Pat Burrell: The Legend of Pat the Bat

Posted on August 13, 2010

Pat Burrell #9 of the San Francisco Giants hits a home run against the Chicago Cubs during the game at AT&T Park on August 12, 2010 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

Sometimes over the course of a long baseball season a surprising player will come out of nowhere to help a ballclub make a run for the pennant. Quite often the team that breaks spring training camp is not the same team that takes the field in August, and that is so true for the 2010 edition of the San Francisco Giants. This season the Giants claimed aging slugger Pat Burrell off the scrap heap on May 29 by singing him to a free agent contract. Burrell’s former team, the Tampa Bay Rays, released him ten days earlier. After signing a $16 million contract with the Rays in 2009 Burrell was deemed a failure in Tampa Bay and cut loose. The Giants had nothing to lose. They needed a big bat to add some pop to their meager offensive attack. Little did they know there were not getting an over-the-hill has been. They were getting Pat the Bat!

Ever since Burrell joined the Giants ballclub he has been a steady right-handed power bat in their lineup getting many clutch hits and winning many games with late-inning sacrifice flies and home runs. His recent numbers in August have been off-the-charts, especially when you factor in his game-wining home run against the Cubs on Wednesday night, and his two bombs in yesterday afternoon’s contest against the Cubbies, including a grand slam that sent the sell-out crowd at AT&T Park into a wild frenzy. Burrell’s recent heroics have vaulted him into Giants lore and made him an instant fan-favorite, loved by both men and women alike.

My Facebook news feeds have been going crazy lately with fans showing their love for number 9. After yesterday’s grand slam my friend Ken Welch posted this as his status update: “Ladies and gentlemen, the NEW mayor of San Francisco – PAT the BAT!!!!!!!!!!!”

After his gaming winning homer on Wednesday night I updated my Facebook status with the simple phrase: “Pat the Bat!” This got quite the reaction from many of my friends who followed up with comments like this from San Diego Padres fan Matt Ginella: “I DON’T like this.” Later my friend Kelly Connell said “Pat is HOT! My personal favorite.” I later posted a picture of Burrell on Connell’s wall, under which she wrote: “Brad you just made my day!! I like to call him Patty Cakes.”

The last time I remember an aging veteran coming to life late in the summer like Burrell to lead the Giants into the thick of the National League West division race was when Reggie Smith joined the club in 1982 (see above). During the magical Ron Pruitt super blooper season (called ever so dramatically on KNBR radio by Hank Greenwald in late September of 1982) Reggie socked 18 homers and knocked in 56 runs, playing in his last big league season. Reggie had many big hits for the Giants that season and helped lead them to an exciting 10-game winning streak in August.

Following Burrell and the Giants the past few weeks has been very exciting. My good friend Mike Wolcott and I have a funny game going where we text each other “Pat the Bat!” every time he does something big. The other night it got a little out of control as he did so many good things we seemed to be texting each other all night. When Burrell hit an 8th inning homer to beat the Cubs on Wednesday night I started to feverishly move my big fingers over the tiny keypad of my Motorola cell phone to text “Pat the Bat!” to Wolcott. Amazingly he beat me to it, and by a very wide margin. I wondered how he was able to text me so fast. He later told me, “I had “Pat the Bat” already typed in just in case he did something. As soon as he homered I hit the send button!

Tonight the second place Giants host the first place Padres in the first of three big weekend games in San Francisco. I will be a fan tonight with Wolcott and some other good Giants fans. I will be shooting the games on Saturday and Sunday. If you are at the game tonight and hear a “PAT – THE – BAT!” chant start in section 108 you will know it is us.