With Nick Castellanos and Craig Kimbrel barely squeaking into this year’s MLB All-Star Game, and with the help of today’s Immaculate Grid, there is another, much more prominent, All-Star snub in Phillies history: Jimmy Rollins.
Jimmy “J-Roll” Rollins was a significant part of the Phillies’ success in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, helping them win five NL East titles consecutively from 2007 to 2011, including the 2008 World Series.
Specifically, Rollins’ 2007 campaign was one of the best in Phillies history and solidified him as a Phillies legend.
Some Immaculate Grid fun for the @Phillies @JimmyRollins11 fans... pic.twitter.com/ddICAOh9Zt
— drew (@drewcarp22) July 11, 2023
That year, J-Roll won the NL MVP, a Silver Slugger and the first of his three consecutive Gold Gloves. His preseason comments about being the “team to beat” were backed up as Rollins and the Phil’s finished a game up on the Mets with an 89 and 73 season. While the team ultimately got swept by the Colorado Rockies in the Division Series, 2007 marked the start of arguably the best era of Phillies baseball.
In a similar fashion to Castellanos’ 2023 season, Rollins was criminally excluded from the 2007 All-Star Game. Despite being a league leader and MVP front-runner, he had to watch Aaron Rowland compete in the event instead.
Rollins’ MVP year was more than just a typical “oh he won MVP that year” type of season.
In 162 games (yes, EVERY game) Rollins led the National League in runs with 139, and triples with 20. Additionally, he led the entire MLB in games played, plate appearances (PA) with 778 and at-bats (AB) with 716.
If somehow that is not impressive enough (you may be a Mets fan): Rollins in 2007 was the most recent player in MLB history to have a “quadruple double" season, also referred to as the 20 homers 20 triples 20 doubles 20 steals club, which contributed to his total of 212 hits in the 2007 regular season.
In 16 years, it has not been done again, not Acuña, not Soto, certainly not Yordan and definitely not Jeter.
What makes the career Rollins put together so special, including the 2007 season, was the impact he had on the city, the franchise and all of MLB. He was, and still is, close to the team in many areas, as well as a handful of television gigs. The Phillies legend represents the good, pure part of baseball; he played the entire game and was instrumental to what the Phillies are now and the incredible history of Phillies middle-infielders.
So this All-Star Game, Phillies fans can rejoice that Castellanos ended up making it. However, something certainly needs to be done about the issues with fan-voting.