The Silver Fox eludes the bloodhounds of time
Logan Forsythe the starting 2nd baseman had gotten hurt on April 23rd and was a month away. It was now up to the 38-year-old second baseman to find out if he had anything left. Things didn’t look promising, Chase looked done but maybe he could find a rhythm with steady at-bats.
Chase got some regular at-bats but did nothing with them. On May 3rd you could be excused if you felt that Chase Utley had run out of time as a productive major league ballplayer. He was after all only 5 for 48 with one double. Even more telling he had just taken three called 3rd strikes against the Giants in one game. The bloodhounds of time were hot on his tail and he had been treed, the only thing left was for time to shoot him out of his tree.
That is what we expected to happen. Instead, the Silver Fox somehow eluded time and landed on his spry feet hungry for competition.
On May 5th and 8th he went a combined 0 – 3 but there had been some sign of life in his bat. He made contact each time and hit the ball hard something he had rarely done in 2017.
On May 9th he hit a pinch-hit double. On May 10th another double. May 11th it was a triple. May 12th was another triple. The OPS had jumped from .325 to .601 in four games. The extra base power was back. Or was it? He would not collect another XBH over his next nine games. The OPS had sauntered back to .569. Had that brief four-game fling been a mirage?
Many thought so.
Many were wrong.
From May 25th thru May 30th, Chase Utley slugged three home runs, a double, and a triple. His OPS now stands at .777.
Whatever happens going forward won’t detract from the fact that the Silver Fox helped save the Dodgers bacon in May. First Logan Forsythe went down and he helped at 2nd. Adrian Gonzalez went down and Andrew Toles, moving Chase to 1st base. Justin Turner went down so he went back to 2nd base.
Chris Taylor and Cody Bellinger are compelling stories, but Chase Utley’s resurgence at age 38 can stand side by side with those other men of May.
Oh, and by the way, Chase Utley has three triples in May. You want a crazy looking leaderboard? How about the most triples in May by a LAD. Chase cracks the list.
I bet you didn’t’ expect to see Blake DeWitt on this list, did you? Ron Cey? WTH!
Player Split Year 3B PA Willie Davis May 1970 5 123 Jim Gilliam May 1958 4 134 Manny Mota May 1970 4 86 Brett Butler May 1994 4 125 John Roseboro May 1958 3 74 Dick Gray May 1958 3 51 Maury Wills May 1961 3 125 Willie Davis May 1972 3 121 Ron Cey May 1973 3 125 Davey Lopes May 1979 3 127 Pedro Guerrero May 1982 3 120 Steve Sax May 1983 3 115 Jose Gonzalez May 1990 3 33 Mitch Webster May 1992 3 54 Jose Offerman May 1993 3 112 Raul Mondesi May 1994 3 113 Wilton Guerrero May 1997 3 90 Juan Pierre May 2009 3 125 Blake DeWitt May 2010 3 88 Chase Utley May 2017 3 79
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Generated 5/31/2017.
- Posted in: 2017 Dodgers ♦ Uncategorized
- Tagged: Blake DeWitt, Chase Utley, Chris Taylor, Cody Bellinger, Ron Cey, Willie Davis
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 
Outstanding Again!
Roseboro, the young Roseboro … taking over for Roy Campanella.
I was at the game when they dimmed the lights in the the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and everyone held up lit a match or lighter in honor of Roy Camanella.
This was not a one off type event. During these times i also saw this “ceremony” at a few other nighttime football games and baseball games, a moment of silence …
Regardless, it was quite a dramatic tribute for the man who was wheeled to home plate in his wheelchair. I was so young at the time, I really didn’t get it.
Later, when I was in the seventh grade I found a biography of Camapnella in the school library.
I think I read it a couple of times. Then I understood a little bit better.
Dick Gray – My recollection of him is so vauge.
Why would a parent hang such a moniker on their child?
Mitch Webster, Flashed like a match.
Wilton Guerrero – thought the brother from another would be great on the name alone.
The Mariners made Nomar’s younger brother a first rounder. Think he signed for $3 mil.
Blake DeWitt – Just washed his t shirt.
Chase Utley. I threw the towel in on him in 2015. Learned my lesson in 2016, though it was getting mighty close again. The eldest son played a lot of baseball and coached for six years after. We were talking about Utley and he told me sometimes it just takes that one AB for things to come together again.
heh, WHY AM I STILL WAITING???
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Simply outstanding. My grandpa loved Johnny R. Loved him. Willie Davis should be at the top of all dodger great lists….Chase Utley is one of my absolute favorites of all time. My wife would have left me for Blake DeWitt if the opporyunity had presented itself.
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The Johnny Roseboro biography was a real eye opener. He was so brutally honest I was taken aback because I’d read quite a few baseball biographies and his was the first that gave me a different glimpse into the world of a baseball player in the 60’s. He was another ex-Dodger I got to watch as a Washington Senator.
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Chase Utley- The brightest, most intense, self-contained athlete that ever played for the phillies. Even at the end of his career with the dodgers, you know that he goes out there every day finding a way to contribute or die trying. An icon, true myth.
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