Philadelphians woke up with the city covered in snow, but dreaming of warmer weather is OK because pitchers and catchers are set to report to Clearwater in less than two weeks.
The Phillies certainly have the hearts of the fans here in Philadelphia being the first team to win a championship in 25 years. What would a repeat mean to this city?
Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins was a guest on Daily News Live Tuesday night shown on Comcast Sports Net.
Leave it to J-Roll to get the ball rolling on the 2009 season.
Although the Phillies are World Series champs, J-Roll is not satisfied. He expects the team to come out and use the 2008 season as motivation for the upcoming season.
Rollins was of course as confident as ever.
The Phils are still the team to beat coming into the season even with the Mets off-season additions, said Rollins.
Why wouldn’t he say that? Until the Mets can do anything about it, the Phils are coming off two-straight division championships and a World Series title to boot.
The Mets alone give Rollins enough motivation to begin another season. He loves to spoil any hope Mets fan have of winning a title.
Mets fans can rain boos down on J-Roll all they want. It seems to make him perform better and the outcome at the end of the season remains the same -- the Phillies first in the standings -- the Mets second.
Rollins did have a few things to say about his coach, Charlie Manuel. He admitted Manuel had the right to bench him after he did not run out a ball during the season.
Manuel expects hustle from his players at all times and sitting a key player because of a lack of hustle sends a message to the whole team, J-Roll acknowledges. Manuel may have been scrutinized for making the move during the season, but it ended up paying huge dividends for the team.
Prior to the past two seasons J-Roll has been a great teller of the future. He always seems to be right.
He predicted they were the team to beat in 2007 when they won the division and in 2008 he stated they would win 100 games -- counting the post season wins, the Phillies won more than 100 games.
So what’s the win total for this season going to be J-Roll? 112 wins he told the panelists on Daily News Live. This seems like a tough task, but J-Roll has not been wrong yet.
What does the 2009 season have in store for the Phillies? If J-Roll’s predictions continue to hold true, it will be another sizzling summer in South Philadelphia.
