For the first time in his 12-year professional career, Pat Burrell faced off against the Philadelphia Phillies - the second team that drafted him and the only one he has been with until this season.Burrell finally won over the fans last year as he became the quiet, venerable leader of the World Champions. He could have used that stock to bash ownership for not bringing him back, but he was all class yesterday:
"From the beginning, I have nothing but good things to say about the organization, the way I was treated," Burrell said. "I've known Ruben a long time, and he was very upfront with me. It wasn't a situation where I felt mistreated. He did mention that he wanted to change things up, and hey, sometimes you need that."
He even brought along Elvis, Christine's favorite World Series-winning bulldog, for a visit. And, although we knew Pat would be reunited with his former mates during spring training, the on-deck series in Philadelphia and a regular-season series in Tampa, we learned yesterday that Burrell plans to attend the ring ceremony on April 8 when the Phillies play a day game and the Rays play in Boston at night.
In true SoxandPhils spirit, we can hope that Pat eats a bad cheese steak before hopping on his plane to Boston. {I have no idea what he's talking about. I hope Pat the Bat hits a game-winning home run off Jonathan Papelbon.}
And in non-SoxandPhils fashion, the Phillies seem to have finally given up waiting for Nomar Garciaparra.
[Photo credit: TampaBay.com]
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