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This Manager Might Not be Anonymous for Long

Rob Thomson has quietly turned around the Phillies’ season. If he can end the franchise’s playoff drought, people might stop confusing him with other guys.

The Phillies went 40-20 in Rob Thomson’s first 60 games as manager.Credit...Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — Rob Thomson has spent 15 years in a major league uniform, but the letters never stop. Some fans still think he is Robby Thompson, an All-Star second baseman in the 1980s and 1990s, and they send him old baseball cards to autograph. Thomson mails them back, unsigned, if they come with a self-addressed stamped envelope.