Phillies Notebook: Phillies prospect Gillies charged with cocaine possession

Inevitably, some people will always associate Tyson Gillies with his arrest yesterday on a felony charge of cocaine possession in Clearwater, Fla., no matter what he accomplishes on the baseball field for the rest of his career.

Charlie Manuel isn't one of them.

The Phillies manager made it clear he doesn't know much about the incident involving the 21-year-old outfield prospect and doesn't know whether he's innocent or guilty. But once the matter is settled legally, Manuel won't let it influence his judgment of Gillies as a player.

"I think I let other people handle those kinds of problems," Manuel said. "I never want to see a player get in trouble. Players are supposed to obey the rules. That's what I stand for. But when they make mistakes and they get in trouble, they've got to take care of those things.

"In America, people are definitely rewarded second chances. I'm not one to judge anything like that. I never have been."

Example: Minor league catcher Dane Sardinha was arrested in Clearwater on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of alcohol in February. That didn't prevent the Phillies from calling him up when they needed a receiver in June.

The case involving Gillies, one of the three players the Phillies got from the Seattle Mariners in the controversial Cliff Lee trade last December, is unusual, to say the least.

According to a Pinellas County's Sheriff's Department spokesperson, a patrol deputy spotted a man standing on the shoulder of U.S. Route 19 North on the night of June 11 waving a white shirt at passing motorists.

Police said the officer stopped and noticed the man appeared intoxicated. After identifying himself, police said, Gillies said he was looking for his friends and was waving his shirt so that they could spot him more easily. He added that he was walking back to the La Quinta Inn, where he was staying, after spending the evening at the Freaki Tiki Bar.

The officer said he asked Gillies whether he had enough cash to take a cab back to the motel and, when he said he didn't, the officer offered him a ride as a courtesy. Only after the player got out of the cruiser did the officer notice a small bag containing white powder on the floorboard near where Gillies had sat, police said.