It is too early to measure how valid such a fear is. It is almost just as hard to ask about it now, too. "I guess we're scrambling again," Jimmy Rollins said before yesterday's 11-6, Opening Day loss to the Washington Nationals, a wry smile clearly mocking my premise.

But it was impossible not to notice a difference when the doors opened afterward and only four men - three pitchers who had surrendered key runs - were seated at their lockers. It should be noted, with appreciation, that Brett Myers, Tom Gordon and Ryan Madson answered everything from the mass of media that accompanies any Opening Day, and one swelled even further by last season's successes.

Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Rollins eventually appeared, too, and to his credit, the 2007 MVP - who had been in the middle of much of the day's proceedings, good and bad - outlasted every last question as he sat on a table in the middle of the room. So did Howard and Shane Victorino at their lockers, answering questions in that machine-gun cadence of his, a clubhouse good guy if ever there was one.

"I don't know if there is a guy like Rowand in here,'' the Phillies' new centerfielder had said before the game. So I asked him whether it was even needed, or whether Rowand's clubhouse value was more a matter of media speak.

"I think a lot of that is media hype,'' he said. "You guys made a lot about how Aaron had that [World Series] ring and he had that leadership presence in the clubhouse. But there was not that leadership presence where he sat everybody down and talked. It was just that when he did speak, people understood because he went to the playoffs. He understood what it took to get there. So when he spoke, guys gave him that, because he had been to the playoffs.

"But I think it was also his presence and the way he played the game on the field. He played the game so hard it backed up his words. You could never say he wasn't playing hard. The way he played the game, you're going to listen to him off the field when he said, 'We need to do this.' ''

Ah, but there's the rub. This team is still full of those types.

Utley, who launched a sixth-inning home run, had the front of his shirt caked in dirt by game's end. Rollins, whose uncharacteristic fielding flubs led to two critical runs, also doubled and scored a first-inning run, then briefly tied the game with a two-run home run in the seventh inning.

Carlos Ruiz blocked a pitch with his neck, preventing a run.

"I think that's our personality now,'' Victorino said. "I don't think about the loss of Aaron that way.''

"He'd stand at his locker and that was his personality,'' Rollins said. "But nothing's changed. No one's ever run from the media. His personality was just like, 'Hey, I want to hang around.' He didn't go home after the game, so I might as well talk to everybody.''

That's not what this is about. Rowand's clubhouse contribution was less about presence, or cooperation, as it was about message, just as it was for Darren Daulton back in 1993, after manager Jim Fregosi talked him into it. As the Phillies frittered away a big, fat lead to the pre-National Expos that season - "We've always had trouble with that team,'' joked Rollins - Daulton stood in the middle of the room, night in and night out, shielding some teammates, using his answers to send messages to others.

It's about setting a tone, smoothing out the rough edges of a long season, creating that balance between patience and competitiveness that every winning clubhouse seems to have.

Who does that now? Howard and Utley are great players, but both appear reticent to become team spokesmen. Now in his eighth season, it has to be Rollins. He may have even assumed that role last year, as he backed up his bold "Team to beat'' statement with an MVP season.

Maybe that's why he rolled his eyes at the whole premise yesterday. If so, it was the best thing to come out of yesterday's Opening Day dud.

"I don't see what changed from when he [Rowand] got here [in 2006],'' he said. "I don't see why it would be different now that he isn't here.'' *

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