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Very Cool to See Delco Native Kevin McGonigle Meeting his Childhood Hero Chase Utley
By Matt Schultz
Published:
Although Tuesday night’s All-Star Game was a boring bust in a lot of ways, there were still a handful of cool moments, and this one has to be a contender for the very best:
Hell yeah. This is great. Kevin McGonigle is a Delco kid who played his highschool ball at Bonner before being drafted by the Detroit Tigers 37th overall in 2023, and he seemed pretty thrilled to get to meet Chase Utley – who he described all weekend as his childhood hero. That’s what’s up. That’s a very nice thing. And from the footage, this meeting seemed to go as well as it could have. I’m not a Jomboy-level lipreader, but I’m able to cobble together a read of the interaction based on the limited audio/body language I could decipher. Here’s a few highlights I saw:
-First off, great dap-up-into-hug. Clean. Well done.
-Chase gave Kevin three side/back slaps. Friendly move.
-Chase says something like, “I was trying to find you. Nice to meet you, brother.” That’s great. That’s good stuff. Getting called “brother” by your childhood hero is pretty nice. Now, would it have been slightly better if he said “Kevin” or “Kev” instead of “brother?” Of course. More personal is always better. But still, brother isn’t bad.
-Chase laughed. Didn’t seem like a genuine, hearty laugh – I don’t think Chase found anything Kevin said funny, or even all that entertaining, but nevertheless. A laugh, even a fake one, signals general good cheer and enthusiasm. I’m sure Kevin appreciated that.
-Chase did a shoulder grab/shake move to Kevin after Kevin told him he has a bunch of family and friends in the stands. I don’t understand what the shoulder shake means or represents, but it’s definitely not a bad thing. It was a positive, albeit confusing and surprising, gesture.
-They take a picture together at the end. Good ending.
Overall, I’d say this was a B+ first interaction. That’s a good grade. And on a meeting-your-childhood-hero curve, that’s like an A-.
Three Final Stray Thoughts For This Blog
1) A lesser blogger would’ve framed this piece around the “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” bit where Mac is obsessed with Chase Utley and writes him the letter asking to have a catch. But that is too easy. That is a first-thought reaction that’s already all over Twitter. And that is not up to par with me… Readers should know by now and I will never take the easy way out… I refuse to hand you slop… Day in and day out, I will proudly crawl through the muck and the mud looking for top-level angles, doing whatever it takes to deliver pristine blogs worthy of your valuable time and attention, all with the utmost importance placed on originality… But here’s that Sunny scene if you want to watch it anyway:
2) Kevin McGonigle should be a Phillie. He was drafted 37th overall by the Tigers in 2023. Philadelphia had the 27th pick in that draft and took fellow shortstop Aidan Miller instead, whose spine seems to have mysteriously exploded:
Not great. I’d like to have that one back. I don’t remember anyone having a problem with the Miller pick at the time, or being mad that the Phillies passed on the hometown kid, but still. McGonigle is hitting .283/.392/.420 this year with 8 home runs, 34 RBIs, and 11 stolen bases in 93 games. Wish we could get a re-do there. Bryce agrees:
3) Chase’s hair looks like a cartoon villain’s in an animated Christmas movie. Wonder what’s going on there.
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…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com