LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – At age 35 and after 15 major league seasons, Brandon Phillips never would’ve imagined he’d have two teammates older than he is. And not just older, but older by seven and almost nine years.
But he does after he was traded to the Braves on Sunday, who have pitchers R.A. Dickey, 42, and Bartolo Colon, who turns 44 in May.
“I’m used to being the veteran,” Phillips said, smiling. “Colon been around for a long time.”
Long enough for Colon to have been a sixth-year veteran in 2002 when he was traded to Montreal along with Tim Drew in exchange for Lee Stevens and three Expos prospects: Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore and a kid from Stone Mountain, Brandon Phillips.
“I think we (he and Colon) are the last guys left in the majors who played for the Expos,” said Phillips, who didn’t actually play for Montreal, but was in Triple-A at the time of that deal and made his major league debut late that season for Cleveland.
“It’s crazy to be on the same team with the guy I got traded for,” said Phillips, who also has an interesting connection to the other Braves’ graybeard pitcher. “I was R.A. Dickey’s batboy — a lot of people didn’t know that. I was a batboy in the Olympics in 1996.”
Phillips was a Redan High School student when he worked at those Atlanta Olympics and served as batboy during the baseball competition at the Braves' then-home, Atlanta Fulton County Stadium (they moved to Turner Field the following year). Dickey had just been drafted in the first round by the Texas Rangers out of the University of Tennessee.
Phillips also revealed Friday a connection of sorts to another older Braves newcomer, third-base coach and infield instructor Ron Washington, 64, the former Texas Rangers manager.
“My mom is a fan of his, when he was with Texas and he had all the energy in the dugout,” said Phillips, who saw that up close Friday when Washington worked with him one-on-one during several defensive drills. “He’s the energy. He had me going, with all the things he was saying about me that I didn’t know about. It’s just crazy, him and me talking. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Going to be a lot of energy. And hopefully go out there and make Atlanta proud.”
