Bronswell Patrick

Bronswell Dante Patrick (born September 16, 1970 in Greenville, North Carolina) is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher. He also played in several international leagues.

After Patrick pitched at D. H. Conley High School in Winterville, North Carolina, the Oakland Athletics selected him with the 593rd overall pick of the 1988 June draft, as part of the 23rd round. Patrick started out with the Phoenix Athletics in the Arizona League and pitched in Oakland's system until 1995, when he left as a minor league free agent.

Patrick had agreed to play as a "replacement player" in the wake of the 1994 baseball strike, but his Major League debut was postponed when the two sides struck a deal.^[1] He continued to pitch in the minor leagues for affiliates of the Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers, and on May 18, 1998 he finally broke in as a reliever for the Brewers. He spent the majority of that season with the Brewers, pitching 78¹⁄₃ innings while appearing mostly in relief. He collected four wins and one loss, struck out 49 batters, and posted a 4.69 earned run average. In a game on August 1, he hit a home run against Félix Rodríguez, becoming the first Brewers pitcher to hit a home run since Skip Lockwood in 1971. In a September 13 game against the Chicago Cubs, Patrick surrendered a home run to Sammy Sosa, during Sosa's chase of the record for single-season home runs. The home run in question was Sosa's 61st of the season, tying the previous mark set by Yankees outfielder Roger Maris, and placing him one behind McGwire, who had hit his 62nd on September 8. Later in the same game, Sosa would hit his 62nd against Eric Plunk to pull into a tie with McGwire.

After the season, the Brewers removed Patrick from their roster, and he joined the San Francisco Giants organization. Working as a starter for their AAA affiliate, the Fresno Grizzlies, Patrick set a Fresno record with 14 wins. The Giants rewarded him for his good work with a September callup, and he appeared in six games for them, picking up a win and a save despite a 10.12 ERA.

The Giants removed him from their roster after the season, but Patrick has continued to pitch professionally. He was one of the top pitchers in the Mexican League in 2003, with his 13-2 record helping the Mexico City Red Devils win their 14th championship. Most recently, he spent part of 2005 with the Tabasco Olmecas and Yucatán Lions of that same league, then joined the Brother Elephants of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. In a 2000 interview with the Calgary Sun, Patrick was quoted as saying, "I'm going to continue to try and pitch as long as I can. Until they come and tell me they're taking the uniform away, and even then they're not getting it without a fight."

In between, Patrick played winter ball with the Leones del Caracas and Tiburones de La Guaira clubs of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League in three seasons spanning 1997–2005, and for the Samsung Lions of Korea Professional Baseball in 2002.

In 2008, Patrick joined the staff of the AZL Padres as the team's pitching coach. He also worked in the same capacity for the Single-A Fort Wayne TinCaps of the Midwest League in the 2010 season.^[2]

Personal life

According to Patrick, his unusual given name was suggested by an aunt, who claimed to have seen it used overseas. He has three children: two sons and one daughter.

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet, or The Baseball Gauge, or Venezuela Winter League
• Career statistics and player information from Korea Baseball Organization
• An interview with Patrick
• A photo of Patrick in action with the Brother Elephants