May 01, 2019
Ryan Lawrence/PhillyVoice
Chase Utley is back in Philadelphia tonight with the Dodgers, who need just four more wins to reach 100 on the season.
Sports radio call-ins often yield good back-and-forth exchanges because of their inherently impromptu nature, and a live Chase Utley appearance on WFAN’s "Boomer and Gio" show Wednesday yielded one of those moments.
A woman identified as 'Cali from Connecticut' called into Wednseday’s show and, after applauding Utley’s charity work with dogs, voiced her clear distaste for Utley’s baseball career:
THAT’S MY GIRL @Cali_1024 @WFANmornings pic.twitter.com/FZmYhqciyo
— Tara McDonald Rincón (@TaraJMac) May 1, 2019
For those who can’t watch the video, but want to know what Cali took umbrage at, we’ve got you covered:
“Hey. Well, Mr. Utley, I just want to say to you, real quick, I do appreciate you’ve worked with dogs and kids. I’ve heard about that, good for you. But that’s the last thing I’m going to tell you I really respect about you. If I came out here and you were telling me, ‘You know, I liked being the villain, I didn’t really care, it was fun for me, it was part of the game,’ I might’ve even respected that a little bit more, but it doesn’t really seem like you care about anything. I just need you to know, as Mets fans, how annoying it was to come and watch you. I mean, I respect that you’re a good player, I understand that, but when you took out my shortstop in the playoffs, that wasn’t about talent. That was just being dirty. And I don’t care how long you tell me that was just you being old school, that was you being dirty, because that’s what you do.”
That’s quite a diatribe! It could’ve been way meaner and more profane coming from a Mets fan, but it’s a pretty grounded argument that doesn’t deviate from its main point. That’s a Connecticut rant if I’ve ever heard one.
Utley’s reaction, for the record, was equally composed:
“Thank you, Cali. I appreciate that. Thanks, sweetheart.”
It seems Cali didn’t appreciate Utley’s ‘sweetheart’ — which I’ll give her, that’s fair — at the end:
SWEETHEART?!
— Calise (@Cali_1024) May 1, 2019
The “dirty” play Cali is referring to, of course, is Utley’s contentious slide into Ruben Tejada in the 2015 postseason, when Utley was playing for the Dodgers:
Fans like to yell at athletes from the safety of upper deck bleachers and their couches, so when a fan actually gets a chance to tell an athlete how they feel, it’s always fascinating to see if they’ll bring the same energy to a one-on-one interaction. A phone call isn’t exactly looking into Utley’s eyes and telling him you think he’s dirty, but it still takes some guts.
Overall, it was a pretty good sports-talk interaction. At the very least, it was much better than this Mets fan’s choices.
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