Why I like “Clutch Jean”

Scrappy Jean Segura is my favorite Phillie. It was not a snap choose.

He’s not the power guy, he’s not the team leader, and he’s edging toward old age (for a player) but he gets high marks for addytude and ability to make contact with the ball.

He’s a better-than-average second baseman, he’s been with a few other teams and held the ugly record of being the longest active player without appearing in a playoff game.

That’s now history.

He speaks with a pleasant accent, reflecting his birth place, the Dominican Republic, which I have visited a few times.

There was a piece on the guy some call El Mambo, by my buddy Marcus Hayes, who explains why Segura will now be called “Clutch Jean,” thanks to teammate Kyle Schwarber.

Segura is clutch. He rises to the occasion, and after making a great fielding play, he’s nonchalant. He doesn’t take bows or seek the spotlight. He knows what it expected and does it.

I did like the quote that was highlighted in the Inquirer story.

It reminded me of the moment I was criticized by a Daily News colleague, a native of the Dominican Republic, for referring it to as “the Dominican.”

She told me it was racist.

What? I said incredulously. But how could I argue with her? And this was before “woke” emerged,

So it turns out that “the Dominican” was “racist” to her, but not to fellow Dominican Jean Segura.

So I can call it “the Dominican,” the “DR,” or the “Dominican Republic.”

While I pull for Clutch Jean. 

Let’s go, Phillies!