Hunter Pence Apparently Gave a Memorable Pre-Game Speech to His Teammates Last Night, Said Giants Were the Best Team He’s Ever Been on

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Somewhere, Sheena Parveen just perked up.

Just in case you were starting to feel better about the Phillies not being in the playoffs. Starting to enjoy the fine grey month of October. Enjoy the leaves falling. Pumpkin patches. ZOMG Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks it’s soooo good and I must tell all my social network friends about it nomnomnomnomnomnomnom. Pumpkin beer because it’s, um, yeah, it’s actually pretty good. And fall sleeping weather. Just in case you were starting to enjoy those things and forget that the Phillies are sitting in their homes – their really large homes – watching the MLB Postseason on TBS (brought to you by Conan and that awful song from Bruce Springsteen) just like you, here’s a swift kick to your balls or ovaries:

The Giants beat the Reds in 10 innings last night, 2-1, to force a Game 4 in the NLDS. Hunter Pence, who is 1-for-the-series (12), battled through leg cramps during his 10th inning at-bat before singling on – I know this will come as a shock – a ground ball to the left side. His getting on base made way for a Scott Rolen error that allowed the Giants to score the game-winning run. 

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But it wasn’t Pence’s hit and his gutsy ambling down the first base line (I saw one person on Twitter liken it to a dog with worms) that had his teammates talking after the game. It was the speech that he gave before the game that was all the rage. 

[There’s a bad joke in here about him saying grace before his team went out to eat… but I just can’t seem to find it.] 

Here’s how teammate Jeremy Affeldt described the speech: [CBS Sports]

"Hunter was lively, he was pacing, he was getting loud, he was getting excited. He could have said nothing and how he said it, how he addressed the team, his approach to the message he gave, I think it just got everyone excited. He could have rattled off some poem, but the way he did it, he would have gotten guys excited. It was like a pre-football game type deal." 

 

And Giants coach Tim Flannery, apparently a musician, melodramatically paraphrased the speech on, randomly, his band’s Facebook page

"get in here, everyone get in here..look into each other eyes..now! look into each others eyes, I want one more day with you, it's the most fun, the best team I have ever been on" said the Reverend Hunter Pence. "And no matter what happens we must not give in, we owe it to each other, play for each other, I need one more day with you guys, I need to see what Theriot (jerry) will wear tomorrow, I want to play defense behind Vogelsong because he's never been to the playoffs..play for each other not yourself, win each moment, win each inning, it's all we have left"…………for me an old coach it moved me like I have never been moved before…purity, real, passion, soul. the last of the holdouts this Pence..no arrows being shot, no hey look at me, no spotlight on me, no dance but "play for each other"…honor the game the game honors you..don't know where and when it ends, but tonight I was proud to be together as a team, in a hostile environment, with just us..brothers that play for the name on the front, not the name on the back.

 

Ugh. I’m not sure if that gave me douche chills… or pissed me off that the Phillies had Pence under contract next year and now have no reliable outfielders.

Pence is struggling in the playoffs, again, and didn’t have the greatest of stretches with the Giants (he batted .219 with what would have been a career-low .671 OPS), but he still finished the 2012 season with 24 home runs and a career-high 104 RBIs. Something like that would have been nice to pencil into the lineup every day next year.

The folks over at Big League Stew have some more on Pence’s proverb, which was once a lame t-shirt slogan from the Phillies but now a rallying point for the Giants, who are still playing baseball.

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36 Responses

  1. The comment is irrelevant. What is he supposed to say? He is just another overpaid average outfielder. The Phillies better not fall in the trap of overpaying this winter for the likes of Bourn or Upton.

  2. How you cannot see not paying Hunter Pence $11-12+ million in arbitration for next year as a good thing is beyond me. Sure, they may have no reliable outfielders as of yet, but to call Hunter Pence and his .253/.319/.425 stat line “reliable” is pretty naive. But at least he has the most meaningless stat in baseball… RBIs!

  3. Let’s not forget his horrible defense and the fact that we gave up our 2 best prospects for him.

  4. Look, the Hunter Pence experiment was a failure. To RAJ’s credit, he recognized that the player he received wasn’t nearly the player he expected Pence to be so he flipped him for what will likely be the catcher of the future in Tommy Joseph. For a guy who was here for just over a year, there is way too much unwarranted, unrequited love.
    On that note… Let’s Go Orioles! Get Jimmy T. a ring!

  5. Yeah, we can only hope Tommy Joseph is good. I like Joseph and all… But meanwhile, when Jonathan Singleton is blasting HRs for Houston in a few years, we can all talk about how funny “Let’s go eat” was!

  6. 1) that speech is awful
    2) the whole best team i ever been on speech is just something you say in the moment, what did you want him to say when he’s trying to rally his teammates?
    3) He was here for 1 1/2 seasons, who cares? If shane said that about the Dodgers and it wasnt during some motivational speech then I might care.

  7. Best team he’s ever been on… Phillies finished with over 100 wins last year and went 5 games with eventual World Series winner while the Giants may lose in 4 to the Reds. Sounds like the best team to me.

  8. he was only here for just about one year..I really have disdain for him..we paid a huge bag of goods and he simply didn’t deliver; except in t-shirt sales.

  9. Would have been nice if he got a hit & RBI against stl last year. Most overrated player in MLB g

  10. I just treated mysel to 1 of this pumpkin shits & there was nothing but hipsters & dorky bitches in there. Few fags also

  11. “or pissed me off that the Phillies had Pence under contract next year”. Kyle Scott: the internets biggest moron

  12. I liked Pence when he was here, but he just didn’t fit. Imagine Jesse from Breaking Bad while on Meth playing on the same team as the laid back Rollins, Victorino, Howard, Utley, etc. Not a great fit.
    BTW, he actually does look like Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad, I’m not gonna lie.

  13. Well to be fair, before Games 1 and 2, he gave his “This is one of the better teams I have played on, the Phillies of last year had better starting pitching, but our bullpen is a hell of a lot more solid, and I give the edge to our bench as well” speech. And just look how those games turned out.

  14. your turn around from loving pence to hating him is hilarious. yeah, he didn’t live up to expectations. but he was also asked be the cleanup hitter this year. last year, when he batted fifth, the phillies lineup became substantially better balanced, and they started winning even more. not saying he was great, but they really could have used him next season, since victo is gone, brown is still a question mark, and um, that’s it. i’d take his career average of .280, 20 hr, and 90 rbi.

  15. I always hated Pence. I know you aren’t the brightest but what do you do when Pence becomes a free agent in 12 months? Cause no way does any rational GM give him a mega contract, which is what he’ll get. He has Alfonso Soriano written all over him.

  16. Pence hasn’t been worth a shit since he left Houston and you act butthurt he’s not going to be here next season? Are you a fucktard too Son??? What the Fuck! Sometimes I swear you must have been switched at birth while the carnival was in town. SMH… Fuck.

  17. Pence gets to 23, Wandy comes back strongClimbing Tal’s HillThe Astros woecemld Wandy back with a bang and Wandy picked up right where he left off before the DL. The Astros finally ended a four game skid with an 8-3 victory in the series finale with the Braves. Wandy went six innings, giving up only two hits Atlanta Braves at Houston Astros Series RecapTalking ChopBits: Wandy Rodriguez impressive in returnESPNBraves’ 6-game win streak ends with loss to AstrosUSA TodayCBSSports.com -MiamiHerald.com -MLB.comall 1,451 news articles Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 Sports TAGS: Atlanta Braves

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