The Official Site of Chase Utley

Mon, Jun 9th 2008, 12:11

Utley Is Mr. Everything, but Egotistical He’s Not

Chase Utley was a skinny 11-year-old on the Long Beach, Calif., Little League Pirates when he moaned to his father, Dave, about a player who frequently bragged. Dave Utley does not remember if the boy was one of Chase’s teammates or an opponent, but he parlayed the complaint into a life lesson.

Flashing back to high school, Dave remembered how he boasted a few times and how a guidance counselor offered him some memorable advice. So he passed those simple, dated words on to his irritated, baseball-crazed son.

“I told him if you were really good at something, you didn’t have to tell people,” he said. “They will tell you.”

They did tell Chase he was really good, they are still telling Chase that and they will keep telling Chase that. Utley is the intense second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, a player with a short swing, an old-school approach and a humble personality. Getting Utley to praise himself is as rare as seeing him flub a routine pop-up.

As Utley stood by his locker at Citizens Bank Park last Wednesday, he was polite yet unexcited about discussing a superb season. Utley stared at the carpet or at the wall and flicked away some questions the way he fights off feisty pitches. He repeated what his father taught him 18 years ago, almost reciting it word for word.

“My dad always told me you don’t need to tell people how good you are,” Chase said. “If that’s the case, people will tell you.”

In a year in which Utley, 29, may follow his teammates Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard as the National League’s most valuable player to complete a remarkable three-season splurge, everyone must be telling him he is good. Right?

“Depends on the day,” Utley said.

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