Rotate Axis Labels without FITPOLICY

[tburus]

I am creating a plot using PROC SGPLOT and have very tight data labels on my x-axis. I tried using the FITPOLICY= option, but it's not doing anything (I assume this is because there is not actually any overlap). Is it possible to rotate the labels manually? I have researched this, but have not had any luck finding a solution.

My code:

title "Football Injuries Rates, by Event Type*";
footnote "*Scrimmages and walk-throughs were excluded";
proc sgplot data=rate_year;
	format event_type event_short.;
	styleattrs datacontrastcolors=("&Dblue" "&DGray")
               datasymbols=(circlefilled)
               datalinepatterns=(solid);
	series x=year y=injrate_unwgt / group=event_type markers;
	xaxis grid fitpolicy=rotate;
	yaxis grid values=(0 to 50 by 5) label="Injury Rate per 1000 AE";
	keylegend / title='';
run;
title;
footnote;

Output:

[smantha]

try padding the year with leading and trailing spaces so that each of them is a $16. and try it