Brady Anderson, 1993 Triple Play #166

Over the past few years, Brady Anderson has gradually taken on a greater importance to the Orioles organization. In 2010, he began offering training tips and baseball instruction to outfielder Nolan Reimold, and when the young player finally found an opening back into the O's lineup late in the 2011 season, he looked much healthier and more focused than he had in a miserable 2010 campaign. Brady also did some offseason work with Mark Reynolds last year, and the slugging infielder's numbers improved across the board in his debut with the Birds. In spring training, the Orioles asked Anderson to drop by Sarasota as a special instructor. This winter, he's taken on pitcher Brian Matusz for some tutleage and conditioning work. Earlier this week, the team announced that Brady will have an increased role in scouting as well as instruction throughout the organization. I'm glad that the higher-ups have seen the value in having former O's players around who can actually make valuable contributions. For now, I just want to see on-field results from Brady's newest pupil.

Glenn Davis, 1993 Triple Play #73

Welp, I'm on the disabled list under pretty embarrassing circumstances. Tuesday night, I got up from my couch too carelessly and whacked the instep of my right foot on the corner of my coffee table. It hurt like the wordsworth at the time (I'm sick of "hurt like the dickens"), but I didn't give it much thought until I took a walk on my lunch break yesterday afternoon. I had some soreness after that, but suddenly by the time I got home I couldn't put any weight on the foot. There was a red, angry-looking splotch just below the ankle, so I spent most of last night trying to keep the foot elevated and icing it. I figured that I could muddle through, but I woke up a few times during the night with throbbing pain in the foot. From 4:00 AM onward, I was unable to get back to sleep. After laying in bed for a few more hours, I got up and dressed and made breakfast on one foot, took some Motrin, and drove my sorry carcass to the doctor.

The diagnosis: a nasty contusion. Nothing broken, probably not even a sprain. All the same, I was sent home with anti-inflammatories, an Ace bandage, and crutches. I wish my bedroom and bathroom weren't on the top floor of the house.

If there's a baseball tie-in here, it's that I probably have little room to make fun of injury-prone bumblers who miss games after falling asleep in a tanning bed or getting nailed with a line drive while sitting in the dugout.

David Segui, 1993 Triple Play #12

Oh, there's nothing like some good 1990s nostalgia. It was a simpler time, when Luis Polonia (shown sliding) and the Angels simply hailed from California, and not Los Angeles by way of Anaheim. For that matter, Luis hadn't yet befouled the Orioles roster with his special brand of horrible, careless baseball. That would have to wait until 1996 (51 OPS+ in 58 games). David Segui was just discovering his stroke as a hitter, and probably not giving any serious consideration to performance enhancing drugs. He wasn't closely acquainted with the disabled list at the time, either. But perhaps one of the most mystical things that this card tells us about 1993 is that it was a time when you could use color gradients and the word "Awesome" without any hint of irony or sarcasm. Halcyon days, indeed.