Who Is Scott Rolen? Randian Hero or Over-Thinker?

St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen is having a terrible postseason. His surgically repaired sore left shoulder obviously is limiting him, but Rolen's career postseason batting average is .187 — and that's over 91 at-bats, a decent sample size. So maybe he thinks about the pressure and lets it get to him?

Anyway, what caught my eye in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story on last night's game was one of the most bizarre quotes I've ever read from a pro athlete:

"I'm 100 percent of what I can be when I go out there," Rolen said. "I believe in the man. I believe in the heart. I don't believe in any of the other stuff that swirls around, any of the numbers. I'm going out there with the only way I know to go out there. I have faith in the human, in the man. That's the way I go out on the field. Am I hurt? No. I'm as good as I can be every night when I go out there."

Bizarre. Then I remembered that Rolen once said he was a fan of Ayn Rand's writing and has been spotted wearing a T-shirt with the slogan, “Who is John Galt?” And it all (sort of) made sense.

Galt is the hero of Rand's "Atlas Shrugged," for which the author offers this summary:

"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

So could it be that Rolen perceives himself a Randian hero? It's nice to see a cerebral ballplayer, but sometimes being a hero means stepping aside and letting others who are healthy help the team. I'm also not convinced that intelligence has much to do with being a great ballplayer.