Announcing Scott Rolen Honorary Retirement Day!

Readers of The Good Phight, I have an important announcement to make.

Friday, September 26 will be Scott Rolen Honorary Retirement Day here at The Good Phight.

I'm sure you have some questions, so let me anticipate them and give you some answers right up front.

Why are we doing this?

A few weeks ago, Wet Luzinski sent the TGP writers this article. It's from February of this year, but most of us had missed it. Here are a few highlights.

Scott Rolen hasn't bothered to file the paperwork that would officially make him a retired player. He doesn't use that description, either, preferring to present himself as simply inactive at the moment.

Wednesday was the first time Rolen had set foot on a big league field since the Reds were eliminated from the postseason in Game 5 of the 2012 NLDS.

Once the idea he is not coming back as a player begins to settle, the legacy questions can begin. He was the second-best pure third baseman the organization has ever had (Dick Allen played multiple positions), behind Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt.

After reading that piece (which is really great, please check it out), I made myself double check Rolen's Baseball-Reference page to confirm that he really hadn't played in almost two years. That makes it sound like I didn't notice he was gone, which was only true for a few months back in 2013. He was a fixture in baseball for such a long time that thinking about him retiring seemed... wrong.

But of course, Rolen doesn't want to use the word "retire", instead choosing to go the Jamie Moyer route -- not officially retiring, but not actually playing anymore. So Wet Luzinski, who is a font of good ideas, suggested that we do something to celebrate Rolen. Thus Scott Rolen Honorary Retirement Day was born.

What will this Scott Rolen Honorary Retirement Day entail?

On Friday, most of our content will be Rolen-related. The Good Phight staff is already hard at work on a number of pieces about various Rolen-y topics. He's an important figure in recent Phillies history, and there's a lot to say about him.

Since we can't really have a party celebrating him, imagine your TGP writers sitting in their respective homes and offices, wearing Rolen party hats, waving noisemakers, and shouting "YAY SCOTT!" throughout the day.

What can you the reader do to contribute to this important occasion?

I'm so glad you asked! The best way for you to contribute to SRHRD is to write a fanpost (or fanposts!) about Scott Rolen. Share your favorite Rolen memories, your thoughts on his playing career, his legacy, etc. Staff favorites will be placed on the front page on Friday, posted on Facebook, and tweeted from the TGP twitter account.

Since Rolen's non-retirement is depriving us of an official opportunity to look back at his career, we're creating our own. Check the front page throughout the day on Friday for more Scott Rolen content than you could ever dream of, and don't forget to submit your own Rolen fanposts throughout the week.