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Chase Utley Was So Competitive It May Have Frightened His Teammates
By Matt Schultz
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Kiké Hernández joined Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard on the 611 Podcast and shared this fascinatingly terrifying story about Chase:
HERNÁNDEZ: “I get on second base and I try to talk to your second baseman at the time. I said ‘What’s up?’ and it was one of the first times in my entire life that somebody has looked… look at me in the eyes, but through me at the same time, and not say a single word.“
ROLLINS: “Chase was like that, for sure… He gets that little look in his eyes and they’re piercing. We always said in the clubhouse, we’d play the games, like, ‘Who would be a serial killer in this clubhouse?’ It was unanimously Chase. It was not even a question. Like, he’d do it and walk away like a normal day.”
Utley was the best, man. Having a possible-serial-killer guy on the Phillies was such a treat. I love that he didn’t want to chat with Kiké when he was on second. Our guy was always locked in, so much so that it may have frightened his teammates. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone on the current Phillies roster who was so competitive it was kind of scary? No one even really comes close:
Kyle Schwarber seems like the nicest guy ever. Trea Turner has the vibe of a large eight-year-old. Bryce Harper is more off-putting than he is scary, like he’s from a different planet and is doing his best impression of how a baseball star acts. Adolis Garcia is strong enough to rip a human head clean off someone’s body, which could be scary, but his general attitude reads pretty nice to me. Aaron Nola, maybe, in a sadder way. It is terrifying when he’s on the mound. That’s probably the closest. Utley was simply a one-of-one lunatic.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…)