In December of 2021, Vance Worley received an unexpected email. He’d recently played parts of the minor league season with the Mets’ triple-A affiliate in Syracuse and heard from one of the organization’s scouts, Conor Brooks.
Brooks had ties to Britain’s national baseball team. The organization was interested in adding Worley to its roster ahead of the World Baseball Classic qualifier in Germany in September and told him that he was eligible to pitch.
As the former Phillie read the message, he started to laugh.
“I’m like, ‘How?’” he said. “‘Where is my lineage to Great Britain?’”
Worley had never been to England, Scotland, or Wales. Neither had anyone in his immediate family. But the team was able to find an unconventional loophole.
Worley’s mother, Shirley, was born in Hong Kong while it was under British rule. All Brooks needed was a birth certificate.
The right-handed pitcher called his parents. A few minutes later, he texted a screenshot of Shirley’s birth certificate to the scout.
By September, he was on a flight to Germany for a game against Spain. Great Britain won in a 10-9 walk-off, punching a ticket to the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
For Worley, the timing was perfect. The swingman made his big league debut with the Phillies in 2010. He earned a spot on the team’s roster in 2011, when he pitched to a 3.01 ERA across 131⅔ innings and finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting behind Craig Kimbrel and Freddie Freeman.
But he bounced around after that. The Phillies traded him to the Twins in 2012. Minnesota placed him on waivers in March 2014, and outrighted him to triple A once he cleared.
At this point, Worley says he was in a dark place. He texted former Phillies teammate John Mayberry Jr. and said he was ready to quit. Mayberry quickly convinced him otherwise.
“You play until they rip that damn jersey off your back,” the outfielder told his friend.
Worley has been pitching ever since. He’s now 38, teaching baseball lessons out of a gym in South Jersey. He hasn’t thrown an MLB inning in nine years, but that doesn’t faze him.
The right-handed pitcher loves the game and has found a home with Britain’s baseball federation. Since 2024, he’s worked on the side as a pitching coach for the under-23 national team. In March, he’ll suit up for the WBC in what his could be his last appearance on the mound.
“This program has given to me,” Worley said. “So I said, ‘I’m going to stick around. I’m going to help you guys out, and I’m going to coach with you guys. And as long as you let me play, I’m going to keep playing.’”
‘I’ve been called Grandpa’
Worley still remembers stepping into the visitors’ clubhouse at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on a hot July day. It was 2010, and he’d recently been called up by the Phillies.
The right-handed pitcher arrived early and watched as his new teammates filtered on and off the field. He was starstruck, especially when he saw Joe Blanton, a player Worley rooted for as an A’s fan growing up in Sacramento, Calif.
He decided to introduce himself.
“I was like, ‘Hey Joe, it’s nice to meet you,’” Worley recalled. “‘I remember watching you when I was in high school.’
“[Blanton] just goes, ‘God, I’m getting old.’”
Worley had a similar experience when he joined Great Britain in 2022. One of his new teammates was Nick Ward, a longtime minor league infielder who was born and raised in Kennett Square.
Ward was brought up on the Phillies teams of Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard. But he’d had a special affinity for “The Vanimal,” a pitcher who’d never thrown the hardest but was a fierce competitor.
Similar to how Worley was with Blanton, Ward was in awe. The righty looked the same as he did on TV, back when he was donning black-rimmed glasses and a Phiten necklace.
“It was like, ‘Holy crap. That’s Vance Worley,’” Ward said. “I had to pinch myself. It was just really cool that one of the guys that I loved to watch play was actually a super good dude.”
Just as it did with Blanton, this reaction made Worley feel a bit old. But he has embraced his role as the team’s elder statesman.
“I’ve been called Uncle,” Worley said. “I’ve been called Grandpa. And I’m just like, ‘Whatever man, your uncle and grandpa, think about them barbecues, out there playing Wiffle ball. I’d be punching you out right now. I see things you don’t know yet.’”
After he returned from Germany, Worley continued to throw. He used his day job, teaching baseball at Powerhouse Sports Arena in Sewell, Gloucester County, to help him stay in shape.
Once he arrived in Arizona for the WBC in 2023, he mentored the younger players around him. One was Harry Ford, Britain’s catcher, who was drafted by the Mariners in 2021 but has since been traded to the Nationals.
Worley asked his coaches if he could work with Ford one-on-one, and he started teaching the young backstop the minutiae: how to set up early, how to set up late, how to work quick.
He showed him different pitch shapes, how they moved, and the strategy behind calling a game. The veteran pitcher served as a pseudo player-coach for the entire team, giving them words of encouragement on the field and off.
For Ward, this instruction made a big impact. Like Worley, he’d bounced around a lot in the lead-up to the 2023 WBC. But unlike Worley, he’d never played a big league inning.
Great Britain’s first game was scheduled on March 11 against Team USA, a roster stacked with prominent major leaguers. Worley was scheduled to start, which, years removed from MLB, was a daunting feat.
He threw 2⅔ innings, allowing three hits and no runs with three walks and a strikeout. While Worley was on the mound, Ward made a few big defensive plays at first base. The right-handed pitcher made his appreciation known, giving Ward a fist-bump or a point or a smile.
“It was just like, ‘Wow, if this guy that I used to really look up to is doing that … I’m good enough,’” Ward said. “And it wasn’t just me that he was doing this to. He was making all of us feel like we belong here.”
Worley exited the game early due to pain in his elbow. Great Britain lost, 6-2, and when he picked up his bag to get onto the bus, he felt the pain again. He would need bone chip surgery (the third of his career).
Worley thought this would be the last time he’d step on a mound. He was despondent that his time in baseball would come to such an unceremonious end.
Before Great Britain’s game against Colombia on March 13, Ward noticed Worley standing alone on the top step of the dugout.
It was just before first pitch. The minor leaguer gave the big league veteran a hug.
“Thank you,” Ward told him. “I got to be your fan, first. Getting to share the field with you was one of the coolest moments that I could have ever dreamed about.”
A new chapter
Great Britain ended up defeating Colombia, 7-5, before falling to Mexico, 2-1, on March 14. Before they left Arizona, the players reminisced over what they’d done.
Worley reminded them that the British team wasn’t expected to be in the tournament in the first place. The players had come from all walks of life and had shown they deserved to be there.
“A lot of them were never in pro ball, or didn’t get an opportunity, or had an injury that shut them out,” Worley said. “And for them to be able to play in a big league stadium, playing big leaguers … I was like, ‘Hey, man, no matter what anybody says to you, you’re a big leaguer today.’”
The win over Colombia secured Great Britain’s berth for the 2026 tournament, which Ward and Worley will both be participating in.
Worley has gotten creative in his preparation. He’s integrated it into his day-to-day life, throwing in neighborhood sandlot games with his kids and also at the gym where he gives lessons.
He’ll report to camp in Arizona on Feb. 26. He has not officially retired and is unsure if this will be his last outing in a baseball game.
But the former Phillie is going to treat it that way, just in case.
“I’ve been through pretty much every situation as a player,” Worley said. “Trade, waive, claim, release, DFA. And I’m relentless. I’m not going to let something that should sidetrack me, or take me off the track, [prevent me from] being a baseball player, and what I enjoy.”
