With a single quote, Jimmy Rollins changed Philadelphia forever.
He made us winners. Forget being the underdog. Forget all the heartbreak. Forget the years of losing. Forget, if we possibly could, the nightmare of 1964.
On Jan. 23, 2007, Rollins pronounced the Phillies as the team to beat.
It set tongues wagging in New York, where the defending NL East champion Mets sniffed haughtily at Rollins' boast.
But the man affectionately known as "J-Roll" backed it up. He was the National League's Most Valuable Player in leading the long-downtrodden Phillies to the NL East crown.
The next year he and the Phillies were back for more - capturing the team's first World Series titles in a generation and setting off one of those "I was there" Philadelphia moments, a parade down Broad Street accompanied by a couple million fans.
Rollins has not been without his detractors. No, he was not the perfect leadoff hitter. He was not terribly interested in working the count. He did not always run out every ground ball. He sometimes said things that rubbed fans the wrong way.
But he also did this: He snared more base hits than anyone else who has ever donned a Phillies uniform. That would amount to 2,306 hits over 15 glorious seasons with the Phils. Rollins made it clear he was interested in both breaking that record, held by the beloved Rich Ashburn, and finishing his career in Philadelphia.
One of those won't happen. Late yesterday afternoon word started to leak that Rollins was headed west, closer to his home turf in Oakland, traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The deal likely will be finalized today.
Rollins very well may don Dodger blue, but he will always belong in red pinstripes.
The longtime shortstop and leadoff hitter exits with a lifetime batting average of .267, 216 home runs and 887 RBI.
Last year the switching-shortstop hit .243, with 17 homers and 55 RBI.
I know it is popular these days to blast Ruben Amaro Jr. for allowing the Phillies' lineup to get too old.
Don't wait for me to join that chorus. I will never complain about Rollins, and the two other anchors of the Phils' lineup, second baseman Chase Utley and first baseman Ryan Howard.
They did something very few athletes in Philadelphia can say they did.
They gave us a parade.
And remember, it was Rollins who 'stirred the drink.'
He did more than that.
He made us winners.
* CLICK HERE for a column from longtime Phillies beat writer Dennis Deitch on the end of the Jimmy Rollins Era.
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