The Official Site of Chase Utley

Wed, Oct 15th 2008, 12:25

From an early age, Utley was a natural

Night air gets heavy at Blair Field, heavier when a fog has arrived. On such Southern California evenings, baseballs don’t maintain flight long, especially ones hit by members of Long Beach Polytechnic High School playing on a field normally reserved for Long Beach State College.

Then there’s the 1995 night that a wiry sophomore shortstop smacked a lightning bolt through the misty darkness, previewing a sweet, powerful stroke in its nascent stages. The ball, and Chase Utley, have never looked back.

he right-field scoreboard never had a chance.

“That was amazing,” said Ken Munger, the baseball coach at Poly that night. “He cleared it. That had to be well over 430 feet. I never saw a high school kid do that.”

Utley, of course, was no ordinary high school kid. The kid has since moved to second base and ascended to become the best offensive player at his position.

“He’s Mr. Everything,” Jimmy Rollins said in June. “He’s been Mr. Baseball.”

It appears to have been that way for a while, even though the Phillies didn’t know what they had.

But Munger did.

“Poly,” as it’s known by those who roam the halls, was founded in 1895 as Long Beach High School. The most populous urban high school in California hosts more than 5,000 students, serving portions of Long Beach, including Bixby Knolls and parts of Signal Hill and Lakewood.

In 2005, Sports Illustrated named Poly the “Sports School of the Century,” and reported that it had sent more players to the NFL than any other high school in the country. It’s sent its share to the Major Leagues, too.

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