We all know what the picture above signifies. It was the play that ended the playoff run for the 102 win team. It was the injury that likely ended Ryan Howard's productive career. It was the moment that Jimmy Rollins knew it was all over.
After winning five straight NL East championships from 2007-11 and appearing in two World Series', the 2011 Phillies team was the squad everyone believed would bring another parade down Broad Street. That moment, that grounder off the bat of Ryan Howard, that is when Jimmy Rollins knew that the window of opportunity to win another championship with this group of players was over.
When did longtime shortstop Jimmy Rollins realize that their window had closed?
"The last at-bat in the 2011 playoffs," Rollins said last week in an interview with CSNPhilly.com's Jim Salisbury. "I knew it the second — immediately — as soon as Ryan (Howard) grounded out. After that game, my parents where in town, I told my dad, 'It's over, that's it." [CSNPhilly.com]
That postseason came to an abrupt end and it has been the lasting memory of October baseball in the minds of Phillies fans for the last three seasons. Since then the Phillies have gone 81-81 and put together two consecutive 73 win seasons. Now commited to a rebuild, the Phillies have begun to move on from that era, parting ways first with Jimmy Rollins. Rollins reflected on the team's window of opportunity, knowing that it wasn't going to last forever.
"It's not a surprise to me, the direction that the team was going, it was just you do have a window, but what does that mean? A window can be 10 years, it can be 15, it can be two. For us, it was a five-year window where everybody was peaking and pushing each other and we had this camaraderie that you can't explain." [CSNPhilly.com]
Rollins has spoken with Jim Salisbury on numerous topics after his trade, most recently about how the Phillies missed the presence of Jayson Werth in 2011 and how he believes Cole Hamels will be a Phillie in 2015.
Brandon Apter is a contributor to Philliedelphia.com.
