Phillips Is Getting Second Opportunity to Bat First

A year ago next Monday, Tony Phillips was caught by police in an Anaheim hotel room with $30 worth of rock cocaine and a crack pipe. He let down society. Society got over it. He let down his Angel teammates. They didn’t.

They were involved in a race for the American League West title when Phillips was arrested on Aug. 10, a race they probably wouldn’t have won anyway after subsequent injuries to Chuck Finley and Todd Greene. But the distractions created by Phillips’ bust, his suspension and the ensuing legal battle that enabled him to return to the field after 10 games guaranteed it.

No evidence was ever presented to indicate Phillips was a habitual drug user, which made the crime he committed against his teammates even harder to justify. If he had an addiction, like Steve Howe, then at least he would have deserved some sympathy. Not in this case. His act was stupid and irresponsible.

You want to know something else?

Phillips wouldn’t disagree with a word you’ve read so far.

“I did something very, very not smart,” he said while sitting at his locker in the New York Mets’ clubhouse a couple of hours before Sunday’s game at Shea Stadium against the Dodgers.

Phillips also knows he paid for his poor judgment.

“I got my . . . dragged through the dirt,” he said. “I exposed my family to pain they didn’t deserve. I put my teammates in a situation they didn’t deserve. I spent a night in jail. I was out of baseball for nine months. You’re damn right I was penalized.”

Now, 51 weeks after his arrest, Phillips is back in a playoff race. He signed as a free agent last month with the Toronto Blue Jays, who traded him within hours of Friday night’s trading deadline to the Mets.

“There was obviously a history there, and we looked into it ourselves,” Met General Manager Steve Phillips said. “He has lived up to every aspect of his after-care program.”

As ordered by the court after he pleaded guilty in November to one count of cocaine possession, Phillips, the player, has completed 32 hours of an anti-drug educational program.

If he remains clean--and we probably will know if he doesn’t because major league baseball requires him to submit to three urine tests a week--his felony drug violation will be expunged from his record in May.

The Mets were one of four teams that approached Phillips before this season, but their offer, like the other three, was for considerably less than the $2.2 million he earned last season with the Chicago White Sox and Angels.

He rejected them all, not because he needed more money, he said Sunday, but because he needed the respect that more money represents. It’s a fine distinction, but one that was important to him.

“I’m a 5-foot-8, 160-pound guy who’s been bad enough to play 16 years in the major leagues and win a World Series ring,” he said. “I made a mistake. No question about it. But I still have my dignity.”

Phillips, the general manager, called his playing namesake in Toronto after the trade.

“You’ll be adding something to our offense we haven’t had all year,” he said. “We really haven’t had a leadoff guy.”

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed that,” Phillips, the player, told him.

“You’re probably saying, ‘I told you so,’ ” the general manager said.

If circumstances had been different, Phillips would have been the lead-off hitter the Angels could use to help stave off Texas in the race for this season’s AL West title. Although he will turn 40 before next season, he said Sunday he had looked forward to signing a contract that would have allowed him to play two or three more seasons in Anaheim.

He said he knew that would be impossible as soon as Disney’s chairman, Michael Eisner, became the final arbiter in Phillips’ future with the Angels. Phillips listed the people within the organization who supported him: General Manager Bill Bavasi, then-assistant GM Tim Mead, Manager Terry Collins and, most important to him, his teammates.

“The guys I dress with every day for eight months, they know I’ll go to war with them,” he said. “I know I have their respect, and I know they would have been for giving me a second chance.

“But Eisner never even spoke to me after the incident. He’s Mr. Family Values at Disney, but he never once said, ‘How’s your family? How are you doing?’ His whole thing is just one big p.r. gig.”

Phillips was booed in his first game with the Mets on Saturday night, not because of his cocaine bust but because he went 0 for 4 and struck out twice. On Sunday, he doubled to lead off the Met first, scored two runs in their 9-3 win over the Dodgers and was cheered. “I can help this team,” he said. “I could have helped the Angels.”

Although his bitterness at Disney is understandable, the Angels were right to let him go because his behavior with them was unacceptable. Signing him to a new contract would have been the wrong message to send to their players and fans.

But baseball--the Blue Jays and now the Mets--were right to bring him back. He deserved that second chance.