Phillies: Jimmy Rollins wants a statue at Citizens Bank Park

It’s only a matter of time before the Phillies honor Jimmy Rollins with this

The Phillies have a ton of statues around Citizens Bank Park, and rightfully so for each of them.

Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt, Richie Ashburn, Robin Roberts, Harry Kalas each have statues, the first four done by Zenos Frudakis for the new ballpark and the Kalas one created by Lawrence J. Nowlan after a fan petition.

Every player with a statue at The Bank is a Hall of Famer, including Kalas who won the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting. They’ve been fairly stringent when it comes to statues because Jim Bunning and Roy Halladay, whose numbers are retired by the team, haven’t gotten one. They’re great Phillies, but they spent the other half of their careers in other places and might be more known for being a Tiger or Blue Jay, respectively.

What about a statue for not only the greatest shortstop in Phillies history, but the all-time hits leader, Jimmy Rollins?

Based on a recent tweet, it sounds like Rollins is all for this idea.

As far as I know, there’s no unwritten rule for who gets a statue at Citizens Bank Park, unlike the retired number rule where only Hall of Famers receive that honor in Philadelphia.

That will get its own day for argument over the next 20 years for Rollins and his ’08 teammates.

In my opinion, Rollins absolutely deserves a statue at Citizens Bank Park and there should be much of an argument against that. He’s the all-time hits leader, second on the all-time games played list, and in the top-5 in 19 offensive categories in team history.

There also isn’t any controversy surrounding Rollins or any animosity between him or the team. They left on good terms and he’s been a constant visitor at the park as an alum and broadcaster.

There’s a lot of different ways you could do a Rollins statue as well. Do you have him with a batting stance, home run swing, diving play, his World Series leap?

At what point do you consider putting a statue in of Rollins? You likely give him his time for the Hall of Fame where he’ll be on the ballot in 2022 for the first time. If he gets elected you do the number retirement and statue, maybe not at the same time but at some point.

If Rollins doesn’t get into the Hall of Fame, which is a strong possibility, the statue is still deserved for the reasons mentioned earlier. You can’t write the history of Phillies baseball without Jimmy Rollins.

Who else could the Phillies have a statue of at the ballpark?

If Rollins gets a statue, then ’08 crowd will come in and demand one for Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. They’re in the same boat as Rollins in terms of Hall of Fame chances, numbers, and personality. If you do one for Rollins, you have to do one for Utley, Howard, and maybe Cole Hamels.

Do you feel pressured to do one for Halladay or Bunning because their numbers are retired, or are they not as impactful given the fact they spent so much time and grew up elsewhere?

Do you potentially put all three players on the same pedestal (literally) or have separate ones? Honestly, they’d sell more special event tickets for separate events.

Where could the Phillies possibly fit a statue at Citizens Bank Park?

Where would you put three new statues in Citizens Bank Park? Roberts is already at the first base gate, but there is some room for a potential Howard statue over there if you take out some of the shrubberies.

The corner of Darien and Pattison is bare, but it’s way out there and the statue would look weird on a street corner. There’s already no room in Ashburn Alley or where the new Wall of Fame is because Bunning’s number statue is OUTSIDE THE BALLPARK FENCE! Is that where they’ll put Halladay’s number statue or will they make room for him inside?

Then there’s the third base gate where Schmidt is. It’s already perfect that Schmidt is by himself at third base, so do you stuff another statue of Rollins or Utley over there? Maybe there’s room closer to the club entrance or the ticket offices but again, that seems a little out of the way for a prominent statue.

Inside the ballpark it’s already tight walking through the concourse. The Ashburn and Kalas statues are already put in the open-air sections and it’s probably not the most flattering thing to throw a statue under the seats next to Federal Donuts.

They already took out the original Wall of Fame area to make more room for fans, so stuffing another statue out there might not make sense. A lot of people would crowd around a new statue and you can’t have more congestion then there already is out there.

The Phillies will figure it out at some point

If the Phillies really want to put up a statue(s) they’ll find a place, but the point is there’s already not a ton of room for things with the new Wall of Fame area. Will Rollins, Utley, Howard get statues at some point? Probably. Will the Phillies go crazy and add a Hamels or Charlie Manuel one? Probably not.

Don’t expect a new statue any time soon, but it’s one of those things like the retired number argument that’ll be around for years.