The fear and loathing of Redlegs Nation can rest at ease. Uncle Walt tells MLB.com's Mark Sheldon that the Reds will not re-sign center fielder Corey Patterson, who is single-handedly responsible for the team's fifth-place finish, lack of outfield depth, cleanup hitter and No. 5 starter. Patterson's $3 million salary has also been tied to the fallout of the financial industry, causing world markets to plummet and gasoline to top $4 a gallon. He also puts catsup on a hot dog, something Dirty Harry says no one, but no one, does.

In my 139 years, I cannot remember such vitriolic hatred for one Reds player as Patterson. Dibble didn't get the same bizness when he angrily fired a ball into the stands and hit a school teacher. Graves didn't get it as badly when he greeted a booing crowd with his own crowing bird of "up yours, too." And Griffey certainly didn't get what he deserved for sending a throat slash to the broadcast booth in full view of the lower deck.

In fact, the only player I can recall (off hand) anywhere close to this sort of hatred was Bobby Tolan, who played an enormous role in the Reds going to the World Series in 1970 and ’72. But he got into disfavor with management and fans by ripping his Achilles in a basketball game during the 1970 offseason, missing all of 1971 as the Reds finished fourth in the NL West. He was comeback player of the year in 1972 as the Reds went to the World Series and lost to Oakland in seven games. He had a great offensive Series, but his two critical defensive mistakes cost the Reds the crown. A three-base error in the first inning of Game 7 led to a run, and the A's got their other two in the sixth inning of a 3-2 Series-clinching victory when Tolan fell down with a knotted hamstring en route to a rather routine fly ball by Sal Bando that went for double.

Tolan was made the scapegoat and his 1973 season was very Pattersonish: he batted .206. Tolan had seasonlong fights with fans and management as he grew a beard in defiance of club policy against facial hair and he walked out on the team for two days late in the season. Days before the start of the NLCS against the Mets, Tolan was suspended for the season and the Reds were stunned in the playoffs, making Tolan a pariah. He was quickly traded to the Padres and he later won a grievance against the club. His request? That the team apologize for slandering his name.

Now we have Patterson, who may have stinked, stanked and stunk offensively, but he never went to the extremes of Bobby Tolan. In fact, Patterson was amazingly quiet and withdrawn throughout the year as the call-in shows and blogosphere spewed every form of hatred at him. Some of it was racist and pointed, accusing him of receiving favoritism from manager Dusty Baker because Patterson was supposedly dating Baker's daughter. Of course, that turned out to be false. But Patterson never uttered a word toward the catcallers and finger pointers.

The fact that this thread lede has surpassed 540 words is a clear testament to a.) some serious verbiage and b.) Patterson's perceived impact on this team's final record. That's because Patterson made $3 million when former GM Wayne Krivsky only wanted to pay $1.5 mil; because Baker went to owner Bob Castellini and made a case for signing Patterson; because Castellini told Krivsky to "get it done"; because Patterson played so much when outfielder after outfielder went down with injuries; and because Patterson was made some sort of "symbol" for the season gone bad. He is one of the biggest villains in recent team history.

Patterson has his critics, most of them justified for his unfulfilled promise and inability to be a reasonably serviceable offensive player. But in the seemingly neverending lunacy of some Reds fans, Patterson is a dog because (and I paraphrase from various boards) if he had any class he would have benched himself; if he wasn't a gutless POS he would return his salary; if Patterson was re-signed they would not attend games in 2009.

Seriously.

Today, the Patterson lynch mob has its wish: no more dog to kick around. He didn't deserve to be re-signed and certainly wasn't going to be at anywhere close to his 2008 salary. So the question becomes—just how much impact did Patterson, one player out of 25, actually have on this season? How many games did he lose? How many games in the standings did he matter? Remember: Patterson had just 366 at-bats, which is just over half of a full MLB starting season. He also had 182 ABs at leadoff, mostly after Hopper, Freel and Hairston were injured the first two months.

I say Griffey batting in the 3-hole 327 times made a bigger impact . . . or not having a legit cleanup hitter made a bigger impact . . . and Aaron Harang stinking up the joint had a bigger impact . . . while Edwin Encarnacion failing to improve offensively or defensively had a bigger impact . . . as the catchers combining to bat just .234-12-57 had a bigger impact.

Most of all, I say Uncle Walt doing zero during the season to improve the roster had a bigger impact, even if one of the things he should have done was find Corey Patterson's replacement much, much sooner. He finally did . . . nine days after the season.