Utley Joins Phils Greats: 500/500
April 26, 2009
Travis J. Rodgers
It’s not stolen bases and home runs, but Chase Utley has joined a fairly select group of Philadelphia hitters by topping the 500 mark in both runs scored and runs batted in. On April 19th, a game after reaching 500 RBI, Utley hit a solo home run to reach 500 runs in his career. With two RBI Sunday against the Marlins, Utley moved to 504 runs and 508 RBI.
Utley is currently 35th in club history with 504 runs. The next few hitters are grouped together fairly closely, so even a so-so season should see him leapfrog eleven hitters, landing him in 24th place (he would need 557 to accomplish this feat). With 508 RBI, Utley is currently 28th on the career list for Phils, behind teammates Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins. Ahead of the trio of current Phils is Scott Rolen, with 559. Twenty three Phillies have reached this mileston before Utley.
The next stop, 600/600, is noticeably more select. Dick Allen, Johnny Callison, Granny Hamner, Willie Jones, Cy Williams, Greg Luzinski, Bobby Abreu, Pat Burrell, Sherry Magee, Sam Thompson, Chuck Klein, Del Ennis, Ed Dalahanty, and Mike Schmidt are the fourteen members of that club, although Jimmy Rollins is working his way there as well. Rollins has 852 runs scored and is stalled at 549 RBI.
