I am all-in on the trend of Chase Utley legend building. First there was the story of when Chase told the opposing pitcher to plunk him to he could prove a point to the youngsters. Now, the tale of Chase and the Clam Chowder, again from Peter Gammons:

“Chase is really intense, and he can say things to players no one else can,” says one of the star pitchers. He’s at the park studying video, reports, Pitch/FX, then hitting from two on for a night game. During games, he takes preparation swings and studies video of relievers he might face if inserted into the game. But that’s who he is. When Utley played for Brewster in the Cape Cod League, he once got to the field at one for a seven p.m. game, hit, ran, took grounders. But when the game started, he’d forgotten to eat, so he paid a batboy to get him a breadbowl of clam chowder from the concession stand.

Problem is, the three hitters in front of him all swung at the first pitch, one a hit, so when it came time for him to get out of the on-deck circle, Utley had to chug the remainder of the chowder, hand the breadbowl to the batboy, go up to the plate…and rip the first pitch off the right field fence. I know a Marlins executive that was on that team, Yankee scout Matt Hyde who was the pitching coach, and they swear to it. “That’s the kind of guru every team needs,” says Hyers. “And when it’s a potential Hall of Famer who is one of the most respected persons in the game, it carries a lot of weight.”

It’s worth noting that Gammons doesn’t say where Utley ended up on base. With a belly full of hearty, concession-quality New England Clam Chowder, I’m betting he dragged his way into first, legs together, trying to hold it all in.

This also explains something else. I swear, not once, can I specifically remember a moment when Chase Utley swung at the first pitch. According to Baseball Reference, Chase Utley took a cut at 15.2% of first pitches in his career. The MLB average is 27.5%. I always thought Chase was just sticking to the “make him throw a strike” adage, but maybe he was just buying the guy behind him time to finish his soup.