Feb. 13 -- LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON?

BY SCOTT LAUBER

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- John Mayberry Jr. was born in 1983, one year after his father retired. But he still knows all about his dad's 15-year major-league career.

How?

"I have pretty much every John Mayberry baseball card that exists," Junior said yesterday. "I started looking at the backs of them and reading the stats, and that puts it in perspective. Guys in his day weren't hitting 50-60 home runs. Guys led the league with 35. To see that he's a guy who hit 30 home runs a year, correlate that to today, he's hitting 40-50 a year."

The elder Mayberry finished with 255 career home runs, topping the 20-homer mark five times and the 30-homer mark twice. In fact, when Ryan Howard was in Double-A, I remember talking to several Eastern League scouts who compared him to Mayberry. Charlie Manuel made that same comparison early in Howard's career. (I called Mayberry at his Kansas City home yesterday, by the way, and he couldn't be more flattered by that comparison.)

Point is, Mayberry had serious power. But his career may not have gotten off the ground if Houston hadn't traded him to Kansas City before the 1972 season, and his son, John Jr., is hoping the November trade from Texas to the Phillies will help launch his career, too. Nobody knows if Junior, 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, ever will harness his raw power. But I'm looking forward to watching him hit this spring.

***
A year ago, I did a long one-on-one interview with Pat Gillick for a profile that appeared in The News Journal. We touched on a variety of subjects, and somehow (I can't recall how or why), we got to talking about Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS when then-12-year-old Jeffrey Maier reached over the right-field fence and deflected Derek Jeter's ball into the stands. Despite the Orioles' protests, Rich Garcia mistakenly called it a home run, the Yankees won the game (and ultimately the series), and the entire play went down in infamy. Gillick was the Orioles' GM back then, and as I found out last year, he still gets a little twitchy when you mention Maier's name.

Anyway, I thought about that yesterday while he was talking to a few of us writers. Gillick, as much as anyone, understands the role that serendipity plays in winning a championship. And although he believes the Phillies can repeat (of course he does), he also knows they'll need a little good fortune. I wasn't able to squeeze this into my story in today's paper, but it's still worth a mention here.

"We had a lot of luck last year," he said. "He didn't do much, but remember [Chris] Snelling had a big home run and a big double. He had two hits. Milwaukee had to use [CC] Sabathia on Sunday to get into the wild card. Tampa Bay had to use [Matt] Garza in the last game [of the ALCS] to beat Boston. A lot of stars lined up pretty good for us. [Matt] Stairs' home run [in Game 4 against the Dodgers]. [Brett] Myers fouling off all those pitches [against Sabathia]. Huh?"

As usual, Gillick is right. The Phillies were good last year (still are). But they also were lucky, and that can't be underestimated.

***
On tap today: We'll hear from Howard, who will make his first public comments since signing that three-year, $54 million contract extension last week. Also, we'll keep an eye out for Adam Eaton. Should be interesting when he arrives. So, please check back here throughout the day for updates.

(Updated, 9:44 a.m.): Eaton has checked in. We'll try to get you comment from him in a bit. Brett Myers also is here, looking positively svelte. And Howard has arrived, also looking fit and trim. He's expected to speak to us after his workout. J.C. Romero stopped by, and he's expected to talk to reporters tomorrow morning.