Jimmy Rollins tormented plenty of Mets fans throughout his career, but the Philadelphia Phillies shortstop also nearly got into it with one of his teammates.
Rollins spent 15 years in Philadelphia, including the final four -- and half of another -- with Cliff Lee. Lee and Rollins helped lead the Phillies to the franchise's second-straight World Series appearance in 2009.
But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows between the two teammates.
Rollins told Ron Darling about the time he and Lee almost came to blows on Audacy’s “Unwritten: Behind Baseball’s Secret Rules” podcast.
“My last year in Philadelphia, got into it with Cliff Lee over music,” Rollins said (23:54 in player above).
Rollins would usually go into the room and feel the pulse of the clubhouse. Playing whatever music you want when you’re by yourself is fine, but when the team is in there together, you have to have some sort of upbeat music.
“We come in and you playing some slow country music when you by yourself, that’s fine,” Rollins said. “But when we all get in there, our culture, we could have some hip hop, some reggaeton, some rock, you could have some upbeat country but it can’t be the slow – that does not make a clubhouse at all.”
Rollins was one of the team leaders and the music happened to be near his locker in the center of the clubhouse. If he felt like the clubhouse needed a change of pace, he’d ask for music suggestions. But Lee, who was on the DL at the time, came in and “purposely put on the slowest country music he could find knowing that I was gonna come in like ‘woah, we don’t go play baseball with that,’” Rollins said.
He found out later that Lee was still annoyed about what happened the day before with the music. Rollins doesn’t exactly remember, however, as it didn’t register with him the same way it did with the pitcher.
“So he does it and he comes in, cut it off, and he says something – I don’t even remember what he said because I wasn’t really paying attention, this is what it was,” Rollins said. “And I was like ‘Man, how are you gonna decide the music? You’re on the injured list.’ Just joking, just like whatever.”
But it wasn’t a joke to Lee.
“He took it personally and the next day he does it again.”
Rollins had recently had his second child and it was the first time the baby slept through the night, he said, so the shortstop had a great night’s sleep.
“So I came in, I’m just smiling, I got the best night of sleep ever. And I walk in and I’m just like ‘Here we go with this dang music again,’ just really not even thinking about it. So sure enough I cut it off and Cliff comes running over and he’s barking. And this is towards the end of the year. You know there are times – at the moment I’m thinking OK he’s going off, I have on flip flops, so I don’t say anything, my back’s to him, I just gently and slowly put my shoes on ‘cause you can’t do anything in flip flops.”
While Rollins was leisurely walking into the clubhouse, Lee was getting prepared. The injured pitcher was in the gym working out and getting pumped up, he found out later.
“He comes over and he’s barking and he’s going off. The first thing that goes in my mind is if I finish the season on the DL, that’s 11 million dollars down the drain. I have to finish healthy,” Rollins said. “They said if you finish healthy your option’s automatic. I was coming up on my option, so that’s the first thing going through my mind. It’s like man, you’re making $33 million and you got three or four years left. I’m coming up on an option. If I break my hand, it’s a wrap. I can’t get traded. Now we’re gonna talk ‘Well, let’s renegotiate the option, we’re not gonna pick it up.’ You know all these things are going through your mind but at the same time your pride is like ‘Bro, you’re not about to keep doing this.’
“This is 2014. We’re out of it. It’s like whatever at the same time,” he continued. “So I just put on my shoes and I stand up and I’m like OK, now I’m ready. You talking and barking but I’m not dumb enough to sit there and do something, ‘cause anything could happen. I’m looking, look I’ve sparred before, I’m like this is a total different weight class so I’m going to have to try to get you down as soon as possible, and we’re right here in the locker. Anything can happen, Ron.
“Long story short, I walk over to his locker and he still keeps barking. I was like ‘Talk. What happened?’ And he talked and he said ‘Well you said this yesterday.’ And in my mind I’m like, you really took that to heart? You’re injured. You don’t have any authority over the radio, period. Everyone does except for the guys that are injured. If I’m injured and I walk in and y’all playing country and I’m not playing? There’s nothing I can do.”
While Rollins brushed aside Lee’s comments, one of his teammates didn’t take it as easily.
“I remember Marlon Byrd after that he got really upset at the time and was just like ‘All this stuff you’re saying to J, you’re not going to say that to me,’” he said. “Because Cliff went from there to calm me down and realize the situation like it wasn’t that serious.”
Lee was having a decent season through April and May before going down with an injury. He returned to make three starts after two months off, but that was it. The 2014 season ended up being Lee's last.
“What I got out of it was that he’s injured and he wasn’t able to perform,” Rollins said. “And I just became the target that day and it was what it was. I mean friction happens. In that situation it was, for me, my pride and 11 million dollars. Take it. You can have all that pride. I’m going to secure this bag. Ended up getting traded to the Dodgers, which was kind of something already in the works from about midseason – not to the Dodgers, but a trade. And I was like ‘Hey, you got $33 million, three times of what I’m making, that’s guaranteed, I have an option. So you win. You win, bro.”
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