Aaron Rowand

More than once, Aaron Rowand’s style of play has been described as hard-nosed. The world saw why on May 11, 2006.

Rowand was in his first season with the Philadelphia Phillies after five years with the Chicago White Sox, and his team was hosting the New York Mets, who had loaded the bases with two out in the top of the first inning. Xavier Nady worked the count to 3-and-2, jumped on a belt-high fastball from Phillies right-hander Gavin Floyd, and drove the ball to deep center field at Citizens Bank Park.

Running at full speed and with his back to home plate, Rowand reached above his head to make the catch and almost simultaneously crashed into the fence, his nose colliding with the bar on top of the fence.1 His knee dented the “M” in the W.B. Mason ad on the fence.2 He suffered a broken nose and facial fractures around one eye that put him on the disabled list.

“What a great, great – perhaps game-saving – catch by Rowand!” legendary Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas exclaimed on the telecast.3 Kalas was right. The play saved three runs in a game Philadelphia won by 2-0.

“The effort, the determination, the want-to,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said afterward. “The way he caught the ball. He knew he was going to hit the fence.”4 Mets manager Willie Randolph said “You see great catches all the time, but to see a guy sacrifice his body like that made it even greater.”5 But no one was surprised. As Kalas said, “[He] would run into a brick wall to help his team win.”6

Recalling the play years later, Rowand said, “I remember thinking that if I catch this ball, we’re going to win the game.”7 In fact, he nearly ran into the wall in a game not long after returning from the lineup and said simply, “My job is to catch balls hit in my direction.”8

It wasn’t the first time Rowand had made contact with an outfield wall. In August 2001, he temporarily preserved White Sox pitcher Dan Wright’s no-hit bid with a spectacular seventh-inning catch followed by a crash into the wall.9 Nick Capra, the director of player development for the White Sox, said in 2015 that “fans [in Chicago] have always reserved a special place for Aaron because of his all-out style of play and love for the game.”10

Rowand showed that later in his career with the San Francisco Giants, a classic example coming on July 10, 2009. With one out in the ninth inning, San Diego’s Edgar Gonzalez hit a rocket that Rowand tracked down to preserve an eventual no-hitter by the Giants’ Jonathan Sanchez. Rowand made a leaping grab and then smacked back-first into the center-field wall.11 “I played hard,” Rowand said. “My coaches and my father taught me to play like that.”12 I played baseball with a football mentality.”13

Aaron Ryan Rowand was born on August 29, 1977, in Portland, Oregon. His father, Bob, owned an air-conditioning business, and his mother, Connie, was a registered nurse in a neo-natal intensive care unit. He had a brother, Don, and a sister, Christie.14

When he was 10 years old, Aaron often played slow-pitch softball with his father in an adult league when the team was short on players. “He played better than a lot of the grownups,” Bob recalled. “So he worked on his skills.”15

After later moving to Southern California, Rowand graduated from Glendora High School. After that, Rowand narrowed his college choices to Southern Cal and Cal State-Fullerton. Fullerton Coach George Horton was at Rowand’s home to sign him when USC coach Mike Gillespie called. Rowand told him that he was about to sign with Fullerton, “and he told me, ‘It’s my fault. We didn’t get there soon enough.’”16

Soon after, Rowand had another decision to make, as the Mets had drafted him in the 40th round of the 1995 amateur free-agent draft. Rowand said he weighed his options as to where he’d be drafted and how much money he’d be offered, compared with the benefits of getting an education. “I thought I would be a top-three-round pick, but the scouts realized I kind of wanted to go to college, so I fell to late in the draft. After summer ball, they offered a lot more money, but it still wasn’t enough to keep me from going to college.”17

He was named an All-American after his final season in 1998, in which the Titans won the South Division of the Big West Conference, and finished with a career batting mark of .345.18 He played in the summers of 1996 and 1997 with the Brewster Whitecaps of the prestigious Cape Cod League.19

Rowand acknowledged how much he learned in both places. “When I was in high school, I thought I had the game figured out,” he said, “but then I went to Fullerton and felt dumb. There was so much stuff that I didn’t have a grasp of. Fullerton is where I learned to play the game the right way. The same with my two years in the CCBL – Bill Mosiello was one of the toughest coaches I ever played for, and he was tougher on me than the other guys. He saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. It was there that I learned more how to hit with my hands instead of with my body.”20

Rowand’s decision to reject the Mets after high school and attend college paid off, as his stock rose dramatically in the ensuing three years. He improved from a 40th-round pick in 1995 to a supplemental first-round selection – the 35th player chosen – by the White Sox in 1998 and received a bonus of $575,000.21

“It was his dream come true,” Bob Rowand said. “He made us all cry and we were all excited. We couldn’t wait for the next step in his life. He competed well in high school and in college and stuff, and now it was on to the Minor Leagues.”22

Duane Shaffer, then the White Sox scouting director, said, “I was extremely happy to get a kid like him. I knew the physical tools, but it was the mental side for him. He was going to make himself a big-leaguer – no matter what. This kid had tremendous determination. When he was there for the taking as the supplemental pick, we were extremely happy – because we knew we were getting a gamer, one of those guys that loved to put the uniform on and do whatever he could do to help a ballclub win. I just had a really good feeling about him … the way he went about his business. … You look at him, and you know this guy is a big-leaguer.”23

As Bob Rowand said, “He just has the desire and energy about him that doesn’t stop. He’d be the first one to practice and the last one to leave all the time. There were times even during high school; we would go back after practice at 8 p.m. to the batting cages.”24

Reportedly, the evaluation was that Rowand had good power and good arm strength, but some wondered about his strike-zone judgment and ability to make firm contact.25 In the long term, Rowand largely overcame those concerns, at least when based simply on strikeouts and walks as percentages of plate appearances. He struck out 16 percent of the time in the minor leagues and in 19 percent of his major-league plate appearances. In 2023 major-league players struck out an average of 22.7 percent. On the other hand, Rowand’s walk rate was never high. He walked about 6.4 percent of the time in the minors and 5.4 percent of the time in the majors. Major leaguers’ average walk rate in 2023 was 8.6 percent.26

Regardless, Rowand made an impact at the beginning of his professional career, averaging .342 with a .410 on-base percentage and .906 OPS for Hickory (North Carolina) in the Class-A South Atlantic League. The next season, he moved up to High-A ball with Winston-Salem in the Carolina League, finishing with a .279 batting average and an .840 OPS, along with 24 home runs and 88 RBIs, and earning a spot on the league all-star team. His on-base percentage, though, fell to .336, as his strikeout rate increased and his walk rate decreased.

After that second season, on November 27, 1999, Rowand married the former Marianne Griffen on November 27, 1999. They have two children, daughter Tatum and son McKay.

In 2000 Rowand stepped up to Birmingham of the Double-A Southern League and got all-star recognition, though his numbers again dropped from the previous season to a .258 batting average, .321 on-base percentage, and .759 OPS. He again showed some power by hitting 20 home runs and having 37 percent of his hits go for extra bases.

That performance earned Rowand a shot at Triple A with Charlotte of the International League, where he batted .295, posted an .879 OPS and hit 16 home runs in 82 games before getting called up to the White Sox in June.

“I was about halfway home from a game when I got a call from our manager, Nick Leyva,” Rowand recalled, “so I turned around and went back to the field. I was wondering what I’d done wrong, and then he told me I was going to the big leagues.”27

Joining the White Sox in St. Louis, he got to Busch Stadium extra early that first day and simply sat in the dugout for an hour or so – “Just in awe of the surroundings. Later, I watched [Cardinal slugger] Mark McGwire take batting practice and thought that if everyone hit the ball that far, I wasn’t going to be there long.”28

“I’d called a couple of guys I’d played with earlier, and they took me to the field and told me some of the unwritten rules,” he added. “A funny thing – to get to our workout facility, we had to go the Cardinals’ side of the stadium. They told me where the gym was, but when I opened the door it turned out to be the Cardinals’ training room and McGwire was sitting there. He just smiled and said, ‘Next door down.’”

Rowand’s first action was in an 8-3 loss to St. Louis on June 16 when he pinch-hit in the ninth inning. He acknowledged that he was both excited and nervous. “We were losing, and our manager, Jerry Manuel, said to grab a bat and hit third. They brought their closer, Dave Veres, in to get some work. With two out, the entire crowd was standing, clapping and cheering, and I think everyone could see my legs shaking. I popped out to the pitcher on a 1-and-1 count, but at least I didn’t punch out in my first at-bat.”29

Rowand got his first hit three days later – a seventh-inning single on a 1-and-1 pitch from Tony Cogan of the Kansas City Royals. “I’d faced Tony in college and in the Cape Cod League, so I was comfortable against him,” he recalled. “I ended up getting a single down the right-field line. I thought about trying to stretch it into a double, but I didn’t want to get thrown out after getting my first hit.”30

Rowand, a cousin of former major-league pitcher James Shields, got his first major-league home run off Pittsburgh’s Jason Schmidt on July 7. Overall, he had 123 at-bats for the White Sox and averaged .293. He then spent the entire 2002 season with the White Sox, batting .258 in 126 games. After beginning his White Sox career as a reserve, he became the regular center fielder when the team traded Kenny Lofton to San Francisco on July 28. Rowand had batted just .204 until the trade, but averaged .291 the rest of the way.

After the season, however, he broke a rib and his left shoulder blade in a dirt-bike accident. “I did something really stupid,” Rowand admitted. “I had to call [general manager] Kenny Williams to tell him, and he hung up on me.”

“I had surgery on November 13 [2002]. [Afterward] I was in the gym eight hours a day, six days a week to get ready for [spring training]. I started swinging the bat a month and a half before I was supposed to. I wasn’t at 100 percent when camp started, but I made it through and started Opening Day. Still, I got off to a slow start.”31 He hit just .133 in 23 games and was sent to the minors for 32 games before being recalled.

“I started questioning myself – was I ever going to be the same as I had been before the accident? I started trying not to fail instead of trying to succeed. But I felt better in Charlotte, where it was warmer. When I came back up, I hit a home run in my first game and took off after that.”32

The 2004 season was Rowand’s best from some statistical standpoints – a .310 batting average, .905 OPS, 17 stolen bases, and a 5.7 WAR – and his 24 home runs represented his second-highest season total.

Rowand’s offensive statistics the next season fell off – a .270 average, .736 OPS, and 13 home runs – but he was an important factor in the White Sox’ drive to their first World Series championship since 1917. Defensively in the regular season, Rowand averaged 15 defensive runs saved (DRS) above average and had an Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) of 17.4.33 His DRS figure tied for second in the major leagues. His UZR was best among American League center fielders and second in both leagues only to that of Andruw Jones (26.2) of the Atlanta Braves.34

Chicago won the AL Central Division title with a 99-63 mark and then dispatched Boston, the Los Angeles Angels, and Houston in the playoffs. The White Sox barreled through the playoffs, losing only the first game of the American League Championship Series to the Angels. Rowand batted .400 against the Red Sox in the Division Series, .167 in the ALCS, and .294 against the Astros in the World Series. For the 12 games, he averaged .267 with a .733 OPS.

Rowand said the club had begun “seeing our capabilities toward the end of spring training. We had upgraded our defense, had more speed on the basepaths, and the pitching staff was solid. Another big moment was when our closer, Dustin Hermanson, got hurt and they brought up Bobby Jenks and he stepped in and did a great job.”35 Jenks came up in July, earned six saves, and then got four saves in the playoffs, including in the clinching Game Four of the World Series.

“The media picked us to finish fourth in our division, and that pissed a lot of people off,” Rowand said, “so we played with a chip on our shoulders. We won so many one-run games that year [a 35-19 mark in those] that we were used to pressure-filled at bats, so the playoffs didn’t feel any different.”36

He added that “the ALCS was amazing. We won in five games, and the bullpen guys only pitched two-thirds of an inning [in Game One]. We got four straight complete games after that. I don’t think you’ll see that again.”37

For him, though, things were different soon after. On November 25, 2005, less than a month after the World Series, Rowand was traded to Philadelphia with minor-league pitchers Gio González and Daniel Haigwood for eventual Hall of Famer Jim Thome.

“I was heart-broken,” Rowand said. “Ironically, not long before that, I’d been in Chicago for the unveiling of a DVD about the World Series. I was talking with reporters beforehand and said I wanted to wear [the White Sox] uniform the rest of my career. The next day I was in a taxi going to the airport, heard on the radio a rumor that I was going to be traded for Thome, and thought that was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. [But] then I got the call from Kenny (Williams) a couple of weeks later.”38

The 2006 season was difficult one, as Rowand missed time after crashing into the wall against the Mets and, later, after breaking an ankle on August 21 in a collision with second baseman Chase Utley. Rowand batted .301 through June 5, but only .236 afterward and finished with a .262 mark and a .745 OPS.

The next season was better, though. The Phillies won the National League East Division title, and Rowand had perhaps his best year, averaging .309 with 189 hits, 27 home runs, and 89 RBIs. He won a Gold Glove Award, made the All-Star team, finished fifth in the league with 11 outfield assists, and topped National League outfielders with a .995 fielding percentage. “Making the All-Star team was a dream come true, and so was winning a Gold Glove,” he said. “I’ve always prided myself on defense.”39

Rowand called 2007 a breakout year, and it came at a perfect time since he was a free agent at the end of that season. He parlayed his success into a five-year, $60 million contract with the San Francisco Giants. “Aaron is an all-around player who is coming into his prime and helps us check off two boxes – an extremely talented defensive center fielder and a middle-of-the-order presence,” Giants general manager Brian Sabean said. “His ability in center field definitely plays to our ballpark and will help provide more stability to our pitching staff.”40

However, Rowand did not do as well as expected, batting .253 with a .704 OPS over four seasons. In 2008 he batted .271, a 38-point drop from the year before, and his OPS fell to .749. The next season he posted a slash line of .261/.319/.419.

In 2010 the Giants won their first World Series title since 1954, but Rowand’s batting average dropped to .230 and his OPS to .659. He played in just 105 games, his fewest since 2003, when he spent part of the year in the minor leagues. The next season, he struggled even more, batting just .233 with a career-low .621 OPS. With a year remaining on his contract, he was designated for assignment on August 31, 2011, and released on September 8.

On December 12, 2011, Rowand signed a minor-league contract with the Miami Marlins that included an invitation to spring training, but he hit just .128 that spring and was released on March 29, 2012. He finished his career with a .273/.330/.435 slash line, along with 136 home runs, 536 RBIs, and 1,193 hits.

Aside from his hell-for-leather approach to the game, Rowand is remembered for his unusual batting stance.41 One writer said it could “most simply be compared to someone with a really straight back sitting on an invisible stool (or some other thing one might sit on) with their feet pointed out.”42 Another described it this way: “First, as he settles, bowlegged, in the batter’s box, he does some sort of retro homage to Elvis the Pelvis … as he bends his knees and seems to slowly gyrate his hips. Then he holds his bat outward, at groin level, parallel to the ground. And then he wags the bat, slowly, while continuing to stand bowlegged and undulate his hips. And this goes on for … well, a beat too long to avoid an NC-17 rating if it were a movie.”43

After retiring, Rowand occasionally filled in on the White Sox’ radio or television broadcasts. He also was a guest instructor in spring training of 2015, worked for few years as the White Sox’ minor-league outfield and baserunning coach, and managed the Glendale team in the Arizona Fall League in 2016.

He says he stopped coaching in 2018 when his son, Tatum, began high school – “I wanted to be able to see him play,” Rowand said. His son now is in college, though no longer playing baseball, while his daughter graduated from college in 2023 and plans to work in physical therapy. He and his wife divorced in 2017, and he is engaged to Lisa Dinubilo.44

With a permanent home in San Clemente, California, he spends much of his time golfing and fishing.45

He had something left as a player, too, participating four years at the annual Hall of Fame Classic exhibition game at Cooperstown, New York, and winning the MVP award twice. In 2017 he also won the pregame home-run derby.46

It was just one more example of Rowand giving it all. As he said when looking back on his catch against the Mets, “When I’m through playing, if that’s the one thing I’m remembered for, I’ll gladly take that. … It means that I played the game hard. I played the game right. As a player, I don’t think you could ask for anything more.”47

Notes

1 “Aaron Rowand breaks his nose going for a catch and holds on” (2006), Video on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/opc1zk/aaron_rowand_breaks_his_nose_going_for_a_catch/, accessed January 10, 2024.

2 Dan McQuade, “10 Years Ago Today, Aaron Rowand Ran Into a Wall in South Philly,” Philadelphia Magazine, May 11, 2016, https://www.phillymag.com/news/2016/05/11/aaron-rowand-phillies-wall-broken-nose/, accessed December 14, 2023.

3 Video of play on Reddit.

4 McQuade.

5 McQuade.

6 Video of play on Reddit.

7 Tommy Canale, “Aaron Rowand – 2005 WS Champion w/Chicago White Sox,” Before The Lights Podcast, April 30, 2020, https://www.beforethelightspod.com/beforethelights-episodes/aaron-rowand-2005-ws-champion-w-chicago-white-sox, accessed January 13, 2024.

8 McQuade.

9 YouTube Video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpaBmWmsjPc, accessed January. 10, 2024.

10 Scott Merkin, “White Sox Tab Rowand as Minors Instructor,” MLB.com, November 23, 2015, https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/aaron-rowand-hired-as-white-sox-instructor/c-157978288, accessed January 16, 2024.

11 E.A., “A Real Twist of Fate: Jonathan Sanchez Throws a No-Hitter,” Bleacher Report, July 11, 2009, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/216274-a-real-twist-of-fate-jonathan-sanchez-throws-a-nohitter#:~:text=In%20what%20was%20perhaps%20the,outs%20in%20the%20ninth%20inning, accessed January 11, 2024. See also YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2-uBVoEOn0, accessed January 11, 2024.

12 McQuade.

13 Canale.

14 Aaron Rowand telephone interview, July 17, 2024.

15 Brittany Ghiroli, “Path of the Pros: Aaron Rowand,” MLB.com, November 2, 2009: https://web.archive.org/web/20091108104256/http:/sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091102&content_id=7602048&vkey=news_sf&fext=.jsp&c_id=sf.

16 Matt Brown, “Aaron Rowand Chats about Baseball and Life,” Video on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUpxV0zF9Ig, accessed January 13, 2024.

17 Canale.

18 Cal State-Fullerton baseball website, https://fullertontitans.com/sports/2023/8/3/sports-m-basebl-archives-index.aspx#1996, accessed January 16, 2024.

19 Taylor Viles, “All-Time Roster Breakdowns: East Division,” Cape Cod Baseball League website, November 5, 2020, https://www.capecodbaseball.org/news/index.html?article_id=2816, accessed January 16, 2024.

20 Canale.

21 https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/player/1440/salaries/, accessed January 9, 2024.

22 Ghiroli.

23 Chuck Wasserstrom, “Inside the Draft Room: The 1998 White Sox,” mlb.traderumors.com, April 3, 2017, https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/players/aaron-rowand, accessed January 9, 2024.

24 Ghiroli.

25 John Sickles, “Career Profile: Aaron Rowand,” MinorLeagueBall, May 22, 2011, https://www.minorleagueball.com/2011/5/22/2182112/career-profile-aaron-rowand-san-francisco-giants, accessed January 11, 2024.

26 FanGraphs.com, https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=0&type=1&season=2023&season1=2023&ind=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&team=0%2Css.

27 Canale.

28 Brown.

29 Canale.

30 Canale.

31 Canale.

32 Canale.

33 Joshua Finkelstein, “The 2005 Chicago White Sox Team Was Phenomenal, but Never Would Have Been So Great Without the Help of One Man’s Defense,” Southside Showdown, May 17, 2020, https://southsideshowdown.com/2020/05/17/chicago-white-sox-aaron-rowand-defense/, accessed January 15, 2024.

34 FanGraphs.com, https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?lg=al%2Cnl&qual=0&ind=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&season1=2005&season=2005&stats=fld&pos=cf&team=0&sortcol=13&sortdir=default.

35 Aaron Rowand telephone interview, July 17, 2024.

36 Canale.

37 Aaron Rowand telephone interview, July 17, 2024.

38 Canale.

39 Canale.

40 Associated Press, “Aaron Rowand Agrees to $60 Million, 5-Year Deal with Giants,” San Mateo (California) Daily Journal, December 12, 2007, https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/bay_area/aaron-rowand-agrees-to-60-million-5-year-deal-with-giants/article_ea5b093b-490b-51c4-8bff-d01905c89e8c.html, accessed January 15, 2024.

41 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDWQOiTtVic.

42 Jacob Shafer, “Ranking the 10 Most Unique Batting Stances in Recent MLB History,” Bleacher Report, May 12, 2020, https://static-assets.bleacherreport.com/articles/2891152-ranking-the-10-most-unique-batting-stances-in-recent-mlb-history, accessed January 15, 2024.

43 Robert Rubino, “Giants Outfielder Has Lewdest Batting Stance in Baseball,” Santa Rosa (California) Press Democrat, July 16, 2011, https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/giants-outfielder-has-lewdest-batting-stance-in-baseball-2/, accessed January 15, 2024.

44 Aaron Rowand, telephone interview, July 17, 2024.

45 Aaron Rowand, telephone interview, July 17, 2024

46 Bill Francis, “Rowand Stars, Legends Shine at Hall of Fame Classic,” BaseballHall.org, May 28, 2017, https://baseballhall.org/HOFClassic/rowand-stars-legends-shine-at-hof-classic, accessed January 15, 2024.

47 YouTube Video, “Aaron Rowand’s Catch 2006,” undated, www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS5GCKXO7D0, accessed January 12, 2024.