They named their boy Chase Utley and hope their baseball-playing teen can be like The Man

The umpire at the youth baseball tournament in Tennessee started making small talk between innings, asking the coach about his major league career. The coach thought it was a bit so he played along. But the questions kept coming. And the coach realized that the umpire really thought the coach was him.

“‘Wait, you think I’m Chase Utley?’ He said, ‘Yeah, aren’t you?’ I said ‘No, I’m sorry. That’s my son. His name is Chase Utley and I’m Brian,’” the coach said.

Brian Utley, a real estate investor in Alabama, named his son after the Phillies icon 10 months after the 2008 World Series. Utley loved baseball and already shared a last name with The Man. So why not name his son Chase? The young Chase Utley is now a 16-year-old high school baseball player who plays middle infield, bats left, and throws right like his namesake. The name seems to fit.

» READ MORE: Phillies to induct Chase Utley into Wall of Fame this summer

For some, it can be a bit confusing.

“I didn’t want to make him feel silly,” Brian Utley said of that umpire. “So I tried to break it to him as tactfully as I could.”

There’s a generation of Philadelphians named Chase and Cole after their parents were swept up in a storm of Red Octobers. Some people even named their dogs after their favorite Phils. Utley, who didn’t name either of his sons after him, said he’ll never get used to it. It’ll always be an honor.

But a kid named Chase Utley? He’s never even met an Utley he wasn’t related to let alone another Chase Utley.

“I can imagine that having the same first and last name could put a little bit of pressure,” the former Phils star said. “But I would encourage him to be himself and not try to emulate me. Just do his thing and be the best player he can be and not try to follow in my footsteps. For young Chase, it seems like he’s on a good path, and I’m excited to see how he continues to evolve.”

The Alabama Utleys started kicking around name ideas once they learned they had a baby boy due in November of 2009. Amanda Utley tossed out “Chase.”

“I honestly didn’t know there was another Chase Utley,” she said. “I just liked the name Chase. When I suggested it, Brian was like, ‘As a matter of fact.’”

Brian Utley told his wife about the ballplayer who was then one of game’s biggest stars. Never mind, the mom-to-be said.

» READ MORE: Phillies Wall of Fame and then Hall of Fame? Chase Utley putting ‘pieces together’ on his Cooperstown chances.

“That’s weird,” she said.

Amanda Utley thought for a few weeks about a new name but came up empty. She relented. First, she asked her husband to tell her more about Chase Utley. Is he a good guy? Is he more than just a good player? Do people like him?

“Then I said, ‘Are we going to get made fun of for this?” Amanda Utley said. “He’s like, ‘I don’t think so.’ OK. So Chase it is.”

Chase Utley, the one who will be added this summer to the Phillies’ Wall of Fame, fell in love with the game by playing Wiffle ball in his neighborhood. A runner was called out by either being hit with the ball or screaming “Mercy.”

Utley, who was hit by a pitch more than 200 times in his career, never asked for mercy.

He used to ride his bike to the batting cage with a pocket full of quarters. He spent so much time there that they put him to work so he could earn more quarters and keep swinging. Even from a young age, Utley took control of his dream.

» READ MORE: Philly’s Scott Bandura was teammates for a day with Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber. It was ‘surreal.’

“I get asked a lot: How much is the time and preparation you put in vs. being told what to do?,” the older Utley said. “I believe that the guys who have had the most success have that inner drive. That inner drive to be the best and to succeed at their craft, whatever that may be. I’m a parent now and you encourage, you motivate, and you point in the right direction. But at the end of the day, if they want to be the best, they have to have that inner-self drive.”

So it seems fitting that the young Chase Utley wakes up every morning at 5:45 a.m. to take swings in his living room wearing a virtual reality helmet that mimics high velocity and different types of pitches.

He has baseball practice every afternoon and then ends his night in a batting cage. Brian Utley taught his son to swing, coached his youth teams, and ran him through infield drills since he was a toddler. But now the son is in control.

“By the time he gets to his age, I have to let him go,” Brian Utley said. “I’m not dragging him out of his bed. He’s either going to do it or he’s not as it becomes his own. That’s what’s been encouraging the last couple years. He’s owning it.”

Amanda Utley made sure to research Chase Utley before she named her first son after him. So what does Chase Utley want his name to mean?

“I would love for people to associate my name, honestly, with hard work,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. That’s No. 1 first and foremost. Hard work.”

Chase Utley is on the doorstep of Cooperstown but his journey there was not easy. He played freshman baseball and even his dad said Utley was not pegged as a future big-leaguer.

His work ethic made him into one as he went to UCLA instead of signing with the hometown Dodgers when they drafted him in 1997’s second round. He spent his first season at UCLA as a designated hitter because his defense was not yet up to par. He improved, became UCLA’s second baseman and then worked on his defense again with the Phillies to become one of the best defenders, according to advanced metrics.

His journey seems headed for the Hall of Fame. But getting there wasn’t perfect.

“It’s never perfect nor should it be,” Utley said. “Not that you want to be knocked down, but it’s important to get knocked down at times. It then allows you to reflect and figure out what you need to improve on. I do think having adversity as you’re growing and learning and developing as a player is important. Baseball can be a very humbling game. It’s important to dig down deep when it gets tough and see what you’re made of.”

“It’s all about learning yourself and that takes time. It doesn’t happen in six months or two years. That takes a full decade or so to figure out what works for you. I encourage all young kids to continue to strive to always be better. Because there’s always someone out there working just as hard.”

The young Utley missed the majority of his namesake’s prime but he collected The Man’s baseball cards, watched old highlights on YouTube, and even had a No. 26 jersey.

“It was pretty cool having my own name on the back of a Phillies jersey,” Utley said.

He hit .398 last season as a freshman at Whitesburg Christian Academy in Huntsville, Ala., and had a busy summer on the travel-ball circuit as he played in tournaments all over the Southeastern U.S. His parents weren’t thinking about his budding baseball career when they named him, but it might actually help as their boy tries to attract college attention this summer.

“Those names stand out to the point where you have to go see that player,” said Perfect Game’s vice president of scouting operations Jered Goodwin. “We had a kid come through named Cash Money. You have to go see him, right? If you have Chase Utley, you have to go see him too. It definitely catches your eye and you’re going to check in and see some at-bats.”

The young Utley remembers hearing a rumor at a tournament a few years ago that Chase Utley was there. Yes, he was. But this was the boy, not The Man. Brian Utley, just like he did with that umpire, told everyone that this Chase Utley was his son.

“I had to eventually disappoint them,” he said.

But now the young Utley is trying to make a name for himself. He has a smooth swing, a hard-nosed work ethic, and dreams to play college ball. One day, he could be the Chase Utley people are coming to see.

“It’s an honor to be named for him,” the young man said.