version of “Gladiator” — Remember “American Gladiator” years ago? Yeah, me neither — to promote a huge London media gala the weekend of June 8 and 9 in Trafalgar Square.
Yes, Utley and “Apollo” the Gladiator vs. ex-Met Daniel Murphy and his Gladiator cohort, “Fire.”
They’ll be swinging bats instead of swinging swords at each other in a home run contest held to celebrate that weekend’s Phillies-Mets two-game series at London Stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
“Obviously, it’s a different stadium, unfamiliar surroundings,” Utley said. “But overall, it’s going to be a great weekend in a few weeks.”
So he was here to more or less invite Phillies fans along. Surprisingly he didn’t say the New Yorkers should stay home.
Not only was he known as a power-hitting Mets killer while playing for the Phillies, Utley the Irritant got way deeper into New York fans’ collective craws while playing as an old guy with the Dodgers. Remember that Utley slide in the 2015 NLDS to break up a double play, and simultaneously (and accidentally) breaking the leg of then-Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada?
Well, even though Utley is helping promote an MLB event with the Mets as co-star, that moment isn’t likely to be forgotten so soon across your average Queens neighborhood.
Asked if he was planning to also oversee a promotion at Citi Field in New York for the upcoming London Experience, Utley nearly laughed while saying, “I’m doing no promotional work at Citi Field. … No I never got a phone call.
“But no, I’m here to promote a little bit,” he added. “I am competing with my partner Apollo who’s a U.K. Gladiator, in a home run derby against (ex-Met) Danny Murphy and his Gladiator, Fire. So for those of you who are in town and really want to catch a laugh, you’ve got to come out to Trafalgar Square. It’s going to be a good event.”
Bloody well right.
This is what Utley does now. The guy who used to spend much more time with his head buried in a laptop in the clubhouse than mixing with the media in there has for the past two years been helping MLB hype its product overseas, mostly in London Town.
Nice work if you can find it.
“It’s kind of a free-for-all,” he said. “I’m allowed to do whatever I want now.”
That’s kind of how he played the game, too, though what Utley always seemed to want was to keep getting better, keep getting under opposing players’ skins … and paramount to everything else, to win.
Even if it occasionally came at the expense of health, for him and the opposition, well so be it.
“Hey, I love everybody,” Utley said. “We had some battles over the years when I was playing and it’s still going today. For those of you that are traveling to London to see them compete, it’s going to be an exciting two-game series.”
Utley admits it’s been a while since he was swinging for the fences, professionally or otherwise. He last played for the Dodgers in 2018, and this celebration of his swing really is only for show.
“My wife asked me the other day, ‘Are you going to actually practice for this?’ I said ‘yeah, I probably should,’ ” Utley said. “It should be fine. Put the batting gloves on again, put a bat in my hand and I’ll try not to embarrass myself too much.”
Chase Utley, professional entertainer.
Of course, if you remember his f-bomb of a celebratory address at CBP just after the 2008 World Series parade, maybe he always had a bit of that in him.
So, one more time …
“It’s going to be a fantastic experience. Both games are going to be sold out,” Utley said. “It’s going to be a little bit different than a regular baseball game. It’ll be like a playoff atmosphere, all different types of food, fireworks and you name it. But whether you know anything about baseball or not, it’s going to be a great day, especially for the fans.
“I would just say it’s going to be great games. It’s going to be intense, going to be a fun atmosphere. Just remember these teams don’t necessarily love each other.”
Nope, don’t forget that. They never did in New York.
Contact Rob Parent at rparent@delcotimes.com
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