Reader Appreciation Post & Comment Of The Week

Based upon the comments this week, both on the site and off, I didn't totally scare away my readers. Frankly, I'm shocked. I thought my blogging career...er, I mean hobby was deader than Fried Chicken. In the blogosphere, when you show less activity over a couple month period than the Birds did in this offseason's free agency market, your readers typically disappear faster than Donovan McNabb in a big game. Therefore, I'd like to thank anyone who is still out there reading this site during my extended sabbatical.

I wish I could say it was something intriguing that kept me from this blog. I didn't have a drug or drinking problem, have a torrid love affair or God forbid put that Law Degree to use by handling some cases on the side to boost my discretionary income. Mainly, I was away from the blog for a couple lame ass reasons. First, as I've said numerous times, I moved at the end of January and it has taken quite a while to really get settled. Plus, all the moving activity sapped so much energy that I have had trouble staying up during my prime late night blogging hours. Finally, that frigging Facebook website has occupied so much of my time on the web that I feel like banning it from my computer. It's cool and all to catch up with some old friends, but this whole Facebook phenomenon has become ridiculous. I think I need to quit cold turkey and get back to this site.

In any event, I'm apologize to anyone that was wondering where I'd been. I'm back and hopefully here to stay....at least until I get completely lazy again.

Also, I have to address a comment from my buddy Gump. He makes the following brilliant point (which RU grads are known to do pretty frequently):

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the hero status the Phaithful have bestowed upon Pat the Bat. I don't love that he's gone, but....come on everyone, think back to how many times in the last 8 seasons you cursed him for taking that called third strike on the inside corner as he pulled his fat ass out of the way. I rooted for him too, and really do hate to see him go, but if this was an American League city, than he'd probably still be here as the DH, but he's not, and quite frankly, the hero-status is a bit exaggerated!! And again, I am NOT a Pat hater by any means!! Your thoughts??

Gump, you make a great point. Other than Donovan McNabb, I don't think any other Philly athlete frustrated me as much as Pat the Bat did in his tenure with the Phils. I think had it not been for his 8th inning double to set up the winning run in Game 5 of the World Series, we would all remember "his move" (i.e., sticking his ass out on any pitch on the inside of the plate trying to influence the call of the home plate ump) more than his multiple seasons of 30 HR's and 90+ RBI's. However, he did have the biggest hit of our lifetime (by far) and I think he deserves a lot of appreciation for that.

Plus, if I worked in the front office of the Birds, Flyers, Sixers or Phils, I'd hire Burrell to do a yearly seminar with the players on how to handle playing in Philly. I don't think any player in my lifetime did a better job of handling us (B Dawk is probably second). He seemed to understand our special brand of "tough love". He never bitched about how he was treated. When he was booed, he pretty much shrugged it off knowing he deserved it and when the adulation finally came, he ate it up.

He is the complete contrast to D Mac. Last year after getting ripped early in the season in the press and eventually benched by Big Red, McNabb took every opportunity once he righted the ship and led the Birds to the NFC title game to point out to the phans how we were all wrong about him. He was so petulant about the whole situation, that I really have a hard time rooting for him now, but that's a another story for another day.

Basically, Burrell painted the perfect setting to enjoy the hero worship we've seen this week. In his last game as a Phil, he got the biggest hit of the franchise in 28 years. He then left town without saying a single bad thing about the city or the phans and more than went out of his way to say how much he loved it here. If he had a PR firm guiding him through his exit from the Phils, he more than got his money worth because his move was handled perfectly.

Overall, I have to agree with you for the most part. The hero worship for Pat has gone overboard in comparison to his overall career, but I think in this case it is justified due to what he did in October.