Bonnie Clark, Phillies PR Guru

GAME'S OVER. Phils win (humor us). Players high-five on the field, head to the dugout. On their way, they pass photographers, reporters, Gregg Murphy and a tall blonde in a smart black dress.

Come again?

If you've watched even only a handful of the Phillies' 300-ish wins at the Bank the past seven seasons, you probably noticed her.

How could you not?

Nearly 6 feet tall, with a no-hair-outta-place bob, black-frame glasses and on-point style, the team's communications VP, Bonnie Clark, stands out as a polished, professional anomaly among sweaty players in dirty uniforms and golf-shirted broadcasters.

But who is she? And what, exactly, does she do?

"Fan interaction, player relations, charities, creative services, business communications, crisis issues," Clark carefully listed her job description during a recent interview in her gleaming executive office.

In noncorporate speak, that means that she and her staff of 17 open and close the clubhouse doors to the media and the public. Clark's purview includes locker-room interviews and the Phanatic About Reading Program, with plenty of opening pitches, advertising campaigns, pre- and postgames, Twitter and Instagram posts, fan mail, media guides and press releases in-between.

(When the Phillies win at home, she taps the Player of the Game for a live TV interview, which is why you see her, although not much lately, in the dugout at the bottom of the ninth.)

All told, Clark's gig's big. Along with Dave Montgomery and Ruben Amaro, she's one of just 12 Phils execs. (She's also one of two women. The other is Kathy Killian, vice president of human resources and customer services.)

As with many things pro sports, Clark's job's not what it used to be.

"Back in the day, [my position] was always the conversion of the sportswriter who became the PR person," she said.

That's how Larry Shenk came aboard back in 1963, and stayed for 44 years. He's still there, part-time, as director of alumni relations.

"When I was in high school and so forth, we didn't have any communications courses," he said. "We didn't have any public-relations courses. . . . Most of the PR guys came out of the newspaper business."

When he started with the Phils, he was, he said, "a one-man band" working with four newspapers. Few years on, he got a secretary and a teleprompter. Chris Wheeler joined him in '71 to assist with "audio services" before heading up broadcasting.

"In my day, social media was buying drinks for the media," he said.

These days, said Sixers PR director Mike Preston, "as pro sports teams evolve into bigger entities, it's important to treat organizations like businesses, and that includes how you communicate."

Phillies senior veep Dave Buck tapped Clark for the post in 2008, not because she could rattle off batting averages or fill out a scorecard. The Milford, Pa., native wasn't even a native Phils fan. "I grew up in Yankees country," she said. In high school, she wanted to be "Julie, from 'Love Boat.' " Cruise director wasn't a major at West Virginia University. After she graduated in 1986 with a bachelor's in journalism, she went into PR.

Working at Ogilvy & Mather, GolinHarris and Tierney Communications, and at West Chester-based QVC, turned her into a public-relations ace, or, as former boss Mary Stengel Austen said to Buck, "a kick-ass PR person."

Clark would never be one of the gritty guys on or off the field. But she was good at her job. And baseball had changed. She fit in fine.

"Off the top of my head, I can think of six or eight clubs who've hired people for my position whose experience is beyond the realm of sports," she said, "Baseball is not just a sport. It's a business."

As luck would have it, she made it her business the same year the Phils took the World Series. Her second season, they went back.

"I look back at those years, and didn't realize then, but realize now what an amazing experience it was," she said.

As for this year . . .

When you're the worst team in the National League, "the influx of fan mail and people voicing their opinions about the state of the team certainly changes," she said, adding that her staff has been busy reading and distributing email and snail mail from the disgruntled masses. Clark said that each missive merits consideration and, unless it's vulgar, a reply. "We tell them, thanks for letting us know how you feel about the team, and that we, like you, hope things turn around sooner than later.

"It's much easier to do PR for a club that's winning. Clearly."

Still, no matter how many losses, no matter how many players she's pulled aside to offer gentle yet firm advice, no matter how many team-mandated goodbyes she's shared with colleagues - Raul Ibanez was a tough one; one of his daughters became close with Clark's youngest - no matter how many times she's had to turn down a fan or media request, she's still pretty psyched to be exactly where she's sitting.

"I still wake up every morning and look forward to coming to work," she said. "I've never had that pit-of-my-stomach-on-a-Monday-morning feeling here. And I hope I never get it."