It's a fun coincidence that Brian Roberts was featured on card number nine in this set, because he was born on the ninth of October. Today Brob (The B-Rob nickname annoys me, so I prefer to pronounce it as one word, like "blob") turns 33. October 9 is a momentous day: the Orioles' second baseman shares his birthday with early 1900s Hall of Famers Joe Sewell and Rube Marquard. Outside of the world of baseball, other notable 10-9ers include legendary musician John Lennon (who would have been 70 today), and my own father, who is 56.
As documented in painstaking detail on this very blog, this was the most trying year of Roberts' ten-year major league career. Between injuries and illness, he missed over a hundred games. But in between, he squeezed in his typical effort, batting .278/.354/.391 with 14 doubles and a 12-of-14 success rate on stolen bases. Even in an abbreviated season, he still continued to climb the ranks of the Orioles' all-time offensive leaders. If he can return to good health in 2011, he could further cement his place as one of the team's greats:
-Seventh in runs scored, 757 (within 40 runs of fifth)
-Eighth in walks, 538 (within 34 walks of seventh)
-Ninth in hits, 1338 (within 118 hits of sixth)
-Fourth in doubles, 332 (within 32 doubles of third)
-Second in steals, 268 (within 40 steals of Brady Anderson's team record)
Happy birthday, Brian. May your next year be more professionally fulfilling than the last one.
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