PHILADELPHIA -- The Phillies thanked everybody from their former Little League organizations to their parents to their future father-in-law to God with the patches on their Players Weekend uniforms, which will be worn this weekend at Citizens Bank Park.
Phillies manager Pete Mackanin thanked somebody a little different, and somebody with Phillies ties.
Mackanin thanked Gene Mauch, who skippered Philadelphia from 1960-68. But that is not how Mackanin knows Mauch. He knows Mauch from his time managing the Expos from 1969-75 and the Twins from 1976-80. Mackanin played 130 games for the Expos in '75 and 108 games for the Twins in '80.
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"He just did a lot of things that impressed me," Mackanin said. "The way he handled players, the way he handled the game."
Mackanin then shared one incredible memory of Mauch.
"I hit a fly ball in Boston," Mackanin said, referring to his time with the Twins. "It was foul by 50 or 60 feet, but the wind was blowing to right field. I stood on home plate thinking it was going to be foul, and then all of a sudden it kept moving closer and closer to the Monster. And I said, 'I'm not going to run. If I run now it'll look bad.' And sure enough it hit the top of the Monster for a fair ball, and I got a single out of it. [Mauch] was [angry]. The wind was howling.

"We win the game, and after the game I said, 'What do I owe you Gene?' And he said, 'Whatever you put on my desk is fine with me when we get back home.' So I grabbed an envelope and put $50 -- you know this is back in 1980 -- so I put $50 in an envelope and I put it on his desk, went to go take batting practice, and then the bat boy says, 'Hey Pete, Gene wants to see you.' And I said, 'Aw, [shoot], I should have put more money in there.' We won and he was happy. So I come into his office and he's got his glasses on [wearing them low] and I saw Gene. 'What's up?' He had the envelope and he threw it at me. I pick it up and he said, 'Get out of here.' I picked it up, walked out and I go to my locker and there was my $50 and he put another $50 in it. Because I always played hard. I was one of those guys.
"So just little things like that. You know, he recognized that I played hard, but I [screwed] up. You want the players to play for you, and I really wanted to play for him. He kept telling me how good I was and I wasn't. But I said, 'Maybe I am. If he said I'm good I must be pretty good.' Little things like that."