Forgot About Dorn Cuz He's Only High Priced

Recently, Pat Burrell signed a contract with the Tampa Bay (not Devil) Rays. It ended his eight year career with the Philadelphia Phillies. A career that began in 2000, when he was called up to play first base. He was drafted first overall by the Phillies in 1998, after Major League Baseball gave the Phillies a mulligan following the J. D. Drew debacle. A college standout at the University of Miami (aka Tha U), a first overall pick and organizational embarrassment a year before made it clear Pat "the Bat" was not going to have the easiest of rides in Philly.

After his third and breakout season, Burrell signed a lucrative contract with the Phillies and followed up the contract with a down year. OOPS! That added to fuel to the always forgiving Philly fan base fire. A fan base that was cranky (even for Philadelphia) because:

-The most recent Phillies postseason memory was a ball sailing into the Toronto night off the bat of Joe Carter in 1993, and;











-Thereafter, the Phillies....sucked.


That sucking continued through the early part of this decade. Pat Burrell was booed by the fans, and hammered by columnists. He played second Philadelphia fiddle to a number of "next big things" in Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Cole Hamels. All of whom were revered upon arrival. Rightfully so. He endured the wrath of former Phillies coach Dallas Green who said Burrell needed to decide if was more interested in "chasing broads" or playing baseball.

Of course he was teamates with Billy Wagner, who did not leave Philadelphia on the best of terms. Wagner had bad things to say about the Phillies generally and Pat Burrell specifically on his way out the door. Apparently, Wagner had some trouble with Burrell's nickname, referring to Burrell as a "rat." Wagner continued to lob insults at Burrell from New York after he left Philadelphia. I imagine this was directed at Billy Wagner:









Through all of this, Burrell played most evey game, battling wrist and knee injuries. He hit over 20 home runs in all but his rookie season. He drove in over 85 runs in all but two seasons. That includes the seasons he hit behind both Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, huge run producers in their own right. Burrell never complained. He never blamed the media, fans, Billy Wagner or anyone else when things were bad. He showed up, heard the boos, battled the pain and swung the bat. His defense left a lot to be desired. But he played hard. He had huge hits in the 2008 World Series Championship run. Multiple home runs in the clincher against Milwaukee. The game winning home run in Game 1 against the Dodgers. And it was he who doubled in the World Series clincher. Eric Bruntlett came in to pinch run, and scored what was the World Series clinching run.

Turns he was more concerned with playing baseball. It would have been easy for him to sit in a corner and complain, demand a trade, holdout or employ one of the many other current methods to be a general pain in an organization's rear. But he quietly went about his business through pain, boos and whatever else the Phillie Phaithful wanted to throw at him. (Literally!) He was, very quietly, a credit to his team and to the game of baseball. He left with nothing but positive to say about the organization and city. He left with class and dignity, and most importantly, a champion.














Congratulations and Best of luck in Tampa, Pat.

Day One

Why did I start this thing? I really have no good explanation beyond total boredom one evening. That and I find that I have the ability to quite the gasbag when I get going on a lot of topics. Peering into the future, I see the posts containing quite a bit about sports, since I will probably use this as an escape from the day to day grind I often find myself in. I will leave personal items off, for the most part. The people with whom I like to share those items already know my innermost thoughts and feelings. They are all in intensive psychological therapy because of it.

A few quick hitters to start off on this 15th day of January, 2009:

A plane "landed" in the Hudson River after colliding with a bird. Thankfully, at last report, no major injuries or casualties. (I guess I should check on that, but then again, blogging isn't real journalism.) Does it give anyone else pause that a giant airplane can be derailed so easily?

The Sabres (likely to be a recurring topic) will make the playoffs. They will not win the Stanley Cup. After a year and a half of inconsistent efforts and results, it is clear they are flawed team. It will take more than a few tweaks to make them a contender.

The Phillies (another recurring topic) are not a flawed team. Contact hitters, power hitters, speed on the basepaths, solid starters and money bullpen. Am I predicting them to repeat? No. What use is a baseball prediction in January? They have drafted well and the core is a group of players all in their primes at the same time. They can contend for another two years at least.

Enough whining about college football needing a playoff system. As the NFL has demonstrated, playoffs are just as inexact a predictor of a champion as the computer wizardry and voting involved in the BCS beauty contest.

I will conclude with a bit of a vocabulary lesson for anyone who may read this on a regular basis. These are words I often use. Most of them have pretty self-explanatory meanings.

GASBAG: A reference to a person, often of some stature (athlete, coach, politician, celebrity), who runs their mouth for no good reason. Synonym: BLOWHARD. In a sentence: In the first 24 episode this season, Kurtwood Smith (aka Red Forman) did an excellent job portraying the typical Congressional GASBAG in the opening scene.

DUMPSTER FIRE: An absolute disaster. Synonyms: GREASE FIRE, TIRE FIRE, TRAIN WRECK. In a sentence": At the end of both the 2007 and 2008 baseball seasons, the New York Mets were a complete DUMPSTER FIRE.

UNSPEAKABLY......: A modifier to highlight how extremely good or bad something is. In a sentence: The 2008 Detriot Lions were UNSPEAKABLY bad.

Finally, I am a huge fan of awkward and/or uncomfortable moments. The most recent example was a few a weeks ago when the living former and current Presidents met in the Oval Office. I got a huge kick out of the way all of them kept their distance from Jimmy Carter, as though he was a leper. Every attempt he made to get closer to the others in photo ops was, to me, hilarious as they moved away. In fact, UNSPEAKABLY hilarious.