Jimmy Rollins played for a variety of managers throughout his MLB career. They all had different personalities and ways of managing, but the longtime Phillies shortstop largely got along with them all.
Rollins had a cup of coffee with Terry Francona in 2000 then played for Larry Bowa during the first four full years of his career. He and the Phillies found the most success under Charlie Manuel from 2005 to 2013 before Ryne Sandberg took over until 2015.
Rollins and co-host Ron Darling talked about the different managerial styles and how they handled them on Audacy’s “Unwritten: Behind Baseball’s Secret Rules” podcast, including one particular disrespectful decision by Ryne Sandberg.
“Given a full explanation, from there to being benched in spring training over an interview ‘cause I said ‘I don’t care about spring training results,’ which is the truth,” Rollins said (22:50 in player above). “Who cares about spring training results? They matter none. When a closer comes in in the fourth inning, this is not real baseball.”
“This is your Allen Iverson moment, by the way,” Darling laughed.
“Practice? We’re talking about practice,” Rollins said. “And it really was.”
During March of 2014, Rollins caught the ire of his manager for saying that he didn’t care about spring training results. He was subsequently benched for three straight games, but didn’t hear that message directly from manager Ryne Sandberg.
“From a point of saying I don’t care about spring training to not even getting a call from the manager, getting a call from the clubhouse guys like ‘Hey, they said you don’t have to come in today.’ Alright cool, that’s strange. Tomorrow, which was the next day, it happens again. I’m like really? Here I am, supervet, on the brink of breaking Mike Schmidt’s all-time hits record. Just the lack of respect that was given, like wow.”
Rollins broke Schmidt's franchise hits record on June 14th, 2014. He played out the rest of the season with the Phillies before being traded to the Dodgers that offseason.
“Then I show up the third day – and those were both two road games. I think it was back-to-back road games, so I wasn’t too upset about it. And I got to choose which days I traveled anyway,” Rollins continued.
“So I get in the clubhouse and it’s like ‘Why haven’t you played?’ My answer: ‘Go ask the manager.’ Don’t ask me. I got a call from the clubhouse guy. Don’t ask me why I’m not playing. Then getting called to the office and told why and being ‘I hope you learned your lesson,’ I’m like there is no lesson, period. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Whatever you’re trying to do, it didn’t work.”
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