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Back in 2008 and ’09, Jonathan Broxton was one of baseball’s most fearsome closers, with an emphasis on “fear”. Like Craig Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman now, Broxton comfortably sat in the high 90’s with his fastball, even reaching triple digits at times. For some reason, though, the Phillies were his Kryptonite. They had tagged him in the NLCS the previous season as Matt Stairs memorably hit a go-ahead two-run home…
Back in 2008 and ’09, Jonathan Broxton was one of baseball’s most fearsome closers, with an emphasis on “fear”. Like Craig Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman now, Broxton comfortably sat in the high 90’s with his fastball, even reaching triple digits at times. For some reason, though, the Phillies were his Kryptonite. They had tagged him in the NLCS the previous season as Matt Stairs memorably hit a go-ahead two-run home…
Can you name the only MLB player who was a teammate of both Mike Schmidt and Jimmy Rollins? Questions like that are the very reason I write about baseball. There is a brilliant character in the movie Little Big League named Wally Jordan portrayed by John Gordon, a longtime Twins play-by-play announcer. Jordan is a hyperbolic depiction of a team’s radio broadcaster who spits out “statistics” during the game that…
Can you name the only MLB player to play for a Mike Schmidt Phillies team and a Jimmy Rollins Phillies team? Questions like that are the very reason I write about baseball. There is a brilliant character in the movie Little Big League named Wally Jordan portrayed by John Gordon, a longtime Twins play-by-play announcer. Jordan is a hyperbolic depiction of a team’s radio broadcaster who spits out “statistics” during the game that…
Sometimes a guy comes into the minors with high hopes and fails. Sometimes a guy comes in with little hope, or no hope at all, and fails. The successes are all rare, expectation or not. And careers like Jimmy Rollins‘…well…every year over 2,000 guys are drafted or sign internationally. Two win an MVP, like Jimmy did in 2007. He’s been the rarest of the rare. Rollins was drafted in the…
Jimmy Rollins is my favorite player on my favorite team in the history of sports. I’ve watched him go from a name on a minor league roster to the MVP to the franchise leader in everything Mike Schmidt isn’t the franchise leader in. He’s grown up as a player as I’ve grown up as a fan, and a big reason why it’s so hard to let him go is that…
Your browser does not support iframes. Rollins to Utley to Howard, double play! We first heard those words broadcast over our television sets and car radios on May 15th, 2005. Fourth inning. Bases loaded. One out. Reds pitcher Elizardo Ramirez steps to the plate. Vicente Padilla on the mound. Rollins to Utley to Howard, double play! Just three months ago, September 6th, 2014, we unknowingly heard those words for the final…
Over the next few days, we’ll be looking back on the most memorable moments of Jimmy Rollins‘ career with the Phillies. You can conveniently find everything that’s written about the subject under the category “Rollins Retrospective” above. The Phillies weren’t supposed to be any good in 2007. The season prior, GM Pat Gillick traded franchise icon and outfielder Bobby Abreu to the New York Yankees for an uninspiring return. Gillick said…