Jimmy Rollins talked the talk and walked the walk on the baseball field. But early in his career, he was reminded to let the veterans handle certain things.
Rollins recalled a benches-clearing brawl between the Phillies and Braves with Gary Sheffield on this week’s episode of Audacy’s Unwritten: Behind Baseball’s Secret Rules podcast.
“In ‘03 we’re playing Atlanta and I don’t remember exactly how it happened. I was what, my third year in, and we get into a brawl. So, benches clear. I’m a little dude. I’m trying to work my way to the middle,” Rollins laughed (16:15 in player above).
“I try to work my way to the middle and from behind all I feel is about an 80-pound weight on my chest just hit me. Boom! And I stopped,” he continued.
“It was just like ‘Oh, s—, whoever this is, I’m done. It’s a wrap. I’m getting body slammed, it’s a wrap.’ And in my ear he was like ‘What you doing?’ and I looked up and I was like ‘hoo, oh my goodness, I’m so glad it’s you Sheff,’ because I knew I was in good hands then.”
Rollins met Sheffield at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia three years before breaking into the league. Rollins, a 1996 draft pick, was at The Vet to be honored for winning the Paul Owens Award, recognizing the organization’s top minor league player and pitcher.
Sheffield greeted Rollins around the batting cage, a meeting that the shortstop only remembered once “Uncle Sheff” brought it up.
But back to the brawl. Once Rollins realized it was Sheffield, the veteran gave the youngster some wise words.
“You told me straight up, straight up – asked me, actually, I guess. ‘Do you have your money?’ I was like ‘Nope.’ ‘So you don’t have a contract?’ I was like ‘Nope.’ He’s like ‘Well stay out of there let them big boys handle it,” Rollins chuckled.
“That was it. You pushed me to the back. You proceeded to the middle. And ever since then I’m like you know what, those are words from the wise,” he continued. “Why was I going in there – and it wasn’t like a team comrodery thing, it was somebody got hit, tempers flare and that happens. Why am I going in there taking that chance – you know, you try to earn stripes – but if something happens to me today that is career-ending, I’m walking away with the minimum amount of money that I could’ve made in my career. So I’ll always thank you for that.”
“That was a good one,” Rollins said. “I remember to this day it was just like an 80-pound weight just jumped on my chest, and I’m like ‘Oh my goodness, it’s over.’”
“I didn’t know what your temperature was so I had to put the claw grip on you to make sure, ‘cause I know you were from Oakland,” Sheffield laughed.
“Whatever the temp was, it dropped,” Rollins replied. “In that moment that temp went all the way down for sure.”
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