Phillies’ Pat Burrell turning jeers into cheers

PHILADELPHIA - There is a guy who sits 12 rows back in the leftfield bleachers who has, during the years, embraced Pat Burrell like a brother, kicked him around like a dog, and now loves him like an old army buddy again. Anyone who has sat back there on Sunday afternoons has heard him, has laughed with him and now, laughs at him.

Because he is us. In a nutshell. And we are, in this town, very much like the stuff inside those nutshells. We love our stars here, we hate our stars here, we argue the degrees of their worthiness and we are as nutty about it as that green thing that dances atop the dugout.

That said, there has never been a player like Pat Burrell in this town. No one has been loved, loathed and loved again the way he has, at least while wearing a hometown uniform the entire time.

And so there they were again Thursday night, as Burrell trotted to his spot after his sixth-inning laser of a home run into those very seats provided the winning run in the Phillies’ 3-2 victory over the Dodgers in Game 1. Some were cheering. Some were downright worshipping. The guy 12 rows back was probably doing what he always does, cracking funny.

"You see that?" asked Jimmy Rollins, laughing. "They’ve been doing that for a while. They get the Pat Burrell standing ovation going every time he does something spectacular. But at the same time when he isn’t doing something spectacular, I turn around. Because some of the things they say make me laugh."

"And he’s just sitting there putting his hands up like, ’What can I do?’ "

Here’s what Burrell didn’t do. He didn’t demand a trade. He didn’t lash out at the fans, call us names back, names like "front-runners." He never spoke obscenely about our relationships with cousins and siblings. Recalling his famous blow-off of manager Larry Bowa after that home run at Shea, it was funny to see the two men shake hands and embrace before Thursday night’s game.

Columnist Bill Conlin, sitting to my right, said Del Ennis was loved and hated before he was dealt to St. Louis, and that Dick Allen went love-hate, love-hate in his two stints here. There have been many others who have started out loved and ended up hated, and there have been many, many, many who were shipped out once it got ugly.

See Scott Rolen.

Largely because of that big contract he signed after Rolen’s exit, Burrell has hung around long enough to change our minds. And maybe his mind warmed to us a little, too. For the second playoff game in a row, he did something else that he didn’t used to do. He let us in, he let us share his joy, he seemed genuinely appreciative of the towel-waving love that cascaded down from the 45,839 at Citizens Bank Park.

Real emotion poured from him in the Milwaukee clubhouse the other day, and you could see the glee as he rolled past third base Thursday night.
"I don’t know if I feel it with him but I’m definitely happy for him," Rollins said. "It’s a situation where he’s going to have to do that. And he knows that."

Said Burrell: "These games get so magnified. One at-bat can change things."

The Phillies will face an interesting decision in the offseason. That, in itself, is remarkable, as remarkable as the fans’ turnaround, and not unrelated to it. But it starts with the bat, starts with a poise that has been forged through some tough times here. It would be amazing to think, really, that he could play in this uniform his whole career.

"He’s showing that he’s a big-time player," Rollins said. "And that always helps when teams are deciding whether to bring you back. How are you at crunch time."

Yeah, well, it’s more than that. There is talk that the Dodgers will let Manny Ramirez [stats] walk after this season, rather than risk the deterioration of popularity he underwent in Boston and Cleveland before that. There was once that sense with Pat Burrell, too, and not too long ago.

But to watch the towel-wavers out there Thursday night, he’s reversed that dynamic in a way that some famous homegrown stars never could.
Charles Barkley walked. A.I., too. This? This is something we’ve never seen in this town before. And thankfully, it’s denting our reputation as unforgiving souls.

(bostonherald.com)