Chase Utley Just Too Handsome for Young Fans

Phillies Phestival was yesterday, and fans couldn’t have been crying harder.

No, not because of the team’s inconsistencies/glaring inadequacies, today.  It was because there was Chase Utley, right there, waiting for you to approach him

and not just looking for the closest exit.

"“Decked out in a red sequined Phillies hat, red Phillies shirt and even Phillies pants, the 14-year-old Vineland girl could barely choke out a few words as she clutched the signed baseball in her hands.‘She was crying, she was so happy,’ said her grandmother Rose Powell.”–Jessica Beym, South Jersey Times"

First of all, where is the sequined Phillies hat shop, because, yes please.

May 15, 2013; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard (6) signs autographs for fans prior to playing the Cleveland Indians at Citizens Bank Park. The Indians defeated the Phillies 10-4. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

But it was another lovely year of meeting Phillies players and realizing that the things we type about them on a daily basis – the ridiculous caricatures, the scathing insults, the bumbling allegories, the wordy lists of things to stretch the word count of a blog post to a Googleable 200.

These guys are human beings, and all of those gut-reactions we have that are mostly insanely hostile during the year when we are disappointed, they have them too.  Only they have to smother them, because they are accountable for their actions, unlike we masked men on the internet.  Look at me!  Saying things!

YOU CAN’T CENSOR ME.

But the Phillies have to watch themselves, as the wrath of team management, the PR department, or Major League Baseball awaits their every public frustration.  Therefore, it’s good that thousands of people pour into the park for this thing year after year, in order to – aside from the autograph hounds – reflect on the human nature of these players who so often become punchlines or clever tweets or mostly unclever tweets.

Thank you, Phillies.

Now win tonight or I’ll dump a garbage can on the field.