Bob Ford: Rollins, Bowa: Little shortstops who could

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Everyone agreed there were better baseball players on the team, but no one ever denied that the little shortstop provided the internal combustion that fired the engine.

Nearly three decades after the Phillies' first and only championship, things have changed and things have remained the same. The little shortstop is a much better baseball player now - maybe the best on the team some nights - but there is still a lot of Larry Bowa in the role Jimmy Rollins plays for the Phils.

"We always say, 'As he goes, we go,' " said Pat Burrell, amid the din of last week's post-clinch locker-room celebration. "He sets the tone."

Rollins set the tone for the clinch with a leadoff home run in Game 5 against the Dodgers. If he could write a script for himself, that would be on the first page. He grew up in Oakland idolizing Rickey Henderson, who began so many games with home runs and never shied from accepting the spotlight that came with the way he played and the things he said. In that moment in Dodger Stadium, with the ball traveling into the stands and Rollins turning boos into silence, he satisfied his inner Henderson.

"You dream of the big game. It's the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, count full, and you toss the ball up to yourself and sometimes you hit it and sometimes you miss it," Rollins said. "But I don't think I ever imagined this."

He imagined other things, however. He wasn't afraid to say the Phillies were the team to beat in the National League East last season, a boast that eventually stood up, but one that went against the grain of a team personality that was often a touch too cool, a touch too laid-back in recent years. If Chase Utley chose to be the leader of the bland because that is his nature, Rollins didn't mind orchestrating a little controversy on occasion. He said the Phillies would win 100 games this year, and although it has taken two rounds of the postseason to make the prediction possible, they now have 99 wins as the World Series begins tonight.

"We're trying to feed the hungry people. There's been a drought in Philadelphia for a long time," Rollins said. "It's been a long time since baseball really made a statement in the city."

Rollins is fond of statements and, in that, he and Bowa are very alike. Bowa once called Phillies fans "the worst fans in the world," and, this season, Rollins chided them for being "front-runners." Those weren't the most politic remarks, even though both had some evidence on their side at the time.

"I know Jimmy said that earlier in the year," Bowa said during the series against L.A., "and we talked about it. The one thing they're not is front-runners. They come out and support their team."

Maybe Bowa has mellowed a little in his opinions. He also didn't mention that he and Rollins clashed a bit when Bowa was his manager from 2001 to '04. Bowa has always been a little harder on shortstops, just as Larry Brown always seems to differ with his point guards.

Bowa wanted Rollins to bunt more, take more walks, and forget about Rickey Henderson. It might have been good advice, but it wasn't Rollins.

Charlie Manuel has had some issues with Rollins as well, most notably when he benched Rollins this season for some cumulative late arrivals and for not running out every ground ball and pop-up.

The shortstop accepted the heat, however, just as he took the heat for a season that was significantly less productive than 2007. He homered on opening day for the second straight year, but finished with just 11 home runs and 59 runs batted in for the season, compared with 30 and 94, respectively, a year ago. He did miss 25 games, mostly due to an April ankle injury.

In the postseason, Rollins has returned to his position as team catalyst, perhaps energized by the size of the stage. He batted .375 in the division series against Milwaukee, then went quietly through the championship series until his home run set the table for the clinching. As much as he has been a leader on the field, he has also assumed a new role as team historian off of it.

On the big-league roster since 2000 - he and Pat Burrell are the only survivors from that Jurassic age - Rollins wants this team to give people something to talk about aside from 1980, which he has heard about more than enough.

"Our goal is to win the World Series, not just win the National League championship," Rollins said. "We have [merely] qualified for the Series so far. That's the way I look at it. We still have work to do. When all is said and done and my career is over, I want the legend of us in 2008 to be a great story."

Bowa knows what it is like to be part of legend. Now it might be the turn of another little shortstop who can usually back up what he says. Things change, things stay the same.