Phillies Great Jimmy Rollins Talked to GQ about the MLB Playoffs, His Lifelong Disdain For the Yankees, and the Death of the Oakland A’s

Finally, we have that chance between these two cities to say, “Alright, who’s really the team that’s going to choke?” There’s some trash talking! Nimmo hit the home run [on Sunday], turned around and said something to JT [Realmuto]. I don’t know what he said, I couldn’t read his lips, but if Nimmo’s popping off, something’s going down. He’s just a guy that goes out there and plays. Bryce [Harper] isn’t afraid to jump in somebody’s face. We know [Nick] Castellanos is the same way. He’s going to pop his collar and talk a whole bunch of shit. [Francisco] Lindor, he doesn’t say much, but when he does, they pay attention. I’m all here for it!

When you were on the Phillies and you’d go to New York to play the Mets, those were still the Shea Stadium days, and that was a whole different animal. What do you remember about going to that stadium as a visiting player?

I loved that it was a dirt bag! Shea Stadium, when you’re on the field, you realize how intimate it is. I mean, the fans are right on top of you. It was really a crazy place. We used to say, get all your fresh air before you come to Shea Stadium, because when you get in that dungeon, it’s a whole bunch of stuff you don’t want to be breathing. You get in the clubhouse, put on your clothes and get out to the field as soon as possible.

But that’s what made it beautiful, the history there. Growing up as a kid, I was well aware of Doc [Gooden] and Darryl Strawberry, obviously [Mike] Piazza during my time. I was aware of all the things that went wrong for the Mets. It’s like, “Alright, only one New York team can beat us. You kind of give that to the Yankees. The Yankees beat everybody.” But you guys? You are not the Yankees.

You were on the Phillies teams that went to back-to-back World Series in 2008 and 2009. Is there anything about this current version of the Phillies that reminds you of those teams?

I was talking about this yesterday actually. Mike Schmidt was at the game and we were hanging out a little bit. I was like, the first six innings matter, but don’t put too much weight on ‘em. If you win the championship innings (the seventh, eighth, and ninth), you will win a lot of ball games. If the starter goes into the sixth inning, you’re probably losing. But if you can get into that bullpen—get that seventh or eighth-inning guy in a high leverage situation and score one or two off him to make it a little closer, then the closer comes in and you score off him to take a lead—that’s more demoralizing than going out and beating up on a starter.

When a team has the lead and brings in their shutdown guys, and you find a way to win, those are the championship innings. That’s when you win or lose championships. It breaks your spirit because it’s like, It doesn’t matter what the lead is, we can’t finish these guys off. That’s the feeling that I get when I watch this team. That’s something that we thrived on. That was our motto. We told Charlie [Manuel], don’t worry about it. Charlie was always saying, “Hey, don’t be afraid to get some hits off the starter. God dammit, son!” Chuck, we’re good. We felt like we had to score five or six runs to win. If we’re only at three, we got three coming up. We don’t know where and who, but we got three coming up. That’s what I see, that ability to go attack the guys that are supposed to close the game down.

Yup, exactly. He’s supposed to shut us down. I think, in all honesty, it bled over to the next year. Stairs hits the bomb off him, [Broxton] comes up again and we’re like, we’ve been in this situation before, but guess what? They’re thinking the same thing. We’ve been in this situation before. Their heads drop and it’s like, “Bro, we can’t beat these guys.” You want them to feel that way.

I’m curious to see how this affects Matt Strahm.

Yeah, I know. But [Mark] Vientos, hey, you gotta give that boy credit. 3-1 pitch, up and away, not even close, just clapped. I didn’t realize he was that big. When he stood next to Lindor and I saw the whole head of difference, I’m like, “Alright, it makes sense how he’s hitting the ball that way.”