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Inside the Phillies: Longtime Phillies coach Mick Billmeyer gets a new view

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The view from the bullpen was Mick Billmeyer's primary domain during his first nine seasons as a big-league coach with the Phillies.

The Phillies explained to Mick Billmeyer that they wanted him to move from the bullpen to the dugout. (Matt Slocum/AP)
The Phillies explained to Mick Billmeyer that they wanted him to move from the bullpen to the dugout. (Matt Slocum/AP)Read more

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The view from the bullpen was Mick Billmeyer's primary domain during his first nine seasons as a big-league coach with the Phillies.

Out there, he was mostly anonymous except for the 15 minutes of unwanted fame he received in May 2010, when the Colorado Rockies complained to the commissioner's office that he was using binoculars to steal signals while the Phillies were hitting at Coors Field.

"That got a little too much play," Billmeyer said recently before a Phillies Grapefruit League game at Bright House Field. "But people remember that, yeah. I'd go home [to Maryland] and I'd get grief from everybody."

Other than that incident, you'd rarely hear Billmeyer's name. Few people would know that he has been around longer than manager Charlie Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee, both of whom are entering their ninth seasons. Billmeyer, after four seasons as the organization's minor-league catching coordinator, joined manager Larry Bowa's staff as the big-league catching instructor in 2004.

Bowa asked Billmeyer to watch the first five innings of the game from the dugout that season before moving to the bullpen in the later innings. After Bowa was fired following the 2004 season, Billmeyer survived the managerial change, but was relegated to bullpen duty by Manuel.

Billmeyer, 48, loved it and saw things in the pen that you'd never get to see in the dugout. One of his favorite stories is about how Kyle Kendrick was moved to the bullpen late in the 2008 season and starting warming up during a game against the Marlins in Miami. Kendrick, a starter his entire career, threw his first pitch out of the windup.

"Stretch first, stretch," fellow reliever Ryan Madson yelled at Kendrick.

"He meant for him to throw out of the stretch, but Kyle dropped his glove and started stretching his body," Billmeyer said. "I lost it. We all laughed so hard. I ducked down the runway so nobody would see me on TV laughing when we were losing."

There was another time in San Francisco when a heckler at Pacific Bell Park kept calling former Phillies closer Billy Wagner a midget.

"It's OK," Wagner told the guy. "I'll just stand on my wallet."

During the Phillies' first season at Citizens Bank Park, Billmeyer listened as a kid about age 10 watched Livan Hernandez warm up before a start for Montreal.

"I can hit that," the kid said after each pitch.

Finally, Hernandez laughed and looked at the kid.

"Give me a break," the pitcher said. "I'm trying to get ready."

As soon as last season ended, the Phillies told Billmeyer his bullpen days were over. When the team returned to Philadelphia from their final game of the season in Washington, he was called into Manuel's office by general manager Ruben Amaro Jr.

"You don't know what's going on," he said. "We had a rough year."

Three coaches - Greg Gross, Sam Perlozzo, and Pete Mackanin - had been fired before the team left Nationals Park.

"Sit down," Amaro told Billmeyer. "We're promoting you."

"What's that?" Billmeyer said, making sure he heard correctly.

Manuel laughed.

The Phillies explained to Billmeyer that they wanted him to move from the bullpen to the dugout. They gave him the title of catching coach and made former triple-A pitching coach Rod Nichols the new bullpen coach.

It was all part of a major restructuring of the coaching staff. Steve Henderson replaced Gross as the hitting coach and Wally Joyner was named assistant hitting coach. The Phillies are one of 13 big-league teams with two hitting coaches this season, a trend in the game.

Billmeyer is one of only four men with the title of catching coach and the Phillies are the only team in baseball without a bench coach, the job that was performed by Mackanin the last four seasons.

You will see Billmeyer standing near Manuel in the dugout during a lot of games this season and he will perform some of the jobs Mackanin used to handle. If Manuel is ejected, however, third-base coach Ryne Sandberg will take over as manager.

"I like his energy and how he talks," Manuel said. "I want our guys talking more. Both of our hitting coaches talk continuously during the game to our hitters. Everybody we got in there, we want to communicate and create effort and energy. Mick's big thing will be running the catching game. I'll tell him when we want to throw over to first and when to step off."

Manuel said he is not concerned about being the only manager in baseball without a bench coach.

"I think everybody standing in the dugout is my bench coach," he said. "If you're standing in there, I'll tell you what I'm going to do and what I'm thinking. If they have a better idea, then throw it at me. I rely a lot on Dubee, definitely with the pitchers, and I also ask him a lot of things about the game."

After all those years in the bullpen, Mick Billmeyer will have a view and a voice inside the dugout this season, too.