Manuel Talked Amaro Into Promoting Domonic Brown
CITIZENS BANK PARK — First Ruben Amaro Jr. announced to the world that Domonic Brown is not ready to be recalled.
So what was Brown doing the next day, in uniform, in the clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park, hours before the Phillies were to take on the Texas Rangers?
“I changed my mind,” said Amaro.
It didn’t happen without some convincing from Charlie Manuel.
Shortly after Amaro delivered the news that Shane Victorino was headed to the disabled list with a gimpy hamstring, and that Brown would probably not be replacing him, the general manager and the field manager met in Manuel’s office. Just the two of them. And, according to Manuel, “there wasn’t a whole lot of back and forth.”
“We started talking about our team, and we decided it was a chance to improve our team,” Manuel said. “The more we talked about our plans to play him, the more we felt it was time to call him up.”
Does it sound like Charlie talked Ruben into it?
“There’s still a question as to whether he’s ready to play every day,” said Amaro. “But we liked Brownie over the other choices we had.”
Meanwhile, the young prospect was in beautiful Moosic, PA, where the IronPigs were to play the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees. Brown was having breakfast in the hotel at 9:30 Friday morning, when he was greeted by the sight of his manager, Ryne Sandberg, in his pajamas. Sandberg wasted little time in hunting the outfielder down to tell him he’d been called-up to the big leagues.
A big league call-up, and a chance to see a Hall of Famer in his pajamas, all in one shot.
Brown took a car service back to Allentown, packed some things, jumped in his car and headed south on the turnpike. He arrived at the ballpark around 2:15 Friday afternoon.
At the same time Brown was driving to the ballpark, his Father, Robert Walker, was flying to Philly from his home in Atlanta. The plan was for Robert to meet Dom in Scranton and catch a couple of his Triple-A games while the two spent some time together. The plan has now changed; Robert will be watching the Phillies play this weekend.
“He actually beat me here,” said Brown.
The young sensation may be here to stay.
“I hope so,” he said. “I’m just going to go out and work hard and see what happens.”
Initially though, he won’t be playing against lefties.
“He hasn’t had very much spring training, and he’s just back playing,” Manuel said. “It’ll be a good way to break him in. We’ll monitor him and hopefully he’ll do good enough that we can let him go.”
Amaro has wanted to bring Brown along gradually, so as not to stunt his development. His time with the big club last season, when he mostly rode the pine, may have done just that.
“That was a big adjustment for me, I was used to playing every day,” Brown admits. “Coming up here, and coming off the bench was really tough.”
Then he had his much documented troubles at the plate in winter ball, followed by the injury-plagued spring. But Brown says he’s now 100 percent physically, the hand is fine, and the recent thumb injury was never that serious. But Amaro proceeds with caution.
“He didn’t have as many reps as we would’ve liked,” Amaro said. “He’ll just have to do some developing here. Charlie’s good at breaking guys into the big leagues.”
He broke in Chase Utley. And Ryan Howard. And Jim Thome. Charlie didn’t play Thome against lefties at first, either. Brown knows his chances will come.
“I know I’ll get more playing time than I did last year,” he said.
But the fans, no doubt, want to see him in the lineup every night. With the Phillies’ offensive struggles reaching epic proportions, they perceive Brown as the knight in shining armor, riding to the rescue. The guy that writes out the lineup card doesn’t share that view.
“My expectation is for him to hold his own and just help us get better,” Manuel said.
By the way, the Rangers have a right-hander, Colby Lewis, scheduled to pitch tomorrow.
“It’s safe to say, he’ll be in there tomorrow,” Manuel said with a smile.
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