Phillies legend Chase Utley optimistic that baseball will return this year

For a few weeks last month, after the schools closed in Southern California and while educators figured out how to hold classes via Zoom, Chase Utley morphed from the greatest second baseman in Phillies history into his older son’s second-grade teacher.

“I was essentially head of the math department,” the 2008 World Series champion said by phone Thursday.

Now, imagine if Utley had to put down his No. 2 pencil and leave his wife and two sons to be quarantined in a Phoenix-area hotel for four months while he played out the 2020 baseball season without fans in the stands at spring-training ballparks during a global pandemic.

Utley need not worry about that scenario. He retired in 2018 after his 16th big-league season. But he still has plenty of friends in the game who would have to face that reality if Major League Baseball is able to conquer the immense logistical and practical challenges of an “Arizona biosphere” concept that was endorsed this week by Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“I think the most difficult challenge would be to take a veteran player who has two kids and expect them not to see their wife or kids for four or five months. I think that would be difficult to do,” Utley said. “But as of now — and I’m reading the same things you’re reading — there’s not a great number of alternatives. I do think, though, they’ll figure something out. What that will be, I don’t know.”

President Donald Trump has held several conference calls over the last few weeks with pro sports leaders, including MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. As the country grapples with how to return to normalcy, sports is viewed by some as a strong elixir.

Fauci’s endorsement of a limited return to sports figures to carry substantial weight given the widespread respect he has earned for his direct, science-based updates in White House press briefings.

Manfred told Fox Business this week that the health and safety of players and staff must be paramount in any plans to return to the field. But in an interview with the Associated Press, Manfred also said "it's incumbent upon us to turn over every stone to try to play the game in 2020 if there's any way we can in the environment."

Utley seemed to echo that sentiment. Several prominent players, including Mike Trout, have objected to the idea of leaving their families behind for the Arizona plan. Trout’s wife is due to give birth to their first child in July. Other players, including Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler, are in the same boat.

“I think it really all depends on how the players feel, also how involved their families can be,” said Utley, who worked last season for SportsNet LA as a studio analyst for Dodgers telecasts. “I think we all want to see baseball being played this year. It’s going to look probably a little different, as we all know. We’re going to have to adjust and hopefully that’s just for this year.”

Among the most notable differences would be the absence of fans. Utley played for the Phillies in the midst of their 257-game sellout streak at Citizens Bank Park. He said players would need to figure out ways to replicate the adrenaline that they typically derive from loud fans in packed ballparks, both at home and on the road.

Utley characterizes himself as a baseball traditionalist. But under the already unusual circumstances of a shortened season that almost certainly would open in neutral sites, he would be open to experimentation with some of the game’s longstanding rules.

"If I was still a player, I would be open for some change just to speed the games up to get as many games as possible in because I think everyone benefits from the more games being played," Utley said. "I would be open to some change. How much? That really depends on what's being thrown out there. I'm not really privy to those conversations anymore now that I'm a math teacher."

Indeed, Utley is curious to see how it all works out. He said his family and extended family haven’t been impacted by COVID-19. His older son, Ben, “shushes me out of the room” now during online school sessions that begin at 8:45 a.m. and end by about 1 p.m.

Did he ever have to give detention during his turn as a teacher?

“It’s more of a timeout. We call them timeouts,” Utley said. “But we’re all learning. We’re all understanding each other. Hopefully we can get past it and learn from experience, not only from a family standpoint but just the way we attack [the virus] if this ever happens again.”