PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jimmy Rollins was a Bay Area kid who grew up rooting for Rickey Henderson and admiring Jackie Robinson as he blossomed into one of the top high school prospects in baseball.
So when the Philadelphia Phillies called in 1996 to tell the slick-fielding shortstop they had picked him in the second round of the draft, Rollins had one major question.
“I’m like, ‘Who?’ ” Rollins said with a laugh.
Yes, the Phillies, one of the worst organizations in baseball throughout the late 1990s — and one Rollins turned into a perennial winner.
Rollins led the Phillies to five straight NL East titles, the 2008 World Series championship, and another NL pennant the next year. He was the 2007 NL MVP, a three-time All-Star, had a 38-game hitting streak and set the franchise record for hits with 2,306.
He had one more major franchise accolade to accomplish.
Rollins at last took his place with Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton and was inducted Friday night into the Phillies’ Wall of Fame.
“I was meant to be here,” Rollins said. “I got drafted here. I told my mom when we got drafted, I’m going to win a championship in this city. That’s what it became about for me, was chasing that championship.”
The core of that Phillies’ run — five division titles from 2007-2011 on the strength of homegrown talent such as Rollins, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels and Chase Utley — was built by former general manager Ed Wade. Wade, who helped move the organization into Citizens Bank Park in 2004, received his spot on the Wall with Rollins on Friday night.
Howard inducted Rollins into the team’s version of the Hall of Fame, saying the team leaned on him for the contagious confidence that made the Phillies the team to beat in the NL for so many years.
“You go, we go,” Howard told the crowd. “Jimmy always went.”
Utley pulled down the coverings that unveiled the Rollins and Wade plaques on the wall that greets fans in the left field concourse behind the scoreboard building.
Rollins, who finished his career with stints with the Dodgers and the White Sox, earned just 18% of the Hall of Fame vote in last year’s ballot, falling short of the 75% needed for election. Wade said Rollins’ numbers compared to some of the great shortstops already in Cooperstown.
“This guy, from the standpoint of character, makeup and talent, he’s a Hall of Famer in all three of those things,” Wade said. “There are some guys in Cooperstown that may check one or two of those boxes. This guy checks all three of those boxes. I understand the statistical aspect of it. Defense, check his box. Speed, check his box. I don’t know what criteria you would have to follow to not have Jimmy Rollins in the Hall of Fame.”
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