‘Wouldn’t trade for anything’: Scott Rolen reflects on Phillies tenure after Hall of Fame election

The latest round of Hall of Fame voting was a complicated one for Phillies fans to process, but that’s not because Jimmy Rollins and Bobby Abreu weren’t elected: It’s because Scott Rolen was.

Rolen’s relationship with his first organization was a fraught one. From displeasure with the front office’s commitment to winning, to a falling out with Larry Bowa and an infamous “baseball heaven” quote after forcing his trade, that saga is plenty well-documented.

But even though Rolen will almost surely go into Cooperstown as a St. Louis Cardinal, his six years in Philadelphia are well more than a footnote in his career. He won Rookie of the Year and won three Gold Glove Awards there, after all. 

Rolen himself acknowledged after his election on Tuesday that while his Phillies career was far from perfect, it was, in a way, formative:

My six years in Philadelphia kinda taught me how to play the game. We were a little rough, we were young. And I learned to really kinda hustle and play hard, or it wasn’t gonna work very well for you. 

We didn’t have much success in Philadelphia, but we had good players. Bobby Abreu, and obviously [Curt] Schilling was there and Rico Brogna, a bunch of guys. But I kinda got traded to a championship team, or at least a [championship caliber] team. And they were veteran guys, and their mindset was a little different than mine. I went to the ballpark at 3:00 because I was supposed to go to the ballpark at 3:00. They went to the ballpark at 3:00 because they were going to do their job. And I’m like ‘Oh, man, OK. This is a different thing for me.’

Rolen’s Hall of Fame trajectory might’ve looked entirely different if he arrived in Philadelphia just a few years later. The organization wasn’t willing to spend big until shortly before team moved to Citizens Bank Park in 2004, just after Rolen was traded to St. Louis. 

But despite the bitter taste that still partially remains in Philadelphia, it wound up working out alright for both parties involved, with each climbing toward and ultimately winning a World Series not too long after the break-up.

I went through the minor league system with the Philadelphia Phillies, and I learned how to play the game. They taught me how to play the game. And my six years in Philadelphia, I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.

I got traded — yes, there was contract negotiations, there was, here, there. I knew their plan was … a new stadium, and to get in and to spend some money. They brought Jim Thome in, who is fantastic as a human being. But I think it was at that point where they weren’t there yet, we weren’t there yet, we didn’t really come to agreement on what the future looked like and the contract.

Everything worked out for both of us, I suppose.

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