Philadelphia Phillies: What video games? Where? When?!

The Phillies story about a former player smashing a TV last fall has led the team into an interesting round of spin and consideration of the manager’s style

By now, everyone has heard the story about the former Philadelphia Phillies first baseman, Carlos Santana, smashing a TV last September when he discovered teammates playing a video game in the team clubhouse while the Phillies were playing a baseball game…um, outside.

It’s easily googled.  ESPN.com broke the story. Santana felt his teammates were being unprofessional.

What’s more interesting is the reporting of Jake Arrieta’s remarks about that story.  Arrieta is, of course, still on the Phillies, a near consensus now to win the NL East, the World Series, and Oscars for Best Documentary and Best Picture, as soon as someone decides to shoot it.

So, what did Jake say? It’s a little hard to know, exactly, if one goes on even published quotes.

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Jeff Passan’s first report of the great TV smashing incident portrayed the veteran pitcher as upset about the notion of video games being played during games but quoted him as follows: “…it [game-playing during games] wasn’t a consistent theme. It may have happened once or twice. If I’d have known people were playing video games during the game, I’d have broken some s— too.”

Hmm. If you didn’t know about it, Jake, how do you know it only happened once or twice?

Also, Arrieta is quoted as questioning why Santana neglected to speak to him, another veteran leader, before breaking anything – that consultation “should’ve happened first.”

Hmm. Is this about you or Carlos, Jake, or the game players?

Later accounts of Arrieta’s reaction seemed to be a bit more pointedly suggesting the pitcher is essentially calling Santana a liar about clubhouse playtime sessions. NBCPhiladelphia.com quoted Arrieta in a discussion that apparently followed Passan’s story this way:

"“There is some untruth to the story, some things that were not portrayed correctly. I don’t believe that guys were playing video games during the game. That’s something that I would not allow and a majority of the guys on the team would not allow.”"

MSN.com reported this remark as well.

There seems to be a little “story drift” there, Jake.

The NBC Philly story also reported Arrieta contended that Santana’s action took place well after a game had concluded and after most Phillies had left the clubhouse.

Now mind you, both Passan and MSN reported Santana as saying, “I see a couple of players — I don’t want to say names — they play video games during the game,” MSN implicitly buying Passan’s accuracy.

So, what’s going on here?

First and foremost, while everybody on the Phillies is now saying there need to be new boundaries, accountability, leadership, and so forth in 2019, this is an enormously embarrassing story to have broken so close to Opening Day for Philadelphia. At some level, it doesn’t matter when Santana smashed the TV, or how many Fortnite games were played while a baseball game was going on.

No one is saying that Santana wasn’t upset about team focus, or that a TV wasn’t smashed.

And this brings us to Gabe Kapler, his rules last season, and his supposedly slightly tougher rules moving forward. Kapler and his managerial notions have consistently struck many Phillies fans as an odd duck and his odd ideas. Even those who credit Kapler with intelligence and an ability to correct course when needed – WIP sports talk host Jon Ritchie, for example – always end up having to concede Kapler’s manner and verbal habits are not “things” Phillies followers find endearing.

Among the highest profile notions fans have criticized is the idea players can police themselves. This strikes some as less a managerial style and more managerial neglect.

That managerial style now has a clearly documented moment of failure, necessitating a veteran pitcher’s best efforts to spin the events reported.

The broken TV story will fade. The scrutiny of Phillies fans of how the team is policing itself moving forward won’t blow away that quickly, though.

And the team’s make-up is worth noting here. The Phillies now have several veterans, accomplished players who apparently will be policing a number of younger players who have worn the Phillies uniform longer than they have.

Gabe Kapler may need a really great New Age idea for his 2019 clubhouse, no matter what anybody says.