Pat Burrell retired on Thursday ... as a Phillie.
The former Giant -- and member of the 2010 World Series team -- signed a one-year deal with Philadelphia to retire as a member of the Phillies. Burrell will toss out the opening pitch for the Phillies on May 19 against the Red Sox and then call it a career.
He'll also (somewhat awkwardly?) throw out the opening pitch for the Giants on Tuesday ... against the Phillies. In San Francisco.
"I'll get a chance to see what it looks like I guess," Bruce Bochy said of Burrell's throwing arm. "He won't bounce it. There's a lot of pride there. If he bounces it, he knows he won't hear the end of it."
Burrell, a.k.a. "Pat the Bat," was a pretty integral part of the Giants team that won the World Series, swatting 18 home runs and driving in 51 runs over the course of 96 games with San Francisco in 2010.
Pat had been released by the Tampa Bay Rays earlier in the year, the Giants took a flier on him, and he came in and began raking right away -- the connection between he and former college teammate Aubrey Huff helped spark the clubhouse en route to the team's first championship in San Francisco.
He was drafted as the No. 1 overall pick by Philadelphia in 1998 and he played nine seasons with the Phillies.
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Burrell finished fourth in Phillies team history in home runs with 251, eighth in RBI with 827, and he won a World Series with the Phillies in 2008 as well.
In other words, Burrell is a Phillie at heart, so don't get too choked up about the idea of him not walking away from the game in a Giants uniform.
