The Phillies need to retire Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard’s numbers. But first, they have to ditch their own rule about it. | Matt Breen

A heavy rainstorm would delay the first home game of the Phillies season by nearly two hours, but it had no chance of derailing Jim Bunning on that April afternoon in 2001.

The former Phillies pitcher — the ace of the star-crossed 1964 squad — was due back in Washington that day for a vote on the Senate floor. The Senate’s Republican leader told Bunning, who was in his first Senate term representing Kentucky, that he would table two key issues until Bunning arrived.

So Bunning, still as strong-willed as he was when he started seven of the final 19 games in 1964, pushed through the rain and stood near the pitcher’s mound at Veterans Stadium as the team retired his No. 14 in the middle of a storm.

Bunning, with a Phillies official holding an umbrella over his head, ended his speech by addressing the two other famous No. 14’s in team history.

“I want to talk to some of the older fans who remember another No. 14 by the name of Del Ennis. He was the heart and guts of the Whiz Kids,” Bunning said. “And there was another No. 14 who played here [Pete Rose], and when they retire his number it will be in Cincinnati.”

Ennis grew up in Olney and still ranks third in Phillies history in home runs and fourth in RBIs. Rose is often credited with pushing the franchise to its first championship. Both, at least in 2001, had compelling cases for their numbers to be retired.

But the Phillies said when they added Bunning’s No. 14 above the outfield wall at The Vet that retired numbers are reserved only for players who are also members of Baseball’s Hall of Fame. That shut the door on Ennis and Rose. Even then, the rule was a bit questionable since it took five years after his Cooperstown induction for Bunning to get his number retired and Richie Ashburn had his number retired 16 years before becoming a Hall of Famer.

The rule remains a rule that the Phillies, 18 years after last retiring a number, continue to follow. Already questionable, the rule is now simply outdated and must be ignored in the coming seasons if the Phillies are to properly honor the three players who defined the winningest era in Phillies history.

Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard will be celebrated this season on separate nights at Citizens Bank Park with retirement ceremonies. Rollins, who will be honored Saturday night, seems to have the best case for Cooperstown. But his case, just like the ones for Utley and Howard, is not an automatic one.

It is highly unlikely that all three will enter the Hall of Fame. So the Phillies, if they continue to follow the rule they created, would then forbid themselves from retiring the numbers of three of the most important players in team history because a few hundred baseball writers did not believe that Rollins, Utley, or Howard was worthy of Cooperstown.

But it should not be up to the Baseball Writers Association of America to dictate how the Phillies view their own history. Would the impact Rollins, Utley, and Howard left on the franchise become greater just because they had a bronze plaque in Upstate New York?

The decision to enshrine them in Cooperstown needs to be separate from the decision to paint No. 11, 26, and 6 on the brick wall above Ashburn Alley.

There is momentum building for a retirement of Roy Halladay’s No. 34, especially after Bryce Harper agreed to not wear the number when he joined the Phillies. Halladay will enter the Hall of Fame this summer.

But the three players who provided the foundation of the teams Halladay pitched for may never head to Cooperstown. And it would just seem misguided if the Phillies chose to not bestow Rollins, Utley, and Howard with the franchise’s ultimate honor.

Rollins was the spark for the team that won five straight division titles, Utley was the fearless leader of the team that brought Philadelphia its first major championship in 25 years, and Howard was the muscle of the only team in franchise history to win back-to-back National League crowns.

It is possible to dissect each player’s candidacy for Cooperstown and find holes. But it is impossible to create an argument against what they meant to Philadelphia. Imagine writing a history book about the Phillies and leaving out Rollins, Utley, or Howard. That book would be incomplete.

Just like Bunning did not let a rainstorm get in his way, the Phillies cannot let their own rule stop them from making the right decision.