Connect with us

Baseball

Remembering Chase Utley: Don’t Cry Because It’s Over, Smile Because It Happened

Utley will always be remembered in Philadelphia

Chase Utley (AP Photo | MATT SLOCUM)

Chase Utley (AP Photo | MATT SLOCUM)

 

As the feeling of this trade sinking in became a pretty sad reality, I sit here before you listening to “I Go Back” by Kenny Chesney, and do my best to remember the good times we had with Chase Utley in Philadelphia. Like any bad breakup, the corny line comes up “don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

Chase Utley could not be a Phillie forever, and at this point, I guess it had to be addition by subtraction. While it appeared he got his game back (batting nearly .500 in his past 30 at bats), he could not keep that pace up. Regardless, it is time to move on, whether, we, the Phillie Phaithful, want to or not.

Chase brought many great things to this team. The man never took a play off in over a decade. His hustle is what won over our hearts, Philly loves blue collar players, plain and simple. Look at everyone’s favorite players: Brain Dawkins, Chase Utley, any member of the Broad Street Bullies. Philadelphia loves anyone who will give it 110% 100% of the time.

To quote Mac from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “A power hitting second baseman? Do you know how rare that is?” Another aspect that won us over in the 00’s. A power hitting second baseman is a rarity in the MLB. He has tied the record for most homeruns in a World Series. He turned what is tends to be a turnstile position into a staple in this town. As of this moment, I don’t think we will ever see a player quite as special as Chase Utley.

Finally, how can we forget the greatest World Series speech of all time. We all know where we were when we heard Chase belt that famous line, “World Champions…. WORLD F***ing CHAMPIONS!” (I was in the parking lot at Citizen’s Bank Park, personally. Chase was the embodiment of what Philadelphia wanted in a person and a ball player and it is a shame to see him go.

As we have to move forward from this, we have the privilege of looking into the future, as we have received two youngsters in return for a favorite in this town. Only time will tell if they turn out, but we obviously hope for the best. It is no doubt that Chase will be missed, and I know I personally will talk about Chase Utley to my future children the same way my parents talked about Mike Schmidt. Best of luck to Chase and the Utley family out in Los Angeles with the Dodgers organization.

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

More in Baseball