Rolen Joins Hall’s Roster of Elite Third Basemen

Rolen’s numbers are solid and consistent: seventeen seasons, seven all-star selections, eight Gold Gloves earned for his play at third base, 2,000-plus hits, and 316 home runs, all collected while playing in 2,038 games.”

Indiana native played 17 seasons with five clubs.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame recently added another great third baseman to its roll call—former Philadelphia Phillie Scott Rolen.

It’s official. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York on July 23 along with Tampa native Fred McGriff, the duo is now among its 342 members.

Seemingly forever, Major League Baseball has always had fantastic glovemen positioned at the ‘hot corner.' As a kid in the 1970s, for me, getting to watch the New York Yankees on TV playing the Baltimore Orioles was a treat. Brooks Robinson was known as “the Human Vacuum Cleaner.”

During Robinson’s 23 seasons with Baltimore, the 18-time All-Star and winner of 16 consecutive Gold Glove Awards, he was the standard of excellence at his position.

Other hall of famers that made their way into Cooperstown as third baseman are George Brett and Mike Schmidt in the 1980s, and Chipper Jones, beginning in the 1990s. And going back even further in baseball time, during the 1950s, with the Boston and Milwaukee Braves, Eddie Mathews garnered national attention for his slugging abilities and fielding excellence.

Now, Rolen is one of the 270 former players elected to the Hall of Fame. How good are Rolen’s statistics? Only 1 percent of the more than 20,000 to have played in an MLB game have made it to Cooperstown.

Rolen’s numbers are solid and consistent: seventeen seasons, seven all-star selections, eight Gold Gloves earned for his play at third base, 2,000-plus hits, and 316 home runs, collected across 2,038 games played.

Voters of the Baseball Writers Association of America agreed last January, when Rolen was on the ballot for the sixth time and gained 76.3 percent of their vote (75 percent or greater is needed for election), that the 1997 National League Rookie of the Year dominated for a sustained period.

From the 1998 season through 2004 (with the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals), these were Rolen’s prime years. While playing in parts of six seasons in “The Show-Me State”, and becoming the club’s everyday third baseman, during the 2006 campaign Rolen and his teammates celebrated winning the World Series.

As for not being voted into the Hall of Fame when first eligible, or in his second or third year, some of the game’s greatest also, for one reason or another, had to wait their turn longer than some expected. Yogi Berra, Harmon Killebrew, Mike Piazza, and even legendary names like Joe DiMaggio and Hank Greenberg had to get in line and wait their turn with the writers.

Cy Young, winner of 511 games, had to wait until his second year of eligibility to enter the Hall of Fame. And, when Young’s name did come up for the vote, he received 76.1%. Rolen received more votes than a legend like Young. Go figure.

Perhaps next in line for Cooperstown's elite group of third basemen is former Texas Ranger Adrian Beltre. The Dominican-born retired player, eligible for the 2024 vote, has 477 home runs and 3,166 hits on his resume of 21 MLB seasons. But, as Rolen and many others welcomed into the Hall of Fame learned, voting members of the BBWAA have a timetable unto themselves.

With Rolen finally making his way through the velvet rope to Hall of Fame immortality, one more right has been checked off for the game of baseball.