Burrell to Retire a Phillie on May 19
Posted by Pat Gallen, Thu, April 12, 2012 01:10 PM | Comments: 16
News, Posts
Pat Burell will retire a Phillie. (AP)
From the Phillies:
Outfielder Pat Burrell will officially retire as a Phillie during the Boston Red Sox series at Citizens Bank Park in May.
The 35-year-old will sign a one-day minor league contract with the Phillies, thus officially retiring as a member of the organization that selected him as the very first player in the 1998 draft. He’ll be honored during pregame on Saturday, May 19, by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.
Burrell wore Phillies pinstripes for nine seasons and ranks fourth in club history in home runs (251), eighth in RBI (827) and ninth in extra-base hits (518). His Phillies career concluded with a World Championship in 2008. His last hit as a Phillie was a double that led to the winning run in the decisive Game 5.
He spent the last three seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays and San Francisco Giants, winning another World Series with the Giants in 2010.
– Hide the women and children – Pat the Bat is coming back on May 19.
Posts: 0 Mazinman
We had some up and down times with Pat but the two memoried that will stay with me forever about him will be that double in the World Series and how he shut up Wagner in 2007.
Very happy to see Pat the Bat come back to where he belongs for his retirement.
Posted: 01:28 PM on April 12, 2012
Posts: 0 alex
Pat Burrell should have never left.
Posted: 01:42 PM on April 12, 2012
Posts: 770 betasigmadeltashag
I still love the world series highlight film where JRoll is following Pat the Bat down the tunnel and saying “where is number five have you seen number five ” It is a great highlight and then he goes out and hits a double to basicly win the game. I did not live in Philly for the Pat Years, followed them from Vermont and a few games a year visiting family. I know my sister and niece were in love with the guy and I never did get the love hate, for him. Yea he was streaky and pulling his hips back as a ball went over the inside corner for a strike was annoying, But he was part of the begining of the changing atmosphere of the phillies locker room and solid RH protection for Chase and Ryan.
Posted: 01:52 PM on April 12, 2012
Posts: 2533 Chuck A.
Sad thing is, Chase Utley is only 2 years younger and probably has worse knees than Pat.
Posted: 02:06 PM on April 12, 2012
Posts: 0 Qneen
Still burns my butt that people cheered him and he a homerun when he came as a Giant!!!!! While I was at the park!!! and No I didn’t cheer……………but I figure it was the adrenaline to be home.!
Posted: 02:19 PM on April 12, 2012
Posts: 0 Scott
The real question is can we really afford to sign him being this close to the Luxury Tax?
Posted: 02:41 PM on April 12, 2012
Posts: 2533 Chuck A.
I’m taking this as a joke.
Posted: 04:20 PM on April 12, 2012
Posts: 0 Scott
Yea sorry. I guess sarcasm doesn’t translate well over the internet.
Posted: 04:28 PM on April 12, 2012
Posts: 442 Bruce
A very nice gesture by the Phillies management. I know it will be a great tribute and honor for Pat Burrell as fans and teammates alike will have the chance to express their thanks and love for him.
Posted: 11:07 PM on April 12, 2012
Posts: 0 Dave Lerch
I think he is the all time leader in called third strike outs with men in scoring position. Huge underachiever with a bad attitude. He facilitated Bowa being run out of town. His contributions are overstated. I think the team and the clubhouse got better the minute he left town.
Posted: 09:26 AM on April 13, 2012
Posts: 0 Jeff Dowder
Bowa didn’t get “run out of town”, he was just an awful manager.
Posted: 09:33 AM on April 13, 2012
Posts: 0 schmenkman
A lot of wild claims there. Fortunately some of them can be checked out:
overall stats: .253/.361/.472 (.834 OPS)
with RISP: .260/.381/.458 (.839 OPS)
So maybe he underachieved as a hitter. He had a decent career but wasn’t the star many thought he might turn out to be. This article is an interesting retrospective: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/was-pat-burrell-a-bust/
But he did just as well with RISP as he did in other situations.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=burrepa01&year=Career&t=b
Posted: 09:59 AM on April 13, 2012
Posts: 0 Adrian M.
I complained about Pat like a lot of us did while he was here (2002 and 2005 notwithstanding), but I’m glad he remained a Phillie for so many years and helped us get a ring. I’m sad I won’t get to see him on the 19th. I doubt my wife would react favorably to the arm and a leg I’d have to fork over on Stub Hub for tickets to that game.
Posted: 01:08 PM on April 13, 2012
Posts: 1053 Manny
So just to clarify, will he get any gameday action? I mean, they signed him on a one-year deal.. can he pinch-hit or something?
Posted: 02:22 PM on April 13, 2012
Posts: 1053 Manny
one-DAY*
Good lord…
Posted: 02:22 PM on April 13, 2012
Posts: 0 Around the NL East – Ozzie loves booze and Fidel, Hot David Wright gets hurt, Storen, Morse ailing, Pat the Bat retiring in Philly | Domains For Sale
[...] Pat Burrell will retire as a member of the Phillies – Phillies Nation You know, I get why it’s done, but I always think it’s kind of like cheating. The one-day contract, so they can officially retire as a member of such-and-such team. I thought it was a cop-out when guys like Emmitt Smith did it with the Cowboys after floundering out in Arizona, and kind of think it’s cheap that Burrell’s doing it with the Phillies. Although he’ll probably get cheered and standing O’d, but a part of me is curious to know how much booing he’ll get too; after all, he was quite the target for hometown ire towards the later days of his Phillies career. [...]
Posted: 06:52 PM on April 16, 2012