Chase Utley: 'The man' and a whole lot more
Utter praise for the way the second baseman approaches the game.
EVERYONE KNOWS Chase Utley has uttered some memorable lines:
"World [bleeping] champions," was the way he described his team to the tens of thousands who gathered at the parade for the Phillies in 2008.
"Boo? [Bleep] you!" was his response to the jeering welcome he got at Yankee Stadium at the 2008 All-Star Game.
But there have been some great quotes about Utley too.
No one will ever top Harry Kalas' "Chase Utley you are the man!" But here are some other noteworthy quotes that have been said about Utley over the years:
* Charlie Manuel: "You try telling Chase to take a day off and he has this look like you just killed his mother. When I first saw him hit, the first thing that came to mind was Ted Williams. I'm not kidding."
* Roy Halladay on Twitter: "I kid you not when he talked to me . . . On the field I got goose bumps every time!"
* Jimmy Rollins I: "He's been Mr. Everything. He's been Mr. Baseball."
* Jimmy Rollins II: "I know he gets [to the park] early. I get here 10 minutes before we stretch. He gets here 10 hours before we stretch."
* Phil Sheridan, Phillies clubhouse attendant: "Even if this guy doesn't get a hit, he still gets his uniform dirty. I mean, it's filthy. Chase is a dirt ball. In the best possible way. He's a good dirt ball."
* Larry Bowa: "He plays every game like it's the seventh game of the World Series."
* Dave Utley, Chase's dad, on how his then-young son would work on his hitting: "He'd run out of money and the people who own the [batting] cages would put him to work, sweeping or selling popcorn, so he could hit again for another half hour. There were times we were afraid, me and my wife, that we'd be accused of abandoning him."