Phillies

SAN FRANCISCO - Chase Utley found serenity here, at a baseball diamond named for a coach who accepted a $1 salary for 16 years to save his college's team from abolishment. Dante Benedetti Diamond is squeezed into the corner of a sleepy neighborhood at the edge of the University of San Francisco's campus. Large black netting prevents home run balls from littering Golden Gate Avenue. Two freshman dorms overlook the field from behind home plate. An undergraduate student stuck a cardboard cutout of Mitt Romney in the window, so the smiling politician is always watching baseball.

It was 4:47 p.m. Sunday when a beaming Charlie Manuel sauntered into his team's clubhouse. He found Freddy Galvis, shook the diminutive hero's hand, and disappeared to pack for an eight-game road trip. As Galvis described his elation upon hitting an unbelievable home run that sealed a 3-2 Phillies victory to a throng of reporters, Kevin Frandsen jumped up and down to make Galvis laugh. A few lockers away, Carlos Ruiz struggled to pull green shorts over his wrapped right leg. Across the room, Ryan Howard dismissed the notion that a left knee injury that apparently has afflicted him since spring training was serious.

FIFTH STARTER. Fifth of five. That was supposed to be Jonathan Pettibone's job while John Lannan found himself on the disabled list. It is a job with low expectations and, simultaneously, with real meaning - especially for a team like the Phillies, a team that has had so much trouble generating consistent offense and that has been underwater in the standings for weeks. Pettibone arrived unheralded. No one knew what to expect, not really. When he pitched well in his first game, the Phillies were not even ready to acknowledge immediately that he would get a second start.

Forty games in, here's all we know about the Phillies for sure: They are flawed, but not finished. Sure, they can be infuriating. Twenty-two times in their first 40 games they scored three or fewer runs. In 16 of those games, they scored fewer than two. They have been blanked five times. There are days when you wonder whether manager Charlie Manuel is throwing out a lineup filled with eight-hole hitters. The biggest question coming out of spring training was the right arm of Roy Halladay, and that's one of the few conclusive answers the Phillies have received.

BACK IN 1973, Ginny Ozark fired off a letter to the Daily News complaining about the criticism writer Bill Conlin was leveling at her husband, Danny, manager of the Phillies. "She came out swinging like a .350 hitter in defense of her husband," the Daily News wrote. However, in the midst of a flood of vitriol and threats of lawsuits, Ginny felt constrained to add, "But I love Irma. " It was not the only time that a sports figure, feeling the sting of Conlin's acerbic wit, would launch a tirade against him, but then temper the attack by expressing love for his wife, Irma - almost as if to say that a man with a near-saint of a wife ought to be better behaved.

The Phillies have signed players from all over the world and recently they added an outfielder from Germany. Julsan Kamara, a 17-year-old outfielder and a member of the German Junior National Team, was recently signed to a seven-year minor league contract. Kamara is 6-foot-4, 192 pounds. He throws and bats righthanded. "The ball comes off his bat well and we think there is potential power there," said Benny Looper, the Phillies assistant general manager, player personnel.

This week's opening of the film 42 , on Jackie Robinson's integration of baseball, brings to mind the dramatic role played by Philadelphia in this seminal event in America's civil rights history. Robinson's integration of Major League Baseball during the 1947 season was revolutionary. The game had been segregated since the 1880s, reflecting the isolation of African Americans in the nation. Even in the years after World War II, America remained a segregated society, with African Americans, save for some entertainers and athletes like Joe Louis, largely invisible.

The Phillies insisted before the game that revenge wasn't the motive, only the chance to get closer to .500. Afterward, Kevin Frandsen admitted that consecutive routs in Cleveland two weeks ago served as a motivating force. After being outscored by 20-2 by the Indians in two games, the Phillies earned revenge on Tuesday night with a 6-2 win at Citizens Bank Park. "They kicked our butt [in Cleveland] and I hope the guys would realize that and I feel like we did," said Frandsen, who got the Phillies going with a solo home run in the first inning.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - In some parallel universe, there lives a successful insurance salesman named Roy Halladay. Nice guy, good family man, almost made it as a big-league baseball player. In that version of reality, Halladay is sent to single-A ball by the Toronto Blue Jays, but his wife never happens upon Harvey Dorfman's book. Halladay never meets the no-nonsense sports psychologist. There are no Cy Young Awards, no perfect game, no Hall of Fame career. Dorfman, who died Monday at 75, had that big an impact on Halladay's career.

Once, there may have been no job in America that Lee Thomas would rather have had than general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. But that was nearly a decade ago - in a very different time, before Thomas ever left the Cardinals to become general manager of the Phillies. Yesterday, however, Lee Thomas' onetime dream job opened up again when the Cardinals fired Dal Maxvill after nine years as GM. And one of the first names to pop to the top of the rumor circuit, naturally, was that of James Leroy Thomas.

It was 4:47 p.m. Sunday when a beaming Charlie Manuel sauntered into his team's clubhouse. He found Freddy Galvis, shook the diminutive hero's hand, and disappeared to pack for an eight-game road trip. As Galvis described his elation upon hitting an unbelievable home run that sealed a 3-2 Phillies victory to a throng of reporters, Kevin Frandsen jumped up and down to make Galvis laugh. A few lockers away, Carlos Ruiz struggled to pull green shorts over his wrapped right leg. Across the room, Ryan Howard dismissed the notion that a left knee injury that apparently has afflicted him since spring training was serious.

Does Philadelphia have room for one more specialized business incubator? It may, indeed, if enough education- technology entrepreneurs choose to take the plunge into what the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education calls its new Education Design Studio Fund . Even the name suggests that what Penn is planning will be unlike spaces such as GoodCompany Group's residency program for social enterprises in Center City,...

At Marlins Park, Miami. Monday at 7:10 p.m. LHP Cole Hamels (1-6, 4.61 ERA) vs. Miami RHP Alex Sanabia (2-6, 5.00).   Tuesday at 7:10 p.m. RHP Tyler Cloyd (0-0, 2.84) vs. Miami RHP Jose Fernandez (2-2, 3.48).   Wednesday at 7:10 p.m. LHP Cliff Lee (4-2, 2.83) vs. Miami RHP Kevin Slowey (1-4, 3.44).

IT'S NO SECRET that a lot of legendary players have hooped it up at New York City playgrounds. On Wednesday, the documentary "Doin' it in the Park" opens in the Big Apple - a homage to the city's courts and players. As far as we know, no one has done a similar film about Philly, even though the city has a rich history of guys and girls who honed their skills in pickup games on asphalt courts. Players like (in no particular order), Wilt Chamberlain, Hank Gathers, Bo Kimble, Gene Banks, Bryant "Sad Eyes" Watson, Guy Rodgers, Earl Monroe, Walt Hazzard, Lewis "Black Magic" Lloyd, Aaron "AO" Owens, Randy Woods, Wali Jones, Lionel Simmons, Marilyn Stephens, Linda Page, Yolanda Laney and Debbie Lytle.

WHEN YOU are scuffling, there is no such thing as a little mistake. Domonic Brown's sixth-inning throw to first is misplayed into an eventual unearned run . . . Cliff Lee's ninth-inning baserunning gaffe gives dominant Cincinnati Reds closer Aroldis Chapman a two-out save opportunity . . . and there you are again yesterday, tortured, angered, ready to swear off the local nine for maybe the 10th time just in the last month. Why didn't Charlie Manuel use an everyday player to run instead of a pitcher?

IN ADDITION TO righting their ship, the Phillies also must avoid taking on more water, a task that became more challenging yesterday when a couple of their stars were sidelined with injuries. Carlos Ruiz and Ryan Howard will both undergo MRIs today as the Phillies prepare to start a three-game series against the Marlins in Miami. At least for the moment, Ruiz' injury appears to be more significant. The catcher suffered a right hamstring strain while moving from first to third on a single in the second inning.

In the wake of Monday's tornadoes in Oklahoma, volunteers are being deployed from around the country to assist in the recovery, including a woman from Philadelphia. Danelle Stoppel, a volunteer mental health supervisor with the American Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania, will leave at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday to fly to the tornado-ravaged area. It will be Stoppel's 13th disaster deployment in just two years volunteering with the organization, helping her earn the nickname "Deployment Danelle.

SOME INTERESTING sports auctions in the news recently: Andy Reid, clearing his house and mind of everything Eagles as he and Tammy move to Kansas City, sold such items as a pair of 5XL shorts, a pair of Crocs, Eagles flip-flops and Christmas ornaments. The Reids donated all proceeds from the sale to the Harriton High football program and a nonprofit organization that helps fight domestic violence. Kobe Bryant's parents, Joe and Pam, have a bunch of Kobe memorabilia in their possession, with all the proceeds going to them.

Urban Outfitters Inc. is the high-profile local company that shareholder activists are targeting once again over a lack of diversity on its board of directors. Specifically, the sponsors of a proposal listed in the Philadelphia retailer's 2013 proxy statement want Urban Outfitters to broaden the pool of candidates it considers in order to change a seven-person board that includes no women or minorities. The proposal, on the ballot for next Tuesday's annual meeting, is being sponsored by pension funds for New York City and Connecticut, retirement plans for Catholic and Lutheran ministries, and Bethesda, Md.-based Calvert Investment Management Inc. , which practices a socially responsible investing strategy.

MIAMI - Cole Hamels grabbed his things and began to walk out of the clubhouse at a brisk pace. Then he turned around, went back to his locker to retrieve something, but again left the room without taking part in the standard practice of talking to the media after a start. It was difficult to blame Hamels. There really wasn't a whole lot he could say after showcasing what his pitching coach called "electric" stuff, yet not having a whole lot to show for it in the latest Phillies loss with him on the mound.