Stutes family, friends answer call

PHOENIX - Suzy Stutes started crying. Chris Stutes started seeing visions from the past. And Mitch Moses? Well, Mitch Moses started driving. Less than 24 hours later, a tight circle of Michael Stutes' friends and family gathered in front of the will-call window at Chase Field and basked in a moment they had dreamed of their entire lives.

"You wait and wait and wait for this call," Suzy Stutes said while grasping that night's program in her hand, "and when it finally comes, you can't believe you got it." The Call came on Easter evening in a tidy suburb on the outskirts of Portland. Two thousand miles and three time zones away, a 24-year-old righthander with a slight build but a ferocious mentality took a few moments to gather his thoughts and then burst into action. His manager at Triple A Lehigh Valley, a man named Ryne Sandberg who knows a thing or two about big-league ball, had just informed him that the Phillies had purchased his contract and added him to their 25-man roster. They had just placed closer Jose Contreras on the disabled list, and they needed Stutes' explosive fastball and aggressive mound presence to fortify a paper-thin bullpen.

"Get your things," Sandberg said. "You are going up." The Call first started to feel like a realistic possibility 3 weeks ago. After impressing the Phillies with a spectacular spring training, Stutes joined the team for its final exhibition series before the regular season. Suzy and Chris were there, just like they had been for every step of the journey: the tee-ball games when coaches had to chide the small kid for picking clovers in the Louisiana outfield, the high school games when that same kid gained a reputation for throwing inside at even the best of friends, the college games when the kid grew into a formidable starting pitcher who helped Oregon State win back-to-back national titles.

Through it all, the parents had marveled at their son's ability to block it all out, to ignore the thousands of fans in the stands in favor of the glove behind the plate. But after Stutes recorded the save in an 8-5 win over the Pirates to close out the exhibition season, he admitted to his dad that something felt different.

"He didn't notice the people," Chris Stutes said. "He felt the air for the first time, the air that blows when 30,000 people stand after a strikeout." The Phillies seriously considered carrying Stutes on their Opening Day roster, manager Charlie Manuel said yesterday, but opted to start him out at Triple A Lehigh Valley, where he continued to throw well.

"Once the season starts, it's always a little different," said Stutes, who allowed two earned runs with 14 strikeouts and four walks in 10 innings of relief at Lehigh Valley. "I felt like I was shaky my first couple outings, and then got better my next few. So I feel like I'm in a pretty good place right now."

In Buffalo Sunday afternoon, where the IronPigs were playing the Bison, Stutes was puzzled when Sandberg told him to call him. Later, after making contact with his manager and receiving the news, he sprung into action. He called his parents, who quickly booked their flights to Phoenix. He left a message for his college coach, who yesterday raved about a player who spurned the major leagues after being drafted to return for his senior season.

"Most guys leave because they have that fear that they'll never get another shot, they won't be good enough," Pat Casey said. "He didn't have that."

Stutes also texted Moses and Kyle Hummel, friends since childhood. They had played baseball with and against each other growing up, but as Stutes began to separate himself from the pack, his buddies began to dream of the day when they would get to live vicariously through him. Moses' text came at 5 p.m. during Easter Dinner. By 7 p.m., he and Hummel were in a Honda Civic doing 85 down the Interstate. Twenty-two hours and four stops for gas later, they were drinking beers outside Chase Field, counting down the minutes until they would see their pinstriped friend take his place near Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels for the national anthem.

Their boss had begrudgingly told them that they would not be fired. Not that it would have mattered.

"We always told him, when you get the call, just make sure we have tickets, because we will be there," Moses said.

Yesterday, all of them were there: Parents, grandparents, girlfriend, girlfriend's parents. And, of course, friends, one of whom was wearing Stutes' jersey from his days at Oregon State.

"Look," Hummel said. "It still has the dirt on it."

For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at www.philly.com/HighCheese. Follow him on Twitter at

http://twitter.com/HighCheese.