Mike Lieberthal: Phillies Anchor

Former Phillies catcher Mike Lieberthal officially retired from baseball today. Without much fanfare, as one would expect for a 36-year-old backup catcher, but also as one would expect from a guy like Lieby.

During his 13 seasons in Philadelphia, Lieby didn’t really make waves. He wasn’t worshipped by the fans, but he wasn’t scorned by them either. He was a mild-mannered guy of average build who did not have good dancing skills, but who played solid baseball and anchored the Phillies squads through plenty of ups and downs and personnel changes.

Once Darren Daulton’s body was too worn down to catch, and the Benito Santiago plan was scrapped, Lieby was there behind the plate, day in and day out, at least when injuries didn’t get in the way.

He was not a spectacular hitter, but he was an important contributor—a number five or six in the lineup type of guy. Lieby’s best season was 1999, when he hit 31 home runs, had 96 runs batted in, and maintained a .300 batting average. He also had a fielding percentage of .997, won the Gold Glove, and was named to the All-Star team.

Defensively, he was a strong backstop, and he handled the pitching staff deftly. Think of all the terrible pitchers the Phillies had over the years. Poor Lieby had to deal with all of them. For every Curt Schilling or Brett Myers that he caught, there were dozens of Toby Borlands and Matt Beeches.

I personally enjoyed Lieby’s old school approach to his equipment. Even when it became trendy for catchers to resemble hockey goalies, Lieby never wavered from the backwards batting helmet—sans earflaps—and classic catcher’s mask.

When the Phillies decided to let Lieberthal go after the 2006 season, I felt strangely adrift. Lieby had been with the franchise for as long as I had been following the team. A Phillies roster without Mike Lieberthal just seemed odd to me.

After the Phillies made the playoffs in 2007, though, Lieberthal as Phillies anchor took on a new meaning. He was drafted by the organization in 1990 and made his debut in 1994, the year after the team’s miraculous trip to the World Series. While Lieby was on the roster, the team never made it to the postseason. In 2007, with him wearing Dodger blue, the Phillies won the N.L. East. It makes you wonder.

Yet in a way, it is also fitting that Lieberthal’s tenure spanned the period of the Phillies’ playoff drought. His career is symbolic of the team’s essence during that time. There were flashes of greatness, but not enough sustained brilliance to join the elite. There were low times, when poor play and injuries made the seasons forgettable. Not good enough to get over the hump, but showing enough potential to encourage hope.