Rolen’s journey to the Hall of Fame, in his own words

SECAUCUS, N.J. — Scott Rolen — drafted by the Phillies 4 years after the best participant in franchise historical past retired — by no means wished to be Mike Schmidt.

“Going into Philadelphia, that was never reasonable to me. I never went in with a bunch of stress and a bunch of pressure that I was going to be Mike Schmidt,” Rolen mentioned Friday at MLB Network’s Studio 42. “I mean, this is the best third baseman that’s ever played the game, arguably. … I was never going to be Mike Schmidt, and I didn’t want to be Mike Schmidt.”

It turned out, Rolen did not must be Schmidt to be a Hall of Fame third baseman.

On Friday, he sat subsequent to Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch and Baseball Writers’ Association of America secretary/treasurer Jack O’Connell, launched as the one member of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023. The press convention at Studio 42 was Rolen’s first in-person occasion since he was introduced as a Hall of Famer on Tuesday.

“I never thought I was gonna be a Hall of Fame player, I never thought I’d get drafted, I never thought I’d make it through the Minor Leagues, the Major Leagues, and get a chance to win to a World Series with the Cardinals,” Rolen mentioned. “I wasn’t born and raised in Jasper, Ind., to be a baseball player, to be a Major League Baseball player, to be a Hall of Famer.”

Now, he’s. Like Schmidt, Rolen grew to become the most effective third basemen ever. But the celebrities he regarded as much as as a younger ballplayer in Indiana performed different positions.

“I had a poster of Don Mattingly hanging above my bed,” Rolen mentioned. “He was from Evansville, Ind. — that is an hour away. So I beloved to look at him play. He was definitely a star and a legend in our space.

“And then when I started getting into it and watching the game a little bit more — I don’t know if I ever crossed paths with him, but Kirk Gibson was a guy that I really enjoyed watching. He’d kind of take a football approach to a baseball game and be a running back on a baseball diamond. I guess I emulated those two guys a little bit growing up, their style of play.”

When Rolen did attain the Major Leagues, there was one other legend who ended up influencing his profession: Cal Ripken Jr.

“I was young, and we were playing an exhibition game against the Orioles. I went over, knocked on the clubhouse door, and asked if I could speak to Mr. Ripken,” Rolen recalled. He wished recommendation about easy methods to deal with enjoying on daily basis from the “Iron Man” himself, who holds the MLB report with 2,632 consecutive video games performed.

“He gave me some incredible advice: That I hold a place on my team, in the lineup, whether I’m going to be good or not good. That doesn’t matter. There’s some accountability to have for your position on the field and your position in the lineup. … You can have an impact on the outcome of a game by just being there and showing up and doing your job and playing.”

“I went through my whole career, and I never asked for a day off — and I was never going to,” Rolen mentioned.

Rolen began 1,994 video games at third base in his profession. He began zero at DH. Even although he performed most of his profession within the National League for the Phillies, Cardinals and Reds, that also consists of 217 Interleague video games and 203 video games within the American League with the Blue Jays.

“It did come up, about DHing, and at that time I was asked about it,” Rolen mentioned. “I always just felt like I was more valuable fielding than not fielding.”

In the three days since he was introduced as a Hall of Famer, Rolen has gotten to relive among the greatest moments of his profession along with his son, Finn, who he performed catch with instantly after receiving the decision that he had been elected to Cooperstown.

The Rolens do not often sit round watching highlights of Scott, he mentioned with fun on Friday. But with all of the highlights on TV because the Hall of Fame announcement, he and his son have made an exception.

“We get to go back through and see some World Series stuff [from 2006], and the home run off of Roger Clemens in Game 7 of [the 2004] NLCS is always a thrill,” Rolen mentioned.

“And he is heard defensive tales … they usually’re speaking about barehanded performs, and, yeah, I’m reliving them. I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, it regarded like that harm.’

“We’ve been enjoying those things together, seeing some of those highlights.”