Phillies Fans Correctly Realized Chase Utley Is Far Bigger Than One Game

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- So there's this psychotic narrative going around that Phillies fans gave "too much love to Chase Utley last night," especially after he hit his 7th inning grand slam to cement the Dodgers' win.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Que the Banana Land music. I mean seriously, are you people nuts?

"After a loss last night, I wasn't real happy about the fact that he hit two home runs against us," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin told the 94WIP Morning Show on Wednesday. "I'm not gonna sit there and praise him for what he did last night because it's not fair to my pitchers who gave up the home runs."

Listen: Pete Mackanin on the 94WIP Morning Show

OK, that makes sense coming from Pete, but Pete is the manager. Managers come and go. Fans? They're forever.

Since 1990, there has only been one Philadelphia athlete unconditionally loved more than Utley and that's Brian Dawkins. Allen Iverson is a close third, but it's really Dawkins-Utley-Iverson and no one else.

Related: Chase Utley Receives Raucous Applause In Return To Citizens Bank Park, Including Grand Slam

Utley is the only one of the three who has won a championship for the city. He's a six-time all-star, the greatest second basemen in Phillies history, and would have been a Hall Of Famer if he didn't lose precious games due to knee injuries.

When "The Man" returns to Philadelphia (I mean his nickname is "The Man" for crying out loud!) and goes 2-4 with 2 HR's and 5 RBI's as a 37-year-old lead off hitter, he deserves everything he received and more -- and there's really no debate. But, in our crazy narrative driven sports world, it somehow is on TV, radio, and social media.

Related: Chase Utley: 'I Didn't Want To Disrespect The Phillies Team'

The fact that I'm writing about this, is actually maddening.

So when Utley hit a grand slam to right-center to give the Dodgers a 13-2 lead, yes he deserved a second curtain call. Who cares if the Phillies are getting destroyed? We're talking about 1/162 of a lost Major League Baseball season. That's .006 of the season or .6-percent.

"They're only 7.5 games out of the wildcard!"

Stop. Can you just stop? They're 6.5 games ahead of being the second worst team in the National League and they were coming off a sweep over the 57-63 Colorado Rockies, at home.

This team is not going to make the playoffs and any rational Phillies fan knows this team is building for the future. 

So I don't care if the Phillies are losing one zillion to nothing. I'm going to clap every time Chase Utley hits a home run at Citizens Bank Park this season and I applaud the Phillies fans who did just that last night.