Utley On Track for Opening Day

Chase Utley spoke to the media for the first time today updating his progress for Opening Day.

"I think it's pretty realistic at this point," Utley said. "We've pushed it over
the past week and a half, two weeks that I've been down here, and it's responded
extremely well. We're not overdoing it yet, but we are putting it to a good
pace, and I think we are all pretty comfortable with it."

"I would say my chances right now -- I don't want to jinx myself -- are fair to
quite fair."

Utley also said he is experiencing no pain to this point.

"I am extremely eager to get out there," Utley said. "I always enjoy this time,
coming down to Spring Training and starting back again. But I realize there are
seven weeks to go, and that's a lot of time -- a lot of time to get some work
in. I'm not overly concerned at this point. I think we'll be OK. ... I'm a
fairly competitive person, so I definitely want to be out there on the field,
but I do understand that I'm not quite ready to take that step yet. But we are
making strides to get to that step."

Utley's former teammate, Bobby Abreu rooted on Chase and the Phillies during their playoff run. He even admitted to shedding tears after the Phillies won. When talking to Jimmy Rollins, it was hard to tell who was happier.

"I was rooting for them. I was screaming, 'Let's go!' at the television
whenever they made a great play or scored some runs," he said.

"I was crying in a happy way because I know how hard they worked for that
and how important it is to win the World Series. A lot of things were crossing
my mind."

QUOTE SOURCE: Phillies.com, Philly.com