UPDATE, 3:30 p.m.: Rollins fell short in his quest for a 576-foot shot, but did hit his personal-best longball -- 463 feet. Rollins' longest measured home run in a major league game was 420 feet.

EARLIER:

Jimmy Rollins isn't known as a power guy. But the Phillies shortstop, at 5-8, 170 pounds, will be seeking to hit a baseball further than anyone in recorded history on Monday.

Rollins will have some help from technology with a Guinness World Record attempt on the line. He'll have a souped-up bat and be swinging at max-fly balls when he steps to the plate on the closed-down Benjamin Franklin Parkway with the Philadelphia Museum of Art (think Rocky Statue) as a backdrop.

"Everybody wonders what it would be like to absolutely crush one and watch it go," Rollins said Saturday.

The attempt, canceled last year when Rollins was injured, is being sponsored by Red Bull Ball Park Cranks. Rollins says he's been selected to try to hit a ball more than 576 feet -- the standing "longest batted ball" record attributed by Guinness to Babe Ruth -- because of his business relationship with Red Bull.

He certainly seems like an unlikely candidate. Rollins has hit 161 career home runs -- a career-high 30 in 2007 and 47 since. By comparison, teammate Ryan Howard, with 269 career homers, has hit 47 or more homers in three seasons.

Howard laughed last year when he was told Rollins would attempt to break the Guinness record under optimum conditions.

"Optimum conditions -- does that mean a 35 mph wind behind him?" asked Ryan Howard, who hit 58 homers in 2006 and once had a homer measured at 502 feet.

Rollins, a switch-hitter, says he'll be swinging right-handed. In his career he's hit 113 homers from the left side, 48 from the right. But Rollins is naturally right-handed and says he feels most comfortable swinging for power that way.

He estimates the farthest he's hit a ball under conventional conditions is about 420 feet. With juiced balls and bats, he's not sure what his limits might be.

"With technology, if you get another 160 feet out of it, that would be a lot of fun," he said.

Last year, Red Bull recruited Dr. Lloyd C. Smith from the Washington State University School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and Dr. Alan Nathan of the University of Illinois Physics Department, who have experience testing bats for little leagues and college-level teams.

"In all the years I've been in the sports science area, it's the first time we've had a professional player willing and able to test the limits of hitting a baseball," Smith said. "We're extremely excited to see what valuable information we can gather from this merging of science and sport."

Weight of the ball, speed of the bat, air resistance and bat manipulation are among factors the scientists expect will come into play.

Rollins says he's being cautious about one thing: making sure he doesn't injure himself by swinging hard.

"I'll be plenty warmed up. That's for sure," he said.