RetroSimba

Scott Rolen worried about the Phillies’ commitment to winning. He didn’t have the same concerns about the Cardinals.

On July 29, 2002, the Cardinals traded for Rolen, acquiring the third baseman, along with pitcher Doug Nickle, from the Phillies for infielder Placido Polanco and pitchers Bud Smith and Mike Timlin.

Having struck out in their efforts to get Rolen to sign a contract extension before he could become eligible to enter free agency after the 2002 season, the Phillies sought to trade him.

The Cardinals were the beneficiaries, adding Rolen to an imposing lineup with Jim Edmonds, Albert Pujols and Edgar Renteria.

The Phillies had losing records in six of Rolen’s seven seasons (1996-2002) with them and never qualified for the playoffs. With the Cardinals, Rolen played in two World Series, helping them to a championship in 2006.

Hoosier hot shot

Rolen was born in Evansville, Ind., and raised in Jasper, Ind. When he was a youth in the 1980s, his parents would make the 200-mile drive with him from Jasper to St. Louis to attend Cardinals games at Busch Memorial Stadium. “It’s the place I always dreamed of playing,” Rolen told ESPN.com years later.

At Jasper High School, Rolen won the state’s Mr. Baseball honor given to the best prep player. He also received basketball scholarship offers from schools such as Georgia and Oklahoma State. Georgia recruiters promised he’d start in the backcourt as a freshman, according to the Philadelphia Daily News.

Rolen was 18 when the Phillies picked him in the second round of the June 1993 amateur draft. After he signed with them that summer, Phillies scouting director Mike Arbuckle brought Rolen to St. Louis and had him take grounders at third base during infield practice before a game against the Cardinals.

“Dave Hollins, then the Phillies’ third baseman, took one look at the eager Indiana schoolboy standing at his position and said, ‘Get lost,’ ” according to Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Jim Salisbury.

Described by the Inquirer as “a spectacular fielder with gap power,” Rolen, 21, made his big-league debut for the Phillies against the Cardinals at Philadelphia on Aug. 1, 1996. To open a spot for him at third base, the Phillies shifted the positions of a pair of former Cardinals, moving Todd Zeile from third to first and Gregg Jefferies from first to left.

With his parents and high school coach in attendance, Rolen got his first hit, a double against Donovan Osborne. Boxscore 

Hurt feelings

In 1997, his first full season in the majors, Rolen earned the National League Rookie of the Year Award. The next season, he had 31 home runs, 110 RBI and won a Gold Glove Award, the first of eight he would receive in his career. Video

During the 2001 season, Rolen’s relationship with Phillies management soured. In June, after Rolen went hitless with three strikeouts in the Phillies’ one-run loss to the Red Sox, manager Larry Bowa told the Philadelphia Daily News that Rolen was “killing us” in the middle of the lineup.

(Rolen hit .350 with runners in scoring position for the 2001 Phillies. Overall, for the season, he had 25 home runs and 107 RBI.)

“Rolen believes that his manager should be like a family member, there to protect, encourage and nurture,” Jim Salisbury noted in the Philadelphia Inquirer. “He felt betrayed by Bowa, felt like the man who should have been building his confidence was tearing it down.”

Two months later, Phillies adviser Dallas Green, who had managed the club to a World Series title in 1980, said in a radio interview that Rolen “can be greater but his personality won’t let him.”

“Scotty is satisfied with being a so-so-player” Green said.

Stung by the criticism, Rolen told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “I don’t feel as welcome here in this organization as I have in the past.”

Phillies general manager Ed Wade wanted to sign Rolen to a long-term contract extension and keep him from opting for free agency after the 2002 season. In November 2001, Wade told the Philadelphia Daily News he offered Rolen $90 million guaranteed over seven years, plus three option years that could bring the total contract value to $140 million, but Rolen rejected it because he questioned whether the team was committed to winning.

Almost an Oriole

With Rolen showing no intention of signing a contract extension, the Phillies tried to trade him at the December 2001 baseball winter meetings. The Cardinals were interested until the Phillies asked for Rookie of the Year Award winner Albert Pujols to be included in a package of players, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The Phillies and Orioles “came agonizingly close” to a nine-player deal involving Rolen, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. According to the Baltimore Sun, the Orioles agreed to send pitchers Sidney Ponson, Buddy Groom, Erik Bedard and Sean Douglass plus utility player Jeff Conine to the Phillies for Rolen, pitcher Chris Brock, infielder Kevin Jordan and a prospect.

When Orioles general manager Syd Thrift called club owner Peter Angelos to tell him about the trade, Angelos asked what it would take to sign Rolen to a contract extension. “Thrift suggested at least a 10-year, $150 million bid,” the Baltimore Sun reported.

Angelos nixed the trade.

Done deal

When the 2002 season began, Rolen still was with the Phillies. He played well, but the Phillies didn’t, and they shopped him.

The Cardinals made a proposal on July 25, but it nearly fell apart on July 28, according to the Philadelphia Daily News.

The Cardinals initially insisted Rolen had to agree on terms of a contract extension with them before a trade could be made, the Post-Dispatch reported. They also wanted the Phillies to pay the remaining portion of Rolen’s 2002 salary.

On July 29, the Phillies came close to trading Rolen to the Reds, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. Reds general manager Jim Bowden told WLW radio he had a trade in place for Rolen but couldn’t make it work financially, The Cincinnati Post reported.

The Phillies went back to the Cardinals, who relented on their demands after the Phillies agreed to take Mike Timlin along with Placido Polanco and Bud Smith in the trade. Unloading Timlin opened room on the payroll for the Cardinals to pay the remainder of Rolen’s 2002 salary.

Happy days

Rolen, 27, went from a last-place team to a first-place team. “I feel as if I’ve died and gone to heaven,” he told ESPN.com.

According to the Philadelphia Daily News, Bowa said he called Rolen after the trade and left a message. “I told him, ‘It’s been a pleasure managing you. If everybody played the game like you do, there would be no problems. Careers are short. Try to be happy wherever you end up.’ “

In his Cardinals debut, on July 30, 2002, at Miami, Rolen was 2-for-4 with a run and a RBI. Boxscore

“I’ve been given an opportunity right now and I’m going to run through a wall to try to take advantage of it,” Rolen said to the Philadelphia Daily News.

On Aug. 16, 2002, Rolen played in Philadelphia for the first time since being traded. Enduring what the Philadelphia Inquirer described as “an evening of boos and insults,” Rolen had two hits against Randy Wolf. Boxscore

A month later, Rolen agreed to a $90 million eight-year contract extension with the Cardinals. “It wasn’t a chase for the last dollar,” Rolen told the Post-Dispatch. “It was a chase for happiness.”

Bad vibes return

In 2004, the Cardinals won the National League championship and Rolen had his best season: .314 batting average, .409 on-base percentage, 34 home runs, 124 RBI and 109 runs scored.

The happiness began to fade the next year when an injury to his left shoulder limited Rolen to 56 games. Rolen believed the Cardinals misled him about the severity of the injury, the Post-Dispatch reported, and it caused a strain in his relationship with manager Tony La Russa.

In 2006, La Russa benched a slumping Rolen during the National League Division Series. In the World Series, Rolen hit .421 and helped the Cardinals prevail against the Tigers.

After the 2007 season, La Russa sent Rolen a letter, expressing his opinions of the player, and Rolen didn’t like it. When La Russa signed in October 2007 to remain Cardinals manager, Rolen requested a trade. He was dealt to the Blue Jays for Troy Glaus in January 2008.

In six seasons with St. Louis, Rolen had a .286 batting average and .370 on-base percentage. In 17 years in the majors with the Phillies, Cardinals, Blue Jays and Reds, he produced 2,077 hits, 316 home runs and 1,287 RBI.

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One look at Jimmie Reese was all it took for the Cardinals to entrust him with a position held by a future Hall of Famer.

On June 4, 1932, the Cardinals purchased Reese’s contract from the minor-league St. Paul Saints.

On his first day with the Cardinals, Reese fielded so well at second base that manager Gabby Street kept him there the rest of the season and shifted Frankie Frisch to third.

A scrapper who energized the lineup, Reese had a short stint with the Cardinals, but a long career in baseball.

Hymie to Jimmie

Hyman Solomon was born in New York City in October 1901, a “son of an Irish mother and a Jewish father,” according to Red Smith of the St. Louis Star-Times.

The father suffered from tuberculosis and the family moved to Los Angeles when Hymie was 5. Hymie’s dad died a year later, according to the Star-Times.

The mother remarried and Hymie changed his name. Hymie was anglicized into Jimmie, and Solomon was dropped in favor of the last name of his mother’s second husband, Reese, the Orange County Register reported.

Jimmie Reese had a passion for baseball. In 1917, when he was 15, he became a bat boy for the minor-league Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. From then until 1994, when he died at 92, Reese was employed in professional baseball over nine decades.

A left-handed batter, Reese was a second baseman with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League before his contract was purchased by the Yankees.

Babysitter for Babe

In 1930, Yankees manager Bob Shawkey assigned Reese to be the road roommate of Babe Ruth because he hoped the clean-cut rookie might be a good influence on the notorious playboy. Ruth liked Reese and treated him well, but didn’t change his lifestyle. As Reese fondly said, “I roomed with his suitcase.”

Reese excelled as a pinch-hitter and backup at second to future Hall of Famer Tony Lazzeri. Reese hit .346 overall in 1930 and had a .519 on-base percentage as a pinch-hitter (12 hits, two walks, 27 plate appearances).

Just as impressively, Reese earned the respect of his star-studded teammates for his professionalism and demeanor. “A prince among good fellows,” Lou Gehrig wrote on a photo he autographed for Reese.

After wrenching a knee in spring training and hitting .241 in 1931, Reese was traded by the Yankees to St. Paul.

Dazzling debut

Being sent back to the minors “knocked me out,” Reese told the Star-Times. “I was broken-hearted and I couldn’t get the old spirit back. I was a complete flop in St. Paul.”

When told during a road trip to Milwaukee that his contract had been purchased by the Cardinals, “I never was so happy in my life,” Reese said.

Reese departed Milwaukee by train the night of June 4, 1932, and arrived in St. Louis the next day, just in time for the Cardinals’ doubleheader against the Reds.

With Frisch out because of leg ailments, Reese started at second base in both games, singled in his first at-bat as a Cardinal, and dazzled on defense.

With a runner on first, the Reds’ Mickey Heath “hit a sharp grounder toward second base. It looked like a sure hit, but Reese raced over for a pretty stop, stepped on the bag and then, still in full stride, cocked an eye toward first and flipped the ball to Rip Collins for a double play,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Boxscore

For the doubleheader, Reese handled 18 chances without an error, turned five double plays, totaled two hits and a walk, and scored a run. Boxscore

Displaying desire

When Frisch returned to the lineup June 8, he moved to third base and Reese stayed at second. Three days later, Reese collided with Dodgers catcher Al Lopez and tore shoulder ligaments. After sitting out 10 days, Reese “came back, his shoulder lumpy with bandages, and played courageously despite the pain,” the Star-Times reported.

Reese played “with a grin as broad as a south side cop’s shirtfront, a pair of legs that are brothers to the west wind, and a heart simply groaning under its load of ambition,” Red Smith wrote.

His style fit well with the Cardinals, who were the reigning World Series champions and developing their Gashouse Gang persona. 

Regarding Frisch, Reese told the Los Angeles Times, “What a money player. He wasn’t as good when there was nothing at stake.”

Reese also saw similarities between Babe Ruth and Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean. “Dean thought he could get any human being out, and Ruth thought he could hit any human being,” Reese said. “Dean and Pepper Martin, they were pranksters, but they never hurt anybody. They were kids at heart.”

Reese’s contributions to the 1932 Cardinals included:

 _ A two-run walkoff double to beat the Cubs. Boxscore

_ Four RBI in a game against the Giants. Boxscore 

_ Four hits in a game versus the Dodgers. Boxscore

“He uses his head at the plate, waits out the pitcher, chokes his bat and slices line singles over the heads of the infielders,” the Star-Times noted.

Described by Smith as “a scintillating defensive player,” Reese made 71 starts at second base for the 1932 Cardinals and had a mere nine errors in 645 innings. He hit .265.

Gentleman of the game

After the season, the Cardinals couldn’t resist signing Rogers Hornsby, who was released by the Cubs. Hornsby, the former Cardinal and future Hall of Famer, was projected to be a pinch-hitter and backup to Frisch at second base.

Seeing he wasn’t in the Cardinals’ plans, Reese asked for permission to make a deal for himself with another club, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported. The Cardinals agreed. In February 1933, Reese’s contract was purchased by his hometown Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League.

Reese never again played in the majors, but he stayed in baseball the rest of his life. After his playing career, he primarily was a scout and minor-league coach. He tried managing in the minors but didn’t like it. “Ballplayers can be like children,” he told the Los Angeles Times, “and I just couldn’t get tough. When I was managing, all I did was worry.”

Reese was 70 when he became a big-league coach for the first time with the 1972 Angels. He continued to serve in uniform for the Angels until his death 22 years later. Los Angeles Times columnist Mike Penner pegged Reese “the spirit-lifter” for the club.

“He elevated the status of those around him simply by his presence,” Penner wrote. “He generated more goodwill and publicity for this team in a single day than a thousand spin-doctoring press conferences.”

Reese was a mentor and friend to several players, including Nolan Ryan, who named his second son Reese in honor of the coach. “There are special people in your life who make an impact on you,” Ryan told the Los Angeles Times. “Jimmie was that to me. He helped me on and off the field.”

Reese amazed players with his ability to place a ball almost anywhere he wanted with a fungo bat. He created the bats from hickory or oak, one side rounded, the other flat, in a workshop behind his house. He also had a hobby of making wood picture frames and giving them to friends, the Orange County Register noted.

At the memorial service for Reese in July 1994, uniforms from the Yankees, Cardinals and Angels were displayed. The Angels retired his uniform No. 50.

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