Pat Burrell is gone. His Phillies career is over, and now we are left with a nine year run with the local squad that included many hits and misses. Below are the 10 angles to Burrell that I will remember most.

1. Pat The Rookie – Pat was called up on May 24, 2000, and hit his first dinger on the road the next day against the Astros – a solo shot off of Scott Elarton in a 10-6 loss. His first 4 bagger in a home game came on June 4, when he jacked a 2 run homer off of Jeff Fassero that pulled the Phils to within 1 run of Red Sox – helping them overcome a 5-2 deficit to win 6-5. In all, Pat would hit 251 homer runs as a Phillies, good for 3rd all-time behind Del Ennis and Michael Jack Schmidt.

2. Pat the Rocketman – Pat had a strong and accurate arm. In ’01, Burrell had 18 outfield assists. The only Phillies OF since 1975 to have more in a season was Glenn Wilson (20 in 1987). Opposing baserunners and base coaches learned to fear Burrell’s arm, if not his legs.

3. Pat the Met Slayer – Pat destroyed Met pitching. He hit 42 homers off of the Mets; 18 of them at Shea Stadium. One of the biggest came on May 28, 2001, when Burrell beat Armando Benitez and the Mets with a 2 run jack in the top of the 10th inning at Shea to win the game.

4. Pat the Stud – whether it was his infamous 2001 Penthouse interview or his penchant for living at the Irish Pub, Pat was always good for non-baseball related fodder.

5. Pat The Class Act – In 2003, I remember game after game sitting in Veteran’s Stadium as Phillies fans did everything in their power to will Pat out of a season-long slump. He was consistently cheered on his way to the plate, and booed on his way back after pop up or strikeout. It was the perfect microcosm of the Burrell/Philly relationship. We just wanted Pat to work his way out of his slumps. But when he continued to struggle, we were sure to let him know what we thought about his performance so soon after the big contract was signed. To Pat’s credit, he never bitched, and always seemed to understand what made Phillies fans tick.

6. Pat The Eye – As Pat’s career progressed, his eye at the plate improved. He averaged 103.25 BB in the last 4 years after averaging 74 BBs in his first 5 years. This had a very positive effect on his OBP even as his batting average remained, well, below average (2008 Burrell batting avg. – .257. MLB overall batting avg. – .264).

7. Pat the Runner – No one turned more doubles into singles and triples into doubles than Pat. He labored to get around the base paths in the last few years, and never even dreamed about swiping a bag (his last stolen base was in 2004). But Pat was no lollygagger, either. He pumped those arms, and certainly looked like he wanted to go faster, even if his body wouldn’t comply.

8. Pat the Fighter – August 29, 2003. Pat avoids Larry Bowa on his way back to the dugout after jacking a 2-run homer off of Steve Trachsel in New York. Tyler Houston may have been the catalyst for the mini-revolt staged by some of the Phillies in late 2003 in reaction to Larry Bowa’s resemblance to General Torquemada. But it was Burrell’s public display of disrespect for the Phillies skipper that signaled the beginning of the end for Bowa in Philly. All of this, of course, paved the way for master motivator and “players coach” Charlie Manuel.

9. Pat Burrell aka Billy Wagner’s Daddy – Billy Wagner never shuts up. Whether it is ripping Phillies fans or talking about the team once he had signed with New York, the man just keeps on rambling. Until, of course, Pat Burrell shut him up with homers in 2 come from behind victories in 2007 that made all the difference in the world in a year when the division winning team needed every win it could get.

10. Pat the World Series Hero – Pat was having a pretty awful World Series at the plate, but that all was forgotten when he led off the bottom of the 7th inning of Game 5. In the top of the frame, Rocco Baldelli had silenced the crazed Phils fans with a frozen rope to left field off of Ryan Madson that re-tied the game at 3. I sat in my living room dreading the worst – the Phils bats would go silent, the Rays would rally, we’d head back to St. Pete looking to win 1 of 2 games without our most reliable starter available for either game. Fatalistic thinking? Yes, but we’re raised that way. Instead, Burrell destroyed a J.P. Howell offering to deep left center that would have been out of any other part of the park. B.J. Upton misplayed the ball off the wall, and Burrell had an easy double. He was replaced by a pinch runner, Eric Bruntlett, and left the field for the last time as a Phillie. Burrell’s double would become the winning run in the clinching game of the World Series. You can’t script a better exit than that.

11. (1 extra for old-times sake) Pat the Parade Marshal – As I stood along the final stretch of Broad Street with hundreds of thousands of my closest friends on Halloween, 2008, the site of Pat Burrell leading the World Series Parade was a thing of beauty. He rode in as a conquering hero, and a hero he was. A fan base that had rode the ups and downs with him for 9 seasons had one final opportunity to praise Number 5, and we swung for the fences. With his wife and pooch at his side, Pat was able to complete his Phillies career in a way that few others have been able to – at the very top. We’ve driven bigger stars from town, and destroyed wannabes as well. Pat never cracked, and in the end, basked in the spoils.

Best of luck to Pat Burrell. I would have love to have seen him finish his career as a Phillie. While that was not in the cards, he has secured a spot in Phillies lore for all-time, and that’s damn good, too.