Rolen was the pro's pro

It helped him make the Hall

The first thing Scott Rolen did after he got the glorious phone call was play catch with his son in the driveway of his Bloomington, IN home. “It’s 30 degrees here and it’s going to snow like 12 inches tomorrow,’’ Rolen related later Tuesday, “and my son and I were in the driveway playing catch.’’

That’s so damned perfect.

Is there a cornfield nearby?

An apple pie cooling in the kitchen?

Oh, the unbearable sweetness. Makes you wanna wrap yourself in Old Glory and sing God Bless America.

Whether Rolen “deserved’’ to become a Hall of Famer is barely relevant. He is one as of yesterday, on his 6th try. I didn’t vote for him until I did, and I can’t explain how Rolen suddenly got better at baseball a decade after he retired. It’s one of those weird-ities that makes HOF voting as contentious as it is special.

(I wasn’t alone. In his first year on the ballot, Rolen earned 10.2 percent of the vote. He won yesterday with 76.2 percent. Makes no sense.)

I bothered to take a deeper numbers dive than usual and discovered Rolen’s WAR was worthy, 5th all-time among 3rd basemen. His eight Gold Gloves are fourth most for a third baseman. He wasn’t fast, but he had a PhD in baserunning.

None of the above would have mattered had I not been privileged to cover him in 2010, his first full year in Cincinnati. I saw the impact one player can have on an island of 25 disparate personalities. I’ve never seen anything like it here, before or since. Joe Burrow is nudging into the frame of that photo. He’s not there yet.

With all due deference to Joseph Daniel Votto, Scott Rolen was arguably the most important Red of the past 15 years.

That Reds team in April 2010 wasn’t exactly on the verge of big success, but you could see it from here. Two of its best players, Joey Votto and Jay Bruce, were not big clubhouse voices. Its third-best, Brandon Phillips, was not interested in the job.

Bronson Arroyo was a presence, as were Jonny Gomes and Miguel Cairo. None by himself could make all the parts whole. Rolen could, and did. On Tuesday, Rolen spoke of what then-GM Walt Jocketty expected of him as a Red. Simply, Jocketty wanted Rolen’s daily earnest diligence to come with a louder voice.

“He challenged me and said, ‘I’d like a culture change’,’’ Rolen recalled. “Please speak. That’s why you’re here.’’ The Reds won 78 games in ‘09. They won 91 and a division title the next year, then made the postseason again in ‘12 and ‘13.

Rolen’s locker at GABP was right next to Votto’s and almost as close to Bruce’s. That was no accident.

A bum shoulder took a bite out of his batting stroke in 2012. He retired after that season.

I’ve always believed Scott Rolen would be invaluable to any organization, even if only at spring training in some capacity. The Reds have done that with Barry Larkin and Eric Davis, among others. I think Rolen would make a fine manager. I know when he retired Rolen said he wanted to spend lots of time with his wife, daughter and son. But the kids are older now. Raine is 19, Finn 16.

Might he consider a return to the game? The game could use him.

That’s fodder for another day. Time now to soak it all in.

“The highlight of my career was the first day I got called up to the major leagues, and I watched my parents walk into the stadium,” Rolen said Tuesday. “I watched them walk down the steps — they drove overnight from Florida — and I watched them walk into the family section for the first time. I choked up on the field and had a hard time finishing the inning.’’

Cue the Field of Dreams music.

Now, then. . .

THE VOTERS ACED THE EXAM this year. Some will lament the lack of inductees. I’ve never believed that a worthy debate. I mean, so what?

Do we want the best, or do we want a full stage at the ceremony?

Every guy who gets in that shouldn’t diminishes the legacies of the guys already there.

So, no to Todd Helton. Cool your heels, Andruw Jones and Billy Wagner.

Two players in the last three years have made it by writers’ vote, Rolen and David Ortiz. That’s fine. No need for voters to be “listening to that voice in our head that says it’s always better to elect somebody,’’ in the words of ball-writer deluxe Jayson Stark.  

Good, too, that A-Rod and ManRam continue to pay the PED tax. Rodriguez went from 34.3 percent last year to 35.7; Ramirez 28.9 to 33.2. Ramirez has three more tries, A-Rod eight.

Sorry, not sorry.

OH FOR GODSAKES. . . Here’s a Yahoo! sports column written by a guy desperate for a column.

Abridged: The Bengals are villains.

Their villainy offically commenced Sunday in Buffalo, during pre-game warmups. Apparently, their newly minted image as Snidely Whiplash came courtesy of Joe Burrow. Burrow looks like Mac Culkin, aka Kevin McCallister, the Home Alone kid. That’s a villain?

We digress.

Burrow had the arrogance, the absolute gall of, in the author’s words, “flicking blind passes and pirouetting on his heel, holding the pose just long enough for the cameras to see.’’

Uh, what?

This is the Bengals’ bad-guy origin story playing out right in front of us, right this moment. The Bengals aren’t the NFL’s next supervillains yet, but they’re well on their way. Giving Burrow the epic slo-mo social treatment is like helpfully pointing Thanos in the direction of the Infinity Stones, or suggesting to Max Verstappen that he’s not on Lewis Hamilton’s level.

Yeah, I’ll make a note of that. As soon as I figure out what the hell the guy is talking about. Thanos? Infinity Stones? Max Who?

He’s a race-car driver, Doc.

Oh. That’s why he looks like Times Square.

Burrow has spent the past four years doing a note-perfect imitation of an '80s movie nerd-hunting jock villain.

Wow. Really? I thought he was playing quarterback.

SPEAKING OF HIGH ANKLE SPRAINS. . . The Chiefs might activate RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire for Sunday. He hasn’t played since Week 11. . . due to a high ankle sprain. This is Week 20, if you’re counting.

SIX DEGREES OF BROCK PURDY, courtesy of my guy Pogo, who has a keen memory for worthless stuff:

Several years ago. a kid named Kyle Kempt was a hotshot QB out of Washington HS in Massillon. He signed with UC, hoping to play for Butch Jones. Jones bolted to Tennessee. Tommy Tuberville ran Kempt off.

Kempt knocked around at Oregon State and Hutchinson CC before walking on at Iowa State, where he started eight games before breaking his knee in the 2018 opener. Some freshman greenhorn named Purdy replaced him. And now you know the rest of the story.

Kempt didn’t exactly get Pipp-ed. When he hurt his knee, he was a 6th-year senior.

But he could have been UC’s QB, an Ohio guy that might have helped Tubs gain a foothold in Ohio. Tubs took away Kempt’s scholarship. Good move, Tubs.

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . This was Scott Rolen’s walk-up music in 2012. It didn’t really strike me as a Rolen-type tune, so I asked him why he picked it. Turns out, he didn’t. As I recall, he had the Reds pick something for him. And here it is.

Makes me wish I’d asked Votto last year why he went with Dolly Parton’s Jolene as his walk-up.