Could road trip be a sign that Rollins is ready to change?

By Bill McFarland

A few things of note occurred during the 10-game road trip through Arizona, San Francisco and Colorado. Perhaps most noteworthy was the fact that the Phillies took seven of those games, and they did it without a few key players in the lineup.

Reliever Roberto Hernandez and second baseman Placido Polanco were disabled before the trip began, and Billy Wagner was put on the disabled list before Friday's game with the Rockies. The rest of the bullpen stepped up in the absence of Hernandez and Wagner, except in Monday's loss. At second, Tomas Perez and Chase Utley handled the defense adequately. Jimmy Rollins moved into Polanco's No. 2 spot in the batting order and thrived.

Rollins has lost a lot of ground with me over the last two years. Everybody liked the .274 average, 14 home runs and 46 stolen bases from his rookie season (2001), and the 29 doubles and a league-leading 12 triples showed promise of a solid player. Unfortunately, most of those numbers have been declining since then, and part of the problem was the shortstop thinking of himself as a power hitter.

It didn't help matters that Rollins starred in one of the Phillies' promotional television spots, saying that he was playing for the kid in the left-field stands who was thinking, "Hit one to me, J-Roll."

Things were supposed to change this year after Rollins worked with former batting champ Tony Gwynn on "small-ball" tactics, namely working deeper pitching counts and bunting for base hits. The fourth-year player showed enough improvement during spring training that everyone was waiting to see just how good Rollins could be.

Unfortunately, things didn't carry over into the season. The shortstop reverted to old habits, and fans started giving it to him during the last homestand.

J-Roll likes a high fastball on the first pitch. Most National League hurlers know this and are more than happy to oblige because they know Rollins will probably pop up or fly out. After doing so several times with runners in scoring position during the recent series with St. Louis, the shortstop got a few good rounds of boos while heading back to the dugout.

A recent change in his batting stance seems to have done the trick lately. Let's see how long he can sustain it.




During the Cardinals series, there were at least two incidences of fans going on the field of play at Citizens Bank Park, including one who hopped over the left-field fence as St. Louis pinch hitter So Taguchi hit a fly ball toward the left-center-field gap in the May 5 game. Fortunately, Pat Burrell made the catch, and the fan was quickly taken away.

But what would have happened if he had interfered with the play? When asked after that game, manager Larry Bowa said he honestly didn't know what could have happened. I thought it might be a good question to pose to a major-league umpire.

Henry "Shag" Crawford was a National League umpire from 1956 to 1975 and lives in retirement in Havertown, Delaware County.

"If the ball is hit out of the park, there would be no trouble at all," said Crawford. "If (the fan) bumps into a player, that would be a tough one (to call). Everything would be up to the umpire.

"I believe you would have to call 'time,' and you would put the runners in the spots that they would be in, had there not been interference. I would also advise the managers to protest the game.

"That's what I would have done," he said, adding, "but no matter what you do, you would be wrong."

Shag Crawford still has a sense of humor. He is the father of umpire Jerry Crawford, who worked the last game at Veterans Stadium and the first one at the new yard.

All of this should be a moot point. Previously, running on the field at the Vet was a misdemeanor with a $300 fine. All of that changed after Sept. 11, 2001, according to CBP security supervisor Vince Reilly. The charges have been upgraded, and the fine is $2,500.

It's not worth it, folks. Stay off the field.

This column was published on May 19, 2004, in the Northeast Times in Philadelphia, which owns the copyright. It may not be reproduced anywhere else without permission.

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