Utley's 'darn-near miracle' year

More than three months have passed since the Phillies cranked up Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" as Chase Utley's escort music to home plate for the first time this season. The sellout crowd at Citizens Bank Park that May 23 night drowned out Jimmy Page's signature guitar riff with a rousing standing ovation for the gritty second baseman whose season appeared to be in serious jeopardy when the Phillies left spring training.

For Utley, the initial trip to home plate was the beginning of an unknown journey. After just a few days of workouts in Clearwater, Fla., during spring training, a pain he felt in his right knee during the offseason not only persisted, it also intensified. It was so excruciating that he felt the need to inform the Phillies' medical staff, a procedure he may have skipped as a younger man.

An MRI revealed that Utley had patellar tendinitis in his right knee.

As spring training progressed and Utley's rehab did not, the idea of playing at least the first half of the season without their all-star second baseman became an unpleasant possibility for the Phillies.

"I was very, very concerned coming out of spring training," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said earlier this week. "When I heard the doctors talk, and I heard the trainers talk, I thought it might be quite a while before Chase played. To tell the truth, I thought it would definitely be the second part of the season."

Ruben Amaro Jr. had similar concerns.

"I think all of us were concerned, but with Chase I think you kind of stay cautiously optimistic that he's going to be fine because it's Chase," the Phillies general manager said. "He's kind of wired differently than others."

Utley, 32 and in his ninth big-league season, earned that reputation by recuperating much faster than anticipated from a broken hand in 2007 and surgery on his thumb last season. But even he freely admits this injury was more daunting.

"The medical staff here - Dr. [Michael] Ciccotti, [head trainer] Scott Sheridan, and all the trainers - we all kind of sat down and tried to figure out what the best plan of attack was, and there was no really definite answer how to get improvement," Utley said. "We kind of picked different people's brains about what they would do, and it seemed like everybody had a little different opinion."

The opinion Utley and the Phillies did not want to hear was surgery.