Walter Young, 2006 Topps Heritage #216

I never like talking about recently-deceased Orioles, and I especially don't like it when the ex-player is two years older than me. Walter Young suffered a fatal heart attack last Saturday at age 35. His O's career consisted of a 14-game stint in September 2005, but he made a splashy debut in the Baltimore organization a year earlier with 33 homers and 98 RBI at AA Bowie after being claimed off waivers from the Pirates. According to the text on the back of this 2006 Topps Heritage card, big Walter (6'5", 320 pounds) hit the B&O Warehouse on the fly during a batting practice session at Camden Yards. It's a shame he didn't get to showcase that light-tower power in an extended trial in the bigs. His lone big league round-tripper was hit in Texas on September 13, 2005, leading off the seventh inning against future Cy Young winner R. A. Dickey. Ten years later, he's gone. It's just too soon.

Sammy Sosa, 2006 Topps Heritage #60

Crappy Anniversary to the Orioles, who made a desperate stab at relevance on Groundhog Day in 2005 by acquiring Sammy Sosa from the Cubs just thiiiis much past his expiration date. As it turned out, the path back to the postseason was to focus on top-to-bottom roster depth: strong defenders, strike-throwing mid-rotation pitchers, and fungible power hitters. It had little to do with tossing millions of dollars at whichever mid-to-late career "name players" were willing to go slumming at the bottom of the American League East. Who'd have thunk it?

This is as good a time as any to share a photo of a true oddball item that my friend Mike picked up at a recent garage sale. For a dollar (or maybe even less), he brought home this Sammy Sosa "CelebriDuck":

Because I don't know what's good for me, that abomination is now sitting on a shelf above my TV. So share in my pain.

Brian Roberts, 2006 Topps Heritage #190

Hooray, baseball is back!

Well, in a manner of speaking. The Orioles had their first set of intrasquad exhibitions today, or as I phrased it to my girlfriend, they decided to play with themselves. Ahem. Anyway, despite the fact that none of this counts, not even for Grapefruit League standings, I couldn't help but carefully read the flurry of tweets from O's beat reporters. I drank in the names, so familiar: Jake Arrieta. Zach Britton. Brian Matusz. Chris Davis. Nate McLouth. Brian Roberts.

Though this was little more than a glorified practice session, it was especially encouraging to learn that Roberts began the spring on a positive note, stroking a single off of Britton to score McLouth. Last year, the post-concussed second baseman didn't play in a single preseason game. He made it back to the field at Camden Yards in mid-June, and saw action in 17 games before hip surgery ended his season prematurely and unsatisfyingly. He's still no sure bet to stay healthy, and even beyond that, there's bound to be some rust. You won't find many people bullish on the potential performance of a 35-year-old infielder who has totaled 115 games in the past three seasons, but even a long-shot comeback story has to start somewhere.