East Lyme – It might have been expected, given the recent accomplishment, that Todd Donovan walk around our corner of the world this week awash in the red of the Philadelphia Phillies, the champs of the National League.

But then there was Donovan one day this week sporting the maroon of East Lyme Little League, a fitting illustration of the family man still true to his family and town, just with the distinction of being part of the brains behind one of the two remaining baseball teams.

Donovan, among the favorite sons of the 06333 (and 06357), is a Special Assignment Scout for the Phils, all while remaining as the president of East Lyme Youth Basketball and fundraising for the town Little League.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Donovan was saying over coffee, “I have an interesting job. But I miss being home. I watch other people's children play more than I watch my own. That's tough. But my quality of life now that I've started working for the Phillies and taking on this particular job is much better. A lot of my fulfillment throughout the calendar year still comes from being home.”

This is year No. 23 for Donovan in professional baseball, his 12th as a scout, in Philly now after stops in Seattle, Tampa and Arizona. Donovan, ever the story teller, had several patrons at Muddy Waters eavesdropping as he wove tales about hiding in the woods to watch players, just so scouts from other teams wouldn’t see him.

Donovan’s work includes scouting young players, players who are out of options or may be released, taking inventory of every organization’s talent, watching specific players near the trading deadline and lately, advance work of potential Phillies opponents.

“I actually started scouting our own club for about 10 or 12 games,” Donovan said. “And that was strictly to make our major league staff aware of things that we thought they were doing, which could have given other teams a competitive advantage. Maybe a pitcher was tipping a pitch. Maybe a catcher was tipping a pickoff sign. Maybe an infielder was telling the outfielders what pitch was coming. And we saw it with their body movements or their language. We're kind of like private investigators.”

Donovan has since scouted the Mets, Yankees and Astros, looking for idiosyncrasies that are as subtle as they are fascinating. Put it this way: Next time you think you know baseball – truly know baseball – have a conversation with Donovan just to make sure.

And now he’s part of an organization that has become the game’s darlings, what with Kyle Schwarber sending baseballs to the moon and good guy manager Rob Thomson, the former Yankees’ Director of Player Development, always a gentleman when the Yanks’ Double-A affiliate was in Norwich.

“This is what I said to people about the Phillies,” Donovan was saying. “We had a good lineup. We signed Kyle Schwarber. He made our lineup better. So did Nick Castellanos. I knew we’d be able to hit in a short series. We have Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola. At the back end (of the bullpen), we have Jose Alvarado and Seranthony Dominguez.

“So the optimist in me said that in a short series we have two horses in the front, two horses in the back. We have guys that can hit and hit the ball over the fence. So I thought there was a chance that, yeah, we could be competitive and we could make a run.”

Making a run appears to be reflexive in Dave Dombrowski-run organizations. Dombrowski, the Phillies’ general manager (and Donovan’s boss) has won in Miami, Boston and Detroit, too. The irony here is that it’s no surprise that Dombrowski is winning again, even though the Phillies have been a surprise.

“When you bring in Dave Dombrowski, you're not playing for second place,” Donovan said. “Dave is a proven winner. He won in three other places. Once you bring him in, ownership has to say, ‘all right, let's kind of do this.’ I knew we were going to get aggressive at some point because Dave is in the big chair. Did I think it was going to happen overnight? No, but it did. And we got hot at the right time.”

The Phillies may also qualify as Everyman’s team. Sure, they include analytics. They’re just not obsessed by them.

“I guess I consider myself bilingual, where I speak baseball, and I can speak analytics,” Donovan said. “I use analytics when I may be a little bit on the fence about a player. If I see something and I feel something in my gut, and my eye tells me something, I'll drive that point home, even in cases where analytics may not back up.

“I would be foolish not to look at analytics. They do belong in the game. But we are probably one of the more balanced major league ballclubs right now. Dave Dombrowski has a professional scouting staff which is me and five other guys that he knows are baseball people. Our job is to write reports based on what we see, based on what we feel and based on our experiences.”

And then comes the offseason, where Donovan is a husband and a dad again. He was part of the coaching staff of the East Lyme 9-10 baseball team that played long into the summer.

“I love to be around the kids,” Donovan said. “It’s a good balance and really good to be home.”

Donovan said he’s not going to the first two World Series games in Houston, but will take the family to the middle three games in Philadelphia.

Looking for a reason to keep watching baseball? Some of the Phillies’ strategies and nuances come from the guy in East Lyme. How cool is that?

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro