It was a difficult question, for a player who always made what he did look easy: What is the proudest moment of your career?

Jimmy Rollins won an MVP, won a World Series, four Gold Gloves, and was the linchpin of the most successful 5-year run in the 143-season history of the Phillies. So you could understand if a question like that would flummox him.

But he didn’t hesitate. He spoke his mind, right on brand.

“I’d say the 2007 season,” said Rollins, a guest on The Phillies Show podcast. “I say that because it built the belief system. It literally was the launching pad for us as an organization for that five-year stretch that we had.”

That season unofficially began with a Statement.

Once he said it, it was out there, and it spread like wildfire. Across a city, across the country. Three little words that changed the mindset of a franchise, and the landscape of the NL East.

“I think we are the Team To Beat.”

Team To Beat.

Jimmy Rollins’ words before the start of the 2007 season were bold, but that wasn’t new to Jimmy. Despite his 5’7” frame, he was 10 feet tall around a baseball diamond. He talked a big game, and felt he could back it up. More often than not, he was right.

This, though, seemed different. Bigger. He said it with his chest, and it was something he truly believed. He believed in the team around him, that the management had made strong moves in the offseason to fortify and already strong, homegrown core, even if they slow-played their hand.

“[Then-GM] Pat Gillick coming in and saying we’re years away and – I can curse on this, right? – I’m like ‘F— that! I don’t have years, bro!’

“It worked. It pissed me the hell off. I don’t know how anyone else felt about it, but when he said that, I was pissed, I’m like ‘What the f— you talking about, bro? We have it right here.’”

It turned out he was right, but the first big step toward the mountaintop wasn’t easy. The Phillies sat seven games behind the Mets with 17 games left on the schedule. They finished 13-4, including a win in the regular season finale over the Nationals that prominently featured Rollins.

He carried his teammates that September, and won the NL MVP as a result. Fans remember Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels and others in their heroic moments from that five-year run, but if not for Jimmy, his words and actions, none of it may have even happened.

“This whole system of guys just coming up and buying into, ‘This is ours, we will win,” Rollins remembered. “That was the proudest moment of my career. It culminated in my MVP, but it was seeing just everybody buy into something.”