As Phillies Reach World Series, Burrell Savors the Journey

Oct/16/08 08:00 AM Filed in: Pat Burrell
PatBurrell
LOS ANGELES — The visitors’ clubhouse at Dodger Stadium is among the smallest in the majors. It is a narrow room with chicken-wire lockers and furniture in the middle. There is no separate room for coaches, and no spacious lounge for the players.

This is where the Phillies celebrated their sixth National League pennant on Wednesday night. There was a podium set up in the front of the room, near the office of Manager Charlie Manuel. The rest of the room was pretty much shoulder-to-shoulder, with players and club officials and cameramen and writers. Champagne corks were flying, and I can’t imagine that anybody left the room dry.

There might have been one guy, though — Pat Burrell. At 32 years old, Burrell is a Phillies lifer. He was the first player drafted in 1998, the Phillies’ prize for a dreadful ’97 season. In less than two years, he was in the majors for good. One year he hit .209 in 522 at-bats, and survived in a tough sports town.

As his teammates celebrated, Burrell stood off to the side of the podium, his back against a locker covered in plastic, nursing a can of Bud Light with a coach, Jimy Williams. He was taking it all in, he said, reflecting on his long journey to the World Series.

“To get to this point, it makes everything worth it,” said Burrell, who hit .333 in the N.L.C.S. “I don’t know what to say.”

Someone asked Burrell how often he thought about the path to get here. He motioned to Jimmy Rollins, the shortstop whose leadoff homer propelled the Phillies in Game 5, and the rest of his joyous teammates.

“Almost daily – every day now, with what we’ve been doing,” said Burrell, who is a free agent after the season. “It’s easy to just get caught up in the moment. But when you look at it, I’ve been up here longer but he’s been in the organization two years longer. He was in the ’96 draft, and I was ’98. To think of where we’ve come, the changes, and where we’re at – it’s a hell of a feeling, there’s no other way to say it. I’m not one with words, either, but there’s no other way to describe this. We just couldn’t be happier.”

Then Burrell paused. It was starting to sink in that the next game he plays will be in the World Series.

“Shoot,” Burrell said, “now it’s time to keep going.”

(nytimes.com)