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For Phillies fans and Chase Utley, breaking up hard to do

Everyone knew the veteran would be the next to go, but that doesn't make it any easier on his fans.

Chase Utely meets with the media after getting traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Chase Utely meets with the media after getting traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.Read more(Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)

A FOUR-RUN Phillies lead had just been cut in half as Andres Blanco dug a foot into the left side of the batter's box to begin the home half of the fifth inning last night. A single voice rose above the din of the crowd, militant at first but increasingly sad as his plea repeated.

"We want Utley," he bellowed.

"We . . . want . . . Utley."

Six pitches later, Blanco planted a 3-2 pitch from Toronto reliever Bo Schultz into the rightfield seats, extending the Phillies' lead to 5-2. The crowd roared. The bell in right-centerfield donged a few times. A few batters later, Aaron Altherr, starting for the first time this season and appearing in only his fourth major league game, blasted another Schultz pitch over the leftfield wall, pushing the Phillies' lead to five runs en route to a 7-4 victory, inciting the crowd again, banging the bell a few more times.

This is what we wanted, right? We wanted to see a lot of fresh, new names at the top of the lineup, wanted to see what Cesar Hernandez and Odubel Herrera and even Blanco could do with at-bats in the hundreds and not the dozens, wanted Freddy Galvis at short and Cameron Rupp behind the plate and Darin Ruf at first.

What would Altherr, who has 14 home runs and 51 extra-base hits in 111 minor league games this season, do with a major league opportunity? The sooner we learned this, the sooner the rebuild, no?

So why is that page you have wanted turned for so darn long still soaking wet this morning? Why the big weep over the trade of Chase Utley, such a foregone conclusion at the start of this season and such a desperately hoped-for one after his terrible start and six-week stint on the disabled list?

Isn't this a good thing? Doesn't this push the Phillies forward, hand the last few keys to the clubhouse over to the team's future? As Utley said himself late last night, after the trade to the Dodgers for two prospects became official, "I don't know if there is ever a perfect time for this to happen. But the direction the organization is going - which in my opinion is a very bright future - we decided it's time for a change."

"And then there were two," Ryan Howard said after the game, looking over at Utley's emptied locker. "It's going to be different looking over there and not seeing him every day . . . Definitely a weird feeling. But it's what happens. All things come to an end. We had a great run. But things are definitely changing."

So why so sad?

You know why. I know why. It's the finality of it, a relationship ended not through the usual acrimony that characterizes so many of our breakups with our athletes (see Jayson Werth, Scott Rolen), but rather through the cold reality of time and circumstance. It's like the last day of a long summer vacation. You know it's out there, you know it's coming, but when it arrives . . .

Bummer.

Especially if it ends on a warm, sunny day.

Utley has been that warm, sunny day for most of his 13 seasons in red pinstripes.

"Chase Utley, you are the man," the slogan the late Harry Kalas attached to him after a sprint from second to home on an infield groundout in 2006, "will follow me all over the place," the second baseman said, choking up ever so briefly. "And I appreciate that."

Utley has been that warm, sunny day since his return from a six-week stay on the disabled list, been closer to the hitter near the top of several franchise offensive categories, including home runs, than the one who hobbled around with a .179 average over the first three months of the season.

He had two hits in Tuesday's 8-5 loss to the Blue Jays, his last hits as a Phillie. It made 15 hits in 31 at-bats since his return, including five doubles and a home run. Batting leadoff, he and rookie Maikel Franco charged an offense that had been tepid for much of this uninspiring season, fueling that red-hot run after the All-Star break.

The Phillies will finish this season of hellos and goodbyes without either. Franco will be back next season, though, the new face for an organization that found its footing, filled its stands (and coffers) and created a young generation of baseball fans during Utley's pervasive tenure. It was a role he accepted grudgingly, if at all, his on-field stoicism a stark contrast to his Pete Rose all-in approach to the game, his occasional blips of humanity - the F-bombs at the 2008 All-Star Game and in that memorable post-parade speech - only endearing him more to his public.

Last night there was a final tip of the cap as he walked from the field after congratulating all those new names - subtle as usual, understated.

"This city's meant a lot to me," he said later, as his voice again wavered just a bit, momentarily. "I just hope they know how much I appreciate their support over the years.''

On Twitter: @samdonnellon

Columns: ph.ly/Donnellon