Even if N.Y. takes Series, Chase Utley is MVP candidate

The Yankees bullied their way to the best record through 162 games, and they remain the favorite to win their 27th world championship at some point this week.

But interestingly, they might end up accomplishing both without a single MVP.

Twins catcher Joe Mauer should be a lock for regular-season honors, the bad back and idle April hardly stopping him from hitting .365 to secure just the third AL batting championship by a catcher (oh, he's responsible for one and two, too).

And now, on the eve of Game 6 -- the Yankees up, 3-2, entering a potential clincher in the House That $1.5 Billion Built -- let's ponder this interesting scenario:

The World Series Most Valuable Player might actually play for the losing team.

If this all ends tonight, Alex Rodriguez doesn't homer three times and Andy Pettitte doesn't throw a perfect game, then, frankly, Phillies second baseman Chase Utley should be the one accepting accolades, even if the ceremony has to take place in a somber locker room.

Utley has five home runs, a) tying a Series record it took Reggie Jackson six games to set in 1977, and b) matching the total of his teammates. His eight RBIs are two more than the Yankees' leader, Rodriguez. And he's also hitting .333.

More importantly, though, if not for Utley, 30, there'd be no game tonight and, thus, no chance at a game Thursday.

"Chase, when he gets hot, definitely he can get hot and stay hot for a month or two," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said after Monday's Game 5, an 8-6 victory built on Utley's three-run, tone-setting homer in the first inning and his important add-on shot in the seventh. "Knock on wood, hopefully he's sitting in there right now."

Rare honor

It's an intriguing debate, really. Can a player from a losing team be named MVP?

In short, yes. Because it has happened before in a championship series, just not very often -- in fact, only once each in Major League Baseball, the NFL and NBA, and five times in the NHL, which awards its MVP, the Conn Smythe Trophy, to the best player throughout the entire postseason, not just the final series.

The only time a losing World Series team had the MVP was 1960, when Bobby Richardson of the Yankees hit .367 with five extra-base hits and 12 RBIs. That was an understandable call in a series the Yankees lost in seven games despite, amazingly, outscoring the Pirates, 55-27.

Four of those Yankees had six or more RBIs, while no Pirate had more than five.

This year, of course, with Johnny Damon (.381) and Derek Jeter (.364), it won't be quite as easy to go against the grain and heap hardware on the heartbroken. Nor would it be easy for Bud Selig to explain that to the NYC fans, who, you'd better believe, aren't above sipping champagne one minute and flipping the bird the next.

Still, if the system is just, Utley deserves consideration, because while the Phillies might not win the World Series with him, they'd have had no prayer without him.

By the way, if Utley gets the nod -- it's probably a toss-up if the Phillies lose and a lock if they rally to win -- it'd mark only the second time a second baseman has won it in the 54 years the World Series has named an MVP.

The other: Richardson in 1960. Talk about second best.

Low-key hero

No sane player would rather have the MVP than the World Series trophy, of course. But told he could have 'em both, Utley probably still would only choose the ring.

He's a man of few words, and -- despite growing up in California, attending high school in Long Beach and playing collegiately at UCLA -- even less flash and style. World Series be damned, he's sporting a flat, matted 'do so unpretentious, it makes him look like a model for a how-to-properly-wear-a-hairnet placard. And one of his favorite restaurants apparently is P.F. Chang's. Why, we've got one of those in Dearborn!

"I used to say Kirby Puckett was my favorite player," Manuel said. "The only thing Kirby might have had on Chase was he was more flamboyant."

No, you won't see Utley pompously glaring into his own dugout after connecting for a clutch homer. You know, the way A-Rod so often does, as if he's saying, "See, I can do it," like he's a first-grader begging the teacher for just one more gold star.

You won't catch him picking the Phillies in five on Jay Leno's show (oops, Jimmy Rollins), or selling subs with Jared like Ryan Howard.

Nor will you hear him talking much about himself, let alone in the third person. Of the first five questions asked of Utley in Monday's postgame news conference, none of his answers was longer, in word count, than the question.

"Not my favorite part," Utley, typically good for 30 homers, 100 RBIs and an All-Star Game start a season, admitted of his media duties. "I'd rather just go out and play."

Simple enough, and for at least one more time in '09, he'll get to do just that tonight, all while a voting committee, made up of reporters and baseball officials, must start considering making a tough -- and potentially unpopular -- choice on Chase.

Imagine that

 Chase Utley could've been a Tiger.

 The Phillies star second baseman was drafted 15th overall in the 2000 draft, seven spots after a fella named Matt Wheatland, who Baseball-Reference.com tells us is a right-handed pitcher who made just 16 appearances in the Tigers' minor leagues.

 Meanwhile, Utley is a four-time All-Star, .295 career hitter and perennial MVP candidate who has topped 100 RBIs four times in the last five years.

 To be fair, 13 teams not run by Randy Smith passed on him, too. And as it turns out, Utley's ascent to stardom benefited the Tigers anyway. His first full season in the major leagues was '05, when he hit .291 with 28 homers and 105 RBIs. Certain by midseason he was no fluke, Philly made Placido Polanco available for trade, for the low-low price of a future convicted attempted murderer (Ugueth Urbina).

 Polanco, a free agent-to-be whose cost demands are likely to take him elsewhere this offseason, hit .311 in four-plus seasons with the Tigers, including .341 in '07.

Consolation prize

Only eight times in the four major professional sports has the finals Most Valuable Player -- or the playoffs MVP, as is the case with the Conn Smythe Trophy in the NHL -- been a player on the losing team. Here they are:

* Super Bowl for 1970 season; Note: All five NHL winners played for teams that lost in the Finals.

Elias says ...

Here are some notes Elias Sports Bureau produced about Chase Utley: