‘The best dudes I’ve ever been around’: How the Phillies created a winning chemistry

This was early July, less than two weeks after Bryce Harper had three pins placed in his broken left thumb. The Phillies, minus their best player, arrived in St. Louis for a series that opened on a Friday, ran through the weekend, and wrapped up on Monday. Two day games sandwiched between two night games to begin a three-city road trip that led into the All-Star break.

What a perfect time, Kyle Schwarber thought, for some team bonding.

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Schwarber, whose leadership skills are second only to his home-run power, asked the Phillies’ travel staff to help reserve a ballroom in the hotel and spread the word through the clubhouse.

Come one, come all for a players-only karaoke night.

“It started out as one of those things where the rookies, we kind of make them do stuff throughout the year, and everybody kind of jumped in,” ace pitcher Zack Wheeler said. “No harm in singing a little karaoke. We had a blast.”

Said star catcher J.T. Realmuto: “It kind of helped us come together and jell as a group. Ever since then, we’ve just been having fun and having a good time together.”

Who was the Phillies’ karaoke king? We’ll get to that in a bit. But the point is this: For anyone who underplays or denies the role of chemistry in winning a pennant, these Phillies are living, breathing, singing-at-the-top-of-their-lungs proof that it is a difference-making factor.

And, sure, after four champagne-and-beer parties in 21 days, at the threshold of an unforeseen appearance in the World Series, it’s convenient to look at a team and say the players are closer than fraternity brothers. But there’s an accumulation of evidence to suggest it has been this way all season around here.

“I’m a massive believer in chemistry,” Schwarber said. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there’s been teams that have won a lot of baseball games that maybe weren’t as close as our team is. But if we believe in and love each other, it makes it that much more enjoyable to go out there and play for each other.

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“It might not have seemed all peaches and roses at the beginning. But the way the group was in that room every single day, everyone was confident, and we had each others’ backs through the whole thing.”

Schwarber said it began in spring training, with long days at the ballpark, positional and team-wide dinners, and golf outings. But seven weeks were compressed into about three in Clearwater, Fla., because of the owners’ lockout. And, although much of the core had been together awhile, there were enough new faces and young players to leave the team searching for its personality.

The Phillies also got off to a poor start. They lost 10 of the first 16 games and blew a seven-run lead in the ninth inning May 5 at home against the New York Mets. Joe Girardi’s contract wasn’t guaranteed beyond the season, and the walls began to feel like they were closing in on the then-manager after he stuck with middle reliever Nick Nelson in a walk-off 6-5 loss in Atlanta on May 24.

After collapsing down the stretch in four consecutive seasons, falling short of making the playoffs, and carrying the National League’s longest active postseason drought, the Phillies didn’t get the benefit of any doubt, even among their own fans.

But Schwarber could sense a camaraderie building. The Phillies began raising a postgame toast to players who starred in victories and ringing a faux Liberty Bell after each win. It may have taken the public almost an entire season to fall for the Phillies, but the players were growing closer.

Especially once bench coach Rob Thomson was elevated to replace Girardi on June 3.

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“He’s a special guy,” Wheeler said. “He cares about us. He is there every single day way earlier than we are, preparing for that day and days ahead. Anybody who has your back like that, we have his back.”

To wit: After a Father’s Day game in Washington, the players wore designer suits for a flight to Dallas, a nod to Thomson’s formal travel attire in honor of his late father, who once told him that big leaguers always should dress up to go on the road.

The Phillies bonded through adversity, including after Harper got drilled on the thumb by a wayward fastball on June 25 in San Diego.

“We all had to come together and figure out different ways to win,” Realmuto said. “I think that’s where we really jelled. We started going to more dinners. We had karaoke night. We just did a lot of fun stuff together to try to bring the team together, and we started playing better immediately.”

Schwarber often was the ringleader. He was a beacon of positivity, reassuring young players when they struggled and reminding everyone to have fun, even in tough times. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said he hasn’t encountered a better leader since Darren Daulton with the 1997 Florida Marlins.

It’s a testament to Schwarber’s good fortune that he has made the playoffs in all but one of his eight major-league seasons. But he also has been at the center of several close-knit teams. The Chicago Cubs had undeniable chemistry en route to their hex-breaking 2016 World Series title. The Boston Red Sox felt magic last year en route to the American League Championship Series.

You know “Dancing On My Own,” the Phillies’ postseason anthem? Schwarber brought it from Boston.

It takes time, Schwarber said, for a team to band together, and the nature of 162 games over six months forces baseball players to spend more time with one another than with their families. It can bring a team close. But it also can foster clubhouse cliques. And chemistry can’t be manufactured, according to Schwarber. It must happen organically, or it doesn’t work.

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But if there was a doubt about how much the Phillies liked each other, a season-ending 10-game road trip put that to rest. They got swept in Chicago, then sat through rain delays in Washington. They huddled around phones to watch the Milwaukee Brewers, the team they were trying to hold off for the final NL playoff spot.

The Phillies finally clinched Oct. 3 in Houston, and the trip turned into 18 nights on the road when they swept the Cardinals in a wild-card series in St. Louis and opened the best-of-five divisional round in Atlanta. All along, they talked about getting home for the first postseason games at Citizens Bank Park since 2011. It became their mission.

“We were already close when the season started, and I think as the year went on and we went through ups and downs, you get closer through that,” pitcher Aaron Nola said. “What really sealed the deal was when we went on that long road trip at the end of the year.”

Said Schwarber: “It kept building through the year. The more we got together, we did fun events. We went to team dinners, fantasy [football] drafts. The more time we spent together off the field and enjoyed each other, that was big for when we stepped out here.”

Which brings us back to karaoke night in St. Louis. Nelson, backup catcher Garrett Stubbs, and left-hander Ranger Suárez tied for first place, with Suárez taking the crown with a rendition of “Suavemente” by Elvis Crespo.

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It wouldn’t be the last time he’d close out a victory.

“Ranger won it all,” Nola said, laughing at the memory Saturday night after Suárez came out of the bullpen to record the last two outs of the NLCS. “It was fun. It was awesome. And not just that night, but the whole year, us being together, doing a lot of things together. It helps out, man. It’s just a great group of guys, the best dudes I’ve ever been around.”