Utley is always battling

Sunday News

Nov 01, 2009 07:19 EST

Philadelphia

By ED GRUVER, Sports Writer

In your mind's eye you can see him in one of those sepia snapshots, outfitted in baggy gray flannels, jaw stuffed with chaw.

You can see it because while Phils' second baseman Chase Utley lives modern, he plays old.

Plays with a uniform that seems permanently stained with grass and dirt; plays with two days' worth of stubble; plays with a stoic, gritty, grinding style.

It all serves to stir images of another time, another place. Depression-era baseball, maybe. Can't you see him taking a flip from Leo the Lip or Pepper Martin and turning two for the Gashouse Gang?

"As far as dedication and loving to play the game, he's off the charts," Phils skipper Charlie Manuel said prior to a rain-delayed Game 3 of the World Series on Halloween night Saturday at Citizens Bank Park.

"Would you call him an overachiever?" Manuel asked. "I would."

So would most everyone else, including Utley, who calls his success "pretty surreal."

Surreal for a guy who set a major league record Thursday night in Yankee Stadium by reaching base in 27 consecutive postseason games, but is remembered by acquaintances as a skinny kid without much natural ability.

Surreal for a guy who was cut from the high school team his freshman year at Long Beach Poly. A guy whose glove work was so bad at UCLA he was restricted to designated-hitter duties.

Despite all of the above, or perhaps because of it, Utley built himself into what he is today: A perennial All-Star for the reigning world champions. And he's done it via some old-fashioned virtues.

"He's the most prepared guy I've seen," said Manuel, a baseball lifer. "And one of the hardest workers."

Utley's work ethic is on vivid display in every game he plays. Batting third in the lineup, he strides to the plate to Led Zeppelin's energetic and powerful "Kashmir:"

"Oh let the sun beat down upon my face

With stars to fill my dream.

I am a traveler of both time and space

To be where I have been."

Each at-bat is treated as if the season hangs in the balance. He swings from the portside — a quick, compact stroke — and will battle hurlers through extended pitch counts. By his own admission, he never takes an at-bat for granted. He's a student of hitting, and it's no surprise that he finished this season ranked among National League leaders in runs scored, times on base, game-winning RBIs and on-base percentage.

"Every day you try to put a game plan together," he said. "Your goal is to put good at-bats together and see what happens."

What happened in Game 1 in Yankee Stadium Wednesday was Utley setting the tone for a 6-1 win with two solo shots off ace CC Sabathia. The first came with two outs in the third and on the ninth pitch of the at-bat — a 95 mph fastball. It landed two rows into the seats in right field, and marked the first homer Sabathia surrendered to a left-handed hitter this season.

"He was pitching me tough, throwing sinkers in and sliders," Utley said. "The approach I had against him was to lay off the slider because the slider is a tough pitch to hit on the barrel, and try to hit his fastball."

By the time Utley batted again in the sixth, Sabathia had retired eight in a row. He hurled another 95 mph heater, but Utley again redirected it to right, this time deep into the bleachers.

To Manuel, who made his bones in the bigs as a batting instructor, Utley owns the king of swings.

"Chase Utley has what I call a low-maintenance swing," Manuel said, breaking it down. "Actually, he's got an ideal swing. He holds his bat at shoulder level and kind of takes it back. That's his trigger, his setup.

"He's very balanced at the plate and he swings down through the ball. He looks to catch the ball out front. He's got a very good weight shift. He's a balanced rhythm hitter, and that's where his power comes from. He's like Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson."

Quite a compliment. And when it was mentioned that he was in league with another legend — a guy named Ruth — who was the last left-hander to homer twice against a southpaw in a World Series, Utley managed a thin smile.

"That's pretty good company," he said, then backed away from any more comparisons with the all-time greats. "Like I said, you try to take it game to game and keep working."

Exactly what you would expect a throwback to say.

egruver@lnpnews.com