Phillies get the star treatment amid the World Series glare in Houston

HOUSTON — As the team bus wound its way through downtown Thursday morning en route to Minute Maid Park, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski chatted with a few players.

“You guys haven’t seen the World Series yet,” he said. “Wait until you get to the World Series. I mean, the [League Championship Series] is great. The World Series is different.”

And just in case any of the Phillies doubted that Dombrowski knew what he was talking about, that he wasn’t just making conversation or being folksy, consider what awaited them when they got into the ballpark on the eve of the 118th World Series against the Houston Astros.

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Start with the makeshift video studio in a hallway between the clubhouses, the flashing red strobe lights, and the team of camera operators from Fox Sports who yelled, “Ready, set, action,” as Phillies players posed with and moved about around the World Series trophy. And it wasn’t only Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, and other star players who were asked to participate.

“What do you want me to do here?” center fielder Brandon Marsh asked at one point during his video shoot, which preceded pitchers Ranger Suárez and Seranthony Domínguez having a faux tug-of-war with the trophy.

Soon after, the players migrated to the club level in the ballpark’s 200 level, where each sat at a designated table and took questions, not all about baseball, from reporters in a Super Bowl-style media day.

None of this came as a surprise to Dombrowski. This marks his fifth World Series (with his fourth organization) in an executive career that will almost certainly take him to the Hall of Fame. It was probably old hat to the Astros, too. Much of their roster was in the World Series last year. Houston has played in three of the last five World Series, with infielders Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and Yuli Gurriel appearing in all three.

But the Phillies? Save for Kyle Schwarber (2016 Cubs) and David Robertson (2009 Yankees), none of the players has experienced this previously. Before this year, few had even ever made the playoffs.

“It’s the big dance, right?” Rhys Hoskins said. “I mean, just look at this room. How many people are in here? Coverage from all over the world, probably. But where is there a better place to be right now? Usually, I’m probably booking a tee time somewhere. But I get to spend my day getting ready to have a workout on a field where we’re going to play the biggest series of our lives. It’s beautiful.”

And entirely unexpected.

The Phillies came to Houston on Oct. 3 and clinched a playoff spot — the last of three National League wild cards, a berth that didn’t even exist until this year — with a 3-0 victory behind 6⅔ scoreless innings from Aaron Nola. Two nights later, after finishing the season with an 87-75 record, they flew to St. Louis for the wild-card series.

Before they left, Harper knocked on Astros manager Dusty Baker’s office door. Harper played for Baker with the Washington Nationals in 2016-17 and wanted to catch up.

“I said, ‘I’ll be rooting for you if you guys are there and we’re not. But I hope we see you guys,’” Harper said. “And he said the same thing.”

And here they are.

“It’s pretty surreal, right?” third baseman Alec Bohm said. “It’s the last two teams. Everybody else is at home. All my buddies are working out, starting their offseason. We’re still playing for something. It’s fun.”

So, Marsh and the others struck a pose in their video shoots. The Phillies worked out while an MLB Network tent was assembled along the first-base line and fulfilled their media obligations.

“I’m just like, ‘Tell me what to do,’ because it’s my first time,” Marsh said. “It’s just talking, look into the camera. It was cool looking at the cameras after and seeing the unfinished product. It was pretty sick.”

Said Hoskins: “I’m not necessarily a natural in that setting, but for where we are and why we’re here, it’s easy to just kind of let loose and go with it. I’ll take direction. And I asked for it. I’ve never been here. But for the World Series, shoot, I’ll do it all day.”

There was a “full circle” feeling to all of this. Not only will the World Series bring Harper and Baker back together in the place where the regular season ended, but the Phillies also will have to contend in Game 1 with Astros ace Justin Verlander, who is favored to win his third career Cy Young Award. The 39-year-old right-hander made his debut as a 22-year-old with Dombrowski’s Detroit Tigers in 2005.

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“When did you start your career again?” Dombrowski said, interrupting Verlander’s news conference.

“He’s still wearing the same cologne, by the way,” Verlander said. “I smell it. It’s a very distinct one. I remember that smell.”

Nola will surely remember the feel of the mound at Minute Maid Park. Twenty-four nights after pitching the Phillies into the playoffs, he will start Game 1.

Maybe then it will feel like another baseball game. Probably not.

“We did video shoots like that in the LCS in San Diego, so it was pretty much the same thing,” Bohm said. “But then you start walking around the trophy, the World Series trophy, you’re like, ‘This isn’t normal. It’s different.’”

Just like Dombrowski told them it would be.

“This is all over the world now,” Dombrowski said. “It’s a different intensity level. It’s great.”