Rosenthal: Inside how the Phillies helped Alec Bohm turn a nightmare viral moment into a standing ov

Alec Bohm was walking up the tunnel from the Phillies’ dugout to the clubhouse when Kevin Gregg, the team’s vice president of baseball communications, stopped him.

“Hey, I’ve got to talk to you,” Gregg said.

Bohm gave Gregg a look of acknowledgment and kept walking. It had been quite a night, a whirlwind of emotions, especially for the fourth game of the season. Bohm had made three throwing errors at third base in the first 13 batters. But he also had drawn a leadoff walk in the eighth inning, igniting a rally that enabled the Phillies to overcome a 4-0 deficit and beat the Mets, 5-4.

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Oh yes, and there was something else.

Gregg was well aware of the crisis brewing, the comment Bohm made to shortstop Didi Gregorius in the second inning after Phillies fans gave him a mock cheer for fielding a ball cleanly. Ten or 15 years ago, the exchange might have gone unnoticed. Maybe the TV broadcast would have caught the comment. But social media was not the force it is today, capable of turning a moment of frustration in the heat of competition into an almost instant “thing.”

This was a “thing,” all right. “I hate this f—— place,” Bohm told Gregorius. He seemed to be referring to the ballpark, or at least the atmosphere in the ballpark, which, in classic Philly form, can turn from affectionate to belligerent with one misplay, one errant throw. But for all anyone knew, Bohm could have been talking about the city. Or the people in the city. About them.

Gregg followed Bohm to the player’s locker, prepared to confront the task at hand. A native of Philadelphia, the son of the late National League umpire Eric Gregg, Kevin Gregg started his career as an intern with the Phillies in 2003. His journey in media relations took him from the Philadelphia 76ers, back to the Phillies, on to the Boston Red Sox, then back to the Phillies again. He understood Philly. He knew how Bohm needed to respond.

As Bohm took off his spikes, Gregg popped the question.

“Have you seen the video?”

Bohm had not. Bohm had no idea.

Almost four decades ago, the most accomplished third baseman in Phillies history, Mike Schmidt, committed a much bigger faux pas than Bohm.

Phillies fans did not always appreciate the notoriously enigmatic Schmidt and vice versa. In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, he called them a “mob scene,” adding they were “uncontrollable” and “beyond help.” When the team returned home, he resorted to rare humor in an attempt to deflect the venomous reception certain to await him. He took the field in a shoulder-length crimson wig and Porsche sunglasses, at least somewhat alleviating the tension.

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By that point in late June 1985, Schmidt already had Hall of Fame credentials. He would go on to win his third MVP award the following season. Bohm, 25, is not nearly as established. The Phillies made him the third overall pick out of Wichita State in 2018, but his ability to handle third base long has been in question. Bobby Dickerson, the Phillies’ infield coach, describes the 6-foot-5, 218-pound Bohm as “a big old boy with a lot of limbs.”

The Phillies broke camp uncertain who their third baseman would be. Bryson Stott, the team’s first-round selection the year after Bohm, started at the position against the Athletics on Opening Day. Bohm got the nod in the second game, free-agent addition Johan Camargo in the third. On April 11, the first of three games against the Mets, manager Joe Girardi went back to Bohm.

The first error by Bohm came on the second play of the game. Starling Marte hit a comebacker Phillies pitcher Ranger Suárez deflected with his glove, and Bohm rushed an off-balance throw to first, trying, as Girardi would later say, to do too much. From there, things got worse. Bohm made his second and third throwing errors leading off the following two innings.

His night would get better — he started a double play on his only other fielding chance and reached base in all three of his plate appearances. But his performance renewed all of the old questions about his defense, and his remark to Gregorius created a separate firestorm before the final pitch was even thrown.

As Gregg counseled Bohm, he knew there was not much time. Major-league clubhouses open to reporters 10 minutes after the game is over. The Phillies’ beat writers, aware of what Bohm had said, first would attend Girardi’s news conference, then make a beeline for the third baseman’s locker.

Gregg told Bohm it would be best to address the matter immediately. He had barely finished the thought when three relative newcomers to the team — veterans Kyle Gibson, Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber — showed up at Bohm’s locker, along with Girardi before the start of his news conference.

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Word had spread quickly, as it often does in a baseball clubhouse. Bohm needed support.

Castellanos knew the feeling. Never a gifted defender, he had a three-error game at third base in a game the Tigers lost to the White Sox on April 28, 2017.

“Fans can’t relate to how lonely a feeling that is out on the field,” Castellanos said. “I’m not taking anything away from the fans. I’m just saying it’s a hard thing for them to emotionally relate to.”

Girardi, a major-league catcher from 1989 to 2003, knew the feeling, too.

“We’ve all been there,” Girardi said. “I’ve had passed balls that have lost games, two passed balls in a game. At that time, I hated everything about everything.”

Girardi and the players told Bohm the same thing Gregg did: Don’t run from what happened. Own it. Tell the truth. And don’t worry, we’ve got your back.

“We told him we all have a ton of confidence in him. Every player in here loves having him in the field. Every player in here knows how good of a player he is, and how good of a player he can be,” Gibson said.

“We were also making sure he had the confidence to talk to (reporters). He knew he was going to get asked about it. You have to plan for the questions you’re going to get. And we just told him to be honest. Tell everybody what happened, just walk ’em through it. Be confident in what you’re saying. Be clear. And be transparent.”

Gregg, standing nearby, appreciated the sincerity of Girardi and the players, but also grew concerned Bohm was hearing too many voices at once. Seeking to simplify the message, he began sending Bohm text messages, key points he might want to make to reporters. “Not telling me what to say,” Bohm recalled, “just kind of like a few pointers on how to handle it and how to address it without it lingering or escalating.”

Gregg told Suárez, the starting pitcher, that reporters would not need to speak to him. The victory was the biggest of the Phillies’ season to that point, and likely will remain one of their best regardless of where they finish. But the story was Bohm.

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The clubhouse doors opened. The reporters gathered at Bohm’s locker. And when veteran Phillies beat man Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia asked Bohm, “What about this video? Have you seen it?” Gregg almost could not believe the player’s response. Bohm not only delivered the points Gregg suggested, but also added to them.

“Yeah, I’ve heard,” Bohm said. “Look, emotions got the best of me. I said it. Do I mean it? No. It’s a frustrating night for me, obviously. I made a few mistakes in the field. Look, these people, these fans, they just want to win. I mean, you heard it. We come back, they’re great. I’m sorry for them. I don’t mean that. Emotions just got the best of me.”

“So you actually love this place?”

“Yeah,” Bohm said, smiling. “You know what? I do. Yeah.”

Matthew Hiltzik, the president/CEO of Hiltzik Strategies, is a professional communications and crisis manager whose clients have included Ryan Braun and Tony Parker in sports, Drake and Brad Pitt in entertainment, and former Napster and Facebook executive Sean Parker in the corporate world.

Hiltzik also is a New York-based baseball fan who understands the passion of those who root for Philadelphia teams. And yes, he was impressed by Bohm.

“His response had pretty much all of the ingredients for how to successfully handle an uncomfortable situation,” Hiltzik said. “Context is important. Last week, baseball had a lot of things going on of different degrees of importance and levels of crisis from the Mets-Cards bench-clearing incidents to the big news about the (Trevor) Bauer suspension. In the grand scheme of things, this doesn’t necessarily seem as important. But to the young player whose career trajectory can be impacted by this type of situation, it was to him and his team.”

Bohm’s disposition during his media availability was level-headed and measured, Hiltzik said. He acknowledged his mistake, but did not overdo it. He apologized to the fans in an authentic and sincere manner. At a different point of the interview, he praised his teammates for overcoming his errors. And his smile as he answered the question about loving Philadelphia only made him more relatable.

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Hiltzik also praised Girardi, who had told reporters in his postgame news conference, “I think it’s a kid that was frustrated. I don’t think the kid was referring to the city of Philadelphia, the fans. I think he was referring to the situation he was in. Put yourself in his shoes. That’s got to be a tough place.”

“Girardi did what you would hope a good leader would do — he provided cover to his player by contextualizing that this ‘place’ was more about the situation, a frame of mind the player was in,” Hiltzik said. “It was a really good snapshot of seeing a team looking out for a player, and a player having the presence of mind and the willingness to listen and the ability to own his mistake.”

In the immediate aftermath, Bohm was not sure whether his words would resonate with Phillies fans. Everything had happened so quickly, he was in a bit of a fog.

“The (TV) lights turned on, and it was just like, ‘whoa,’” Bohm said. “Part of me didn’t really remember what I said. Part of me was like, I think it did it right.”

When Bohm stepped to the plate the next night as a pinch hitter, he wasn’t sure what to expect. How could he have been? It isn’t every day a player says, “I hate this f—— place,” then faces the potential consequences in a public arena less than 24 hours later.

Who knew how fans would react to this kid from Omaha saying what he did? Who knew how many had heard or read his postgame comments? Who knew if they would accept his apology, or boo him out of town?

Bohm quickly got his answer, and it was a stunner.

Standing ovation.

“You walk out there and you’re like, ‘Oh, they’re cheering? And it’s getting louder? Wow. This is cool,’” Bohm said.

Longtime observers of the Philadelphia sports scene could not recall anything like it, fans rallying around a local professional athlete simply because he owned a mistake. Everyone with the Phillies knew the response could have been different — “if he had said, ‘I didn’t say that,’” Schwarber said, “it could have gone somewhere else.” But Bohm, with his heartfelt words, effectively salvaged his relationship with the fans.

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“I feel like the reaction he got is really what Philly is about,” Gibson said. “They want accountability. They want you to be responsible for when you struggle. But they also want to show you love when you’re playing really well.”

Which is the other part of the equation: In a performance-based industry, words go only so far.

Girardi declined to start Bohm at third for six straight games, prompting speculation that he had lost confidence in the player, same as last August. Bohm, though, did not waver. He had productive at-bats off the bench. He kept working on his defense. Girardi inserted him back in the lineup at third base on April 18 in Colorado, and Bohm has started every game at the position since, playing 113 innings without making an error.

Not that he has forgotten his nightmare against the Mets.

“It’s definitely something I’ll carry with me for a while,” Bohm said. “The learning experience. The game speeding up on you. How to take a deep breath and relax, just move on, not let things snowball.”

The snowball started, and then Bohm made it stop, both on and off the field. Fans ask a lot of players, but perhaps more than anything they want their sports heroes to be accountable, especially in demanding markets like Philadelphia. Gregg, Girardi and the Phillies veterans who advised Bohm understood the dynamic. Bohm, in only his third season, quickly grasped it, too.

“It’s easy to run away, try to make up an excuse and people will see right through it,” Schwarber said. “Be honest, and you know what? I think people will actually appreciate that.”

They did. They sure did.

(Top photo: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)

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