If you've ever searched the web for photos of the Phillies, you've probably, much to your utter dismay, come across this photo:
[below the jump, not for the faint of heart]
The picture is all over myspace.com profiles, blogs with female authors, and pasted inside the locker doors of high school boys into bodybuilding and homoerotica. It's disturbing.
But when word came out that Burrell's teammates on the Phillies thought it would be funny to put the picture on a t-shirt asking the question, "Pat Burrell, man or machine?", you had to laugh (word is Chase Utley spearheaded the effort). This is what friends do, they make fun of each other. Everyone is amused and then in a matter of minutes, someone else is probably the butt of more good-natured ribbing. As a fan of the team, it makes you only like this likable team even more, knowing that they are having fun.
As the 2007 season wore on and the Phillies inched closer and closer to the Mets in the NL East standings, Burrell, always seen as nonchalantly standoff-ish and indifferent to fans who wished he'd just once show some rage and break a bat over his knee after striking out looking, suddenly began to take on a new persona. If the Phillies were beginning a rally, there was Burrell on the top step of the dugout, hanging over the railing and shouting encouragement through a mouthful of tobacco. And as for those rallies, more and more it seemed Burrell was perpetuating them, particularly when it mattered most and particularly against the Mets. Utley missed significant time in August with a broken hand, and in picking up the slack, Burrell batted .290/.368/.650 with 10 HR and 25 RBI during the month.
Reader Poll:
On the final day of the season, as Brett Myers was closing out the game to clinch the NL East title over the stumbling Mets, it was Burrell kneeling at the opening to the dugout, hanging on every pitch as the crowd roared. When the final out was made, Burrell, not known for his speed, ran faster than Lou Brock in his prime to the mound for the celebration and was the first to reach Myers.
For this overly optimistic fan, I fully expect the Burrell of 2008 will closely resemble the Burrell of late-2007. Whether that makes him man or machine, whatever works is fine with me.
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Footage of Burrell's teammates sporting the t-shirts:
