Former Phillies Star Scott Rolen Inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame

Former Philadelphia Phillies third baseman may not have finished his career in Philly, but he ended up in the same place as Phillies legends like Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton — the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Rolen was inducted in Cooperstown, N.Y., on Sunday, making him the 38th Phillies player to be inducted. The Baseball Writers Association of American voted in Rolen in his sixth year of eligibility.

Rolen also played for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Cincinnati Reds in a 17-year career from 1996-2012. Rolen went in as a Cardinal.

During that career, Rolen slashed .281/.364/.490/.855 with 316 home runs and 1,287 RBI. He was a National League Rookie of the Year, a seven-time All-Star and an eight-time Gold Glove winner. Only Hall of Famers Brooks Robinson (16), Mike Schmidt (10), plus current Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado (10) have more at third base.

He was also named a Silver Slugger and earned a World Series ring in 2006 with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Considered one of the best defensive third baseman in baseball history, his defensive WAR of 70.1 is in the Top 10 among third basemen.

When he left baseball, he was the fourth third baseman ever to have 2,000 hits, 500 doubles, 300 home runs and 1,200 RBIs, along with Mike Schmidt, George Brett, and Chipper Jones.

But his Hall-of-Fame career started in Philadelphia.

The Evansville, Ind., native was a multi-sport athlete at Jasper (Ind.) High School and was named Indiana Mr. Baseball his senior year. But he was also named to the Indiana All-Star State Basketball team. In fact, he accepted a scholarship to play basketball for Georgia before the Phillies selected him in the second round of the 1993 MLB Draft. Rolen initially wanted to do both, but he ultimately signed with the Phillies.

Known as a defensive liability early in his minor league career after a 35-error 1994 season, he worked his way through the Phillies’ system and made his MLB and Phillies debut on Aug. 1, 1996, at third base.

That started a seven-year stint with the Phillies at the hot corner, the position once manned by Hall-of-Famer Mike Schmidt. In those seven seasons he slashed .282/.373/.504/.877 with 150 home runs and 559 RBI. He was named the National League Rookie of the Year in 1997 (the first Phillie to win the award since Dick Allen in 1964), won four Gold Gloves, made his first All-Star Game appearance and claimed his only Silver Slugger award.

That All-Star Game, last Gold Glove and first Silver Slugger came in his final season with the Phillies in 2002. An impending free agent, Rolen was traded at the deadline to the St. Louis Cardinals and later signed an eight-year, $90 million extension.

With the Cardinals, Rolen made an imprint, especially in the postseason, where he hit a go-ahead home run off Roger Clemens in Game 7 of the 2004 National League Championship Series and a Game 1 home run off Justin Verlander in the 2006 World Series.

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