Watching last night’s Phillies’ game, I’m still not entirely sure what happened. I know that the sky looked like it was going to open up at any moment, a slight breeze made the humidity at least bearable, and beers in the aluminum, rocket bottles, stay a lot colder than the beers in the plastic bottles.

Rocket beers!

But as far as the game goes, I feel like I watched two games. The first one was pretty boring, only highlighted by a rocket beer, homerun by Big Ry that was capped off by a nice snag in the bullpen by Six Fingers Fonseca, occasional acts of pitching quality by Kyle Lohse, and the speedy work of SVic on the basepaths. Other than that. up until the 7th inning, I was trapped watching the Phillies losing a game to the Rockies that they desperatly needed to win. The fans around me knew it, they felt it. In the 5th, a Rockie (does it matter which one?) hit a sharp liner out into the leftfield corner, fielded neatly by Pat “Yes I do have Don Henley as my intro music” Burrell, who then tossed it back into the infield. Simple play. Nothing fancy.

“Come on Pat!” A fan a few rows over in left field yelled. “We NEED this one!” The fan wasn’t going to go easy, go through the motions last night and expected Pat to do the same.

Hmmm…

I saw a middle aged cougar and a dude with an outfit that made him look the deceased Crocodile Hunter argue for 15 minutes about the stolen Grand Slam hit by the Rockies and whether or not baseball should inact instant replay.

What I’m trying to say is that in the stands, the mood was tense. But on the field, it looked like we were watching 7 Burrells, 1 The Force That is Chase, and 1 Killing Me Softly Kyle Lohse. Where was the intesity??? It’s almost mid-September and the Rockies, a team only a game or so back in the Wild Card, are in town for a crucial, 4 game homestand.

But then came Prozac Pat to hit a bomb, 3 run homer to tie it up, which then sent the game into extra innings and setting up Big Ry’s 3rd walk off hit this season. LIFE!!! We found it…in the least possible place we thought we would…in the smooth swing and Starting Lineup pose of Mr. Miyagi himself, Pat Burrell. Since the All Star break, Prozac is tied for second in the NL in homeruns and is batting over .350. Despite his awful start, he has almost 80 runs batted in and has a stellar On Base Percentage.

There is no arguing the value of Chase or JRoooooooooooooooll, but it’s time to give some due to Burrell. It’s not hard. It’s actually pretty easy. He doesn’t strike out much, walks a lot, makes mistakes in the field, but has a decent enough arm that occasionally he can recover. He won’t hit bombs like By Ry or get his uniform dirty like Chase, but he constantly makes solid contact and for many women over 30, he’s the one their keeping their eyes on, not Chase (although The Mighty Cole trumps them both I’m told, but for my money, you really can’t beat the Ball Girls.)

So it’s time.

Yes, dude, it’s time. It’s time to start rooting for Pat.

All you have to do is clap. It’s so easy.

Even Jose Mesa can do without giving up a run, it’s that easy.