PHILADELPHIA -- "Things get magnified" is a popular phrase at this time of year in "the baseball bidness," as Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel likes to say.
The road to the World Series is littered with the carcasses of good players, superstars, even, who have thrown up all over their shoes when the bright lights of October catch them in that blinding glare.
Barry Bonds comes to mind. He failed miserably in most every post-season endeavour but changed that sad legacy in majestic fashion in 2002 when he hit .356 with an on-base percentage of .600 with eight homers and 16 RBI in the playoffs for the San Francisco Giants.
Of course, we learned later that he had sold his soul for "the cream and the clear" to get those numbers, but he hardly was alone in that realm.
But it's one thing to fail in these most important of games. It's another thing to come unglued. or even appear to come unglued. That's how powerful the microscope is, especially in a sports-obsessed town like this one.
So, on back-to-back nights in Games 1 and 2 of this NLCS, when Phils second baseman Chase Utley, a pro's pro in most phases of the game, twice threw wildly to first base on the back end of double plays, about three million amateur psychologists diagnosed him with Steve Sax Disease.
Sax was a second baseman with the Dodgers, and later with the Yankees, White Sox and Athletics, in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1982, he was an outstanding fielder who won the rookie of the year award in the National League. In 1983, for no apparent reason, Sax developed a mental block about throwing the ball to first base. In that season alone he made 30 errors and his "condition" continued off and on for years, though he eventually overcame it.
Chuck Knoblauch, another Yankees second baseman, also suffered from the same mental block during his time in New York. Mackey Sasser was a catcher with the Mets who developed an inability to throw the ball back to the pitcher, something of a career-limiting move for a big-league catcher. He became so predictably erratic that Brett Butler of the Braves once stole a base on one of Sasser's throws back to the mound.
A story Dodgers ex-manager Tommy Lasorda often told involved a team meeting when he asked third baseman Pedro Guerrero what he's thinking about with runners on base and the game on the line.
"First thing I think is: 'Don't hit it to me,' second thing I think is: 'Don't hit it to Saxie,' " Guerrero said.
After alarming the Phils and their fans with his two errant double-play throws, everyone was watching intently on Sunday night when Utley got his first chance to show it was business as usual.
With two outs in the fourth, the Phils coasting 6-0, Andre Ethier sent a weak ground ball to Utley's left. Utley made a sure-handed pickup, cocked his arm and threw a slider in the dirt at first baseman Ryan Howard. Howard dug the ball out, but many of the faux doctors in attendance felt they had confirmation for their diagnosis.
We're withholding judgment. After decades of fielding ground balls -- and making, what, a million throws? -- it's difficult to wrap your head around anything except coincidence, or maybe the intensity of the moment, to explain a star such as Utley falling off the map like that.
Then again, with precedents such as Sax and Knoblauch, who ever can be sure? Until the Citizens Bank Park volunteer medical staff gives everyone the "all clear" by not holding its collective breath every time the ball is hit in Utley's vicinity, we won't know for sure.
KEN.FIDLIN@SUNMEDIA.CA
