Phils, Bosox pay tribute to Vukovich

CLEARWATER, Fla. - It's important to note: They smiled when they said it.

"Vuk - you didn't always agree with him, but it didn't last," said hitting coach Milt Thompson, leaning against the hitting cage. He glanced at the batting stopwatch with swollen eyes. "I haven't slept in 2 nights."

Thompson is in his seventh season as a major league coach with the Phillies. He also spent 2 years as a minor league coach before that, and was on the 1988 club that marked the beginning of John Vukovich's record 17-year tenure as a Phillies coach.

In the heart of his tenure, Vukovich was a coach for Terry Francona, now manager of the Red Sox, who visited the Phillies at Bright House Networks Field yesterday. Vukovich's death Thursday at age 59 after a long battle with cancer left Francona addled.

"Yesterday was a confusing day," Francona said.

Vukovich's insistence on having his final days a private, family affair left most of his closest associates unsettled, Francona included.

Francona received a telephone call from Vukovich a few days before the December winter meetings, which Vukovich, a front-office adviser the past two seasons, knew he would not attend.

"He sounded terrible," Francona said.

By the time Francona made a winter visit to Philadelphia, Vukovich was in the hospital. Francona wasn't sure what he should do.

"I was staying eight blocks from the hospital. I snuck in - by the way, the security there is horsebleep - and he was asleep. I wrote him a letter. I walked out," Francona said.

He squinted. "I just don't have good answers for how I feel."

He feels he should attend Vukovich's funeral Tuesday. Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who is supposed to start that day, will attend, and then return in time to throw a simulated game Tuesday night.

"He needs to throw," Francona said. "But he needs to be there, too."

The Phillies will charter a plane for players, coaches and front-office people who want to attend the private services. A relatively anonymous skeleton crew, led by bench coach Jimy Williams, will play that day against the Blue Jays in Dunedin. The team is off Wednesday.

They played yesterday after a pregame remembrance.

The sellout crowd at Bright House Networks Stadium stood for a moment of silence. Phillies players, staff and front-office members stood along the leftfield line, near where the name "VUK" was chalked in large, block letters in the third-base coaching box where he spent so many games. That will be done in Citzens Bank Park, too. The Red Sox stood along the rightfield line.

After longtime announcer Harry Kalas emceed the display of a commemorative Vukovich jersey, brought onto the field by veterans Jimmy Rollins and Pat Burrell, the sellout crowd stood with the teams for a moment of silence. The jersey will hang in the Phils' dugout the rest of the season. An identical one will hang in the Phillies' offices here and in Philadelphia.

Next week, the Phils will begin to wear a commemorative "VUK" patch on their uniforms.

He will not be forgotten. *