Greg Dobbs was baseball’s best pinch hitter. He uses those same skills in ‘the big leagues of finance.’

His hand was stinging, but Greg Dobbs did not mind. He went undrafted six years earlier, signed for $30,000, spent four years in the minors, reached the majors, and then was waived by Seattle after playing sparingly over three seasons. Perhaps, Dobbs thought, that was it.

So imagine how Dobbs felt nine months later circling the bases at Shea Stadium, listening to the crowd deflate like a balloon after he delivered a pinch-hit grand slam with one of the most important swings in a wild month that is often credited for propelling the Phillies a year later to a World Series title.

A stinging hand? That was worth it.

“I will never forget the excitement of Pat Burrell greeting me at the edge of the dugout,” Dobbs said. “The look on his face of, ‘Oh, my God. Yes.’ He gave me the freaking biggest high five, the strongest high five. My hand swelled up, he hit me so hard.”

The Phillies became champions 15 years ago with a core of homegrown stars like Burrell, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, and Cole Hamels. They also leaned on guys like Dobbs, players who embraced their roles and found ways to contribute.

Dobbs seemed to be on his way out of the game before arriving in Philadelphia, where he molded himself into a premier pinch hitter. He mastered one of baseball’s most difficult jobs — coming off the bench in the late innings against a flame-throwing reliever — with a strong work ethic, an obsession with preparation, and a willingness to do whatever was needed to help his team.

That’s how he hit that slam in September 2007 as the Phillies sprinted into the playoffs by erasing the Mets’ seven-game lead with 17 games to play. It was the greatest hit of his career — “I’m getting goose bumps thinking about it,” Dobbs said last week — and it was the start of four seasons with the Phillies.

Instead of flaming out, Dobbs logged 11 seasons in the majors. The principles that helped him become a pinch hitter were what kept him in the game. And now he relies on them in his second career as a financial adviser.

Hamels’ retirement last month marked the end of the 2008 Phillies as active ballplayers. They’ve now all stepped away. While many found work in the game, Dobbs reports to a 36th floor office in Los Angeles. His job — working in wealth management for the financial firm UBS — has little to do with baseball. But his daily approach, Dobbs said, has everything to do with the game.

“The lessons I learned from baseball and being a good teammate, knowing what teamwork is, being selfless, wanting to help others,” Dobbs said. “I had to find ways to add value because I wasn’t that everyday guy. I was that complementary 24th, 25th guy. I was guaranteed a roster spot a handful of years. I had to find ways to add value other than on the field, between the lines.

“I’ve taken that and I’ve incorporated that into what I’m doing now with the team that I’m with. It’s been incredible. I look back and I’m like, ‘Who would’ve thought?’”

Dobbs retired in 2015 after playing the majority of his final four seasons with the Marlins, with whom he negotiated his last two contracts on his own without an agent. He rarely read the sports page as a player nor watched the highlight shows on MLB Network. Instead, Dobbs — who studied communications and business in college — delved into global economics and learned “how the world really works.”

After he retired, he considered becoming a sports agent or working in a front office before he decided to find something away from the game. He wanted a new challenge. Dobbs landed a finance job in Beverly Hills and then joined UBS — “the big leagues of finance,” he said — in 2018. Dobbs became licensed and passed tests such as the grueling Series 7 and Series 66 exams, studying the same way he prepared every day for the relievers he might face that night.

“I want these high-net worth and ultra high-net worth families that I sit across from to know and feel confident in me,” Dobbs said. “Ultimately, I didn’t think they would take me seriously. Did you really put in the work? Did you put in the time? Just like in baseball. Did I put the time in the cage? Did I grind away and work and stay later than most guys? Did I get there early? I took the same approach with this. I’m going to commit myself and I’m all in.”

He works with a team of 13, which reminds him of the big-league clubhouses he lived in every summer. Instead of spending his afternoon bouncing around the diamond so the utility player could field balls at every position, Dobbs spends his time digging into his clients’ finances and seeing how their wealth can grow. The game has changed but the player has not.

“We’re all trying to find a way to work together and pull from the same end of the rope,” Dobbs said, “Whether it’s to win a game or add tremendous value to a billionaire family.”

Pat Gillick, who was Seattle’s general manager when Dobbs was a Mariners minor leaguer, called Dobbs after he landed on waivers. Gillick had recently been hired to run the Phillies and he had a place for Dobbs.

“Listen, that’s all you can ask for as a player,” Dobbs said. “Just give me the opportunity and allow me to do the rest because I will do the rest. I’ll do what it takes. I’m incredibly grateful.”

Dobbs had an excellent spring training, claimed one of the final spots on the roster, and quickly became one of Charlie Manuel’s trusted bench players. He led the Phils in 2007 with 14 pinch hits and led the majors in 2008 with 22. Dobbs learned his approach by studying Dave Hansen, his teammate in Seattle who made a career as a pinch hitter.

He taught Dobbs how to prepare each afternoon, how to stay engaged with the game while watching on the bench, and how to anticipate when you’ll be used so you’re ready when the manager calls your name. All of that helped Dobbs become valuable for a Phillies team trying to get to October.

“You can’t prepare for every single thing,” Dobbs said. “But you can try.”

The Phillies won the first two games that weekend at Shea as they began to chip away at the first-place Mets. Dobbs was out of the lineup for Sunday’s series finale. But he was ready, watching from the dugout, and anticipating his chance.

“You almost had to become a manager of sorts or a bench coach of sorts,” Dobbs said. “And play through not only what’s happening in real time but also, ‘If this happens or this happens, what’s the corresponding move? Not only for us as a team, but also what might the other team do?’”

And here it was. It was the sixth inning of a tie game and the Mets were already using their second reliever, who started the frame by loading the bases without an out. Jorge Sosa, a right-hander, was warming up in the bullpen. It was time for the left-handed Dobbs to get ready, too.

He stretched in the tunnel, took a few swings in the cage, and read the notes he compiled about the Mets bullpen. He was prepared for everyone, especially Sosa, whom he played with in Seattle.

“I know Sosa better than anyone,” Dobbs said. “I played behind him. I watched him pitch. I know what he has. I get the nod. ‘Hey Dobber, you’re pinch-hitting.’ I’ll never forget it.”

Dobbs knew Sosa occasionally threw a slider that tended to hang in the top of the strike zone. That was the pitch he wanted to drive to the outfield and bring home a few runs. Dobbs got the pitch and he crushed it.

“Hitting that ball and watching it sail over the fence in right field,” Dobbs said, “it was an incredible moment. You never know in the moment how important those moments may be and how pivotal they may be.”

The Phillies finished the sweep that afternoon, won nine of their next 13 games, and clinched the division on the final day of the season. Finally, the Phils were headed to the postseason thanks to a big swing from a future financial adviser who attacks each day like the pinch-hitting sage he once was: Work hard, be prepared, prove you belong. A year later, the Phils were champions.

“2007 made believers out of all us and believers in one another,” Dobbs said. “It’s one thing to want it. It’s another thing to do it and accomplish it in the manner we did in ‘07, making up that massive deficit in September. We proved it to ourselves. We believed it in that clubhouse every day. Anyone who showed any doubt in that belief was called out. That’s truly when we became the team.

“It’s no different in my team now in finance. There’s such a strong belief in who we are, what we stand for, how we’re succeeding at a high level when the stakes are massively high. It’s no different than that 2008 team and the belief we had in one another. Whatever you throw at us, whatever challenges are brought, whatever small mountain or big mountain we have to climb, whatever lake we have to cross, we’re going to cross it. We’re going to overcome it.”