Luke Scott, 2011 Topps Allen and Ginter #78

On Saturday, June 25, 2016, at 10:03 AM, Finn Caleb Brotzman was born. Seven pounds, seven ounces, 21 inches long. He is as healthy as can be, and his cleft lip has no palate involvement, so he'll only need one surgery to correct the lip. The 28.5 hours that crawled by between the time we checked in to labor and delivery on Friday morning and the moment that our son took his first breath the following morning were full of restlessness and anxiety. Janet and I are both still exhausted, but it was all worth it.

During our stay in labor and delivery and postpartum, we watched at least parts of all four games of the Orioles' home sweep of the Rays, so Finn's life as an O's fan is off to a charmed start. He has a motley assortment of Birdland Birthday Buddies: Luke Scott, turn-of-the-century reliever Ryan Kohlmeier, and 1977 bullpenner Dick Drago. I know you'd probably like to read several paragraphs about Dick Drago, but instead I'll distract you with baby pictures. Enjoy!

Luke Scott, 2010 Topps National Chicle #156

This may shock you, but Luke Scott's mouth just got him in trouble again. The ex-Orioles outfielder found out that calling your coach a liar and a coward is frowned upon in South Korea, where he had been playing for SK Wyverns. I say "had been", because the team released him for being disrespectful. Luke had been placed on the disabled list with plantar fasciitis, and disagreed with the way the situation was being handled. Surely there are better ways to express that frustration, but that's Luke Scott for you. He wasn't lighting the league on fire even before the injury, batting .267 with six homers in 33 games. At age 36, it's hard to see Scott ever playing in the big leagues again at this rate.

Luke Scott, 2009 Topps #331

Topps photographer Sean McMillan's body was never found, but police were able to recover his camera a few blocks away from Nationals Park. This image of Luke Scott bending over was the only photo stored on that camera.

Luke Scott, 2008 Topps Orioles Team Set #BAL13

Okay, it was a rough week on the Orioles' Hot Stove. Brian Roberts jumped ship for the Yankees, heartthrob/lefty-killer Danny Valencia was traded to the Royals for David Lough (pronounced "low", as in low walk totals and low power numbers), and a promising free-agent deal with closer Grant Balfour was scotched due to an apparent red flag on his physical, leading to Balfour loudly trashing the O's in protest. But the Birds still had a better week than their former left fielder/designated hitter Luke Scott, who settled for a one-year contract with the SK Wyverns, a South Korean ballclub. His contract was $250,000 with a $50,000 signing bonus, which still puts him well below the MLB minimum. If a 35-year-old, injury-prone gun nut with a reputation for running his mouth can't get a good deal in this free agent market, what chance does any player have?

Luke Scott, 2012 Topps Gold #107

Well here's a rare sight: Luke Scott robbing a home run in left field at Camden Yards. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to make a play like this: racing back to the wall, timing your jump just right, snatching the ball securely in your glove...and that's without accounting for the yokels in the front row who are reaching their filthy meathooks out to try to grab it away from you.

Luke Scott, 2009 Topps 206 Bronze #152

Goodbyes never get any easier. When a bum shoulder limited Luke Scott to 64 games and a cruddy .220/.301/402 batting line last year, it didn’t bode well for his return in 2012*. He was still arbitration-eligible, so renewing his contract would have cost something close to the $6.4 million he made in 2011. Dan Duquette acted prudently by non-tendering Luke, but I was mildly surprised that he never seemed close to re-signing the 33-year-old power hitter at a lower price. I’m not going to fault the O’s front office for not paying a premium to roll the dice on a hitter of that age coming off of major shoulder surgery, though I did feel a twinge of dread/envy (drenvy?) when I heard that he’d signed with the Tampa Bay Rays. If the most intelligent and innovative team in the division wants Scott, chances are good that a) he’s still got plenty left in the tank and b) he’s not costing them much money. At least he’s not a Yankee.

*As a quick aside, for Luke Scott to be named Most Valuable Oriole in 2010, only to follow up with a shortened and injury-impaired campaign that sealed his departure from the team, just seems so poetic. It’s the recent history of the Orioles in a nutshell.

So here’s one last tip of the cap to LUUUUUKKKKEEEEE!, a Baltimore favorite for the past four years. I wish you would’ve let your bat do all of the talking, but I do respect your right to voice your opinions, no matter how ill-informed I believe them to be. (Check me out, exercising my own freedom of speech!) As time passes, all of that off-field crap will fade into the background and I’ll be left with the memories of your 84 home runs in orange and black and those wonderful weeks and months during every season when you just terrorized opposing pitchers and carried the Oriole offense on your back. Some of my most joyous experiences at Camden Yards involve you and your feats of strength, like your five RBI with two swings of the bat on Matt Wieters Day or the home run you deposited within a few rows of my seat in the bleachers during a nondescript Friday night game against the Nationals. I wish you health and success, but I hope you save the latter for your non-Oriole opponents.

Luke Scott, 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH200

As another Orioles season draws to a close, I tip my hat to Luke Scott, the 2010 Most Valuable Oriole as chosen by the local media. He didn't have much competition for the award, but his great season should be recognized. Besides leading the Orioles with 27 home runs, a .535 slugging percentage and a .902 OPS, he also set career highs with 70 runs scored, 29 doubles, 239 total bases, a .284 average, and a .368 on-base percentage. He was also one of the top ten American League hitters in slugging, OPS, OPS+, and at bats per home run (16.5). Not a bad year's work for a guy who entered the season trying to shed the label of a streaky hitter. There should definitely be a spot for him on the 2011 Orioles.

Luke Scott, 2010 Upper Deck #75

Mariano Rivera is the Yankee of recent vintage that I respect the most. He quietly goes about his business year after year and is ludicrously good at what he does. Entering today's series finale, he had faced the Orioles 115 times in his career, more than any other opposing team. Believe it or not, his 3.07 ERA against the Birds is one of the highest marks he has against anyone; the Angels (3.43) are the only American League team that touches him up more frequently. That's not to say that Baltimore has Mo's number by any means. The New York closer has 65 career saves against the O's, and had blown five saves in sixteen years. Only ten of the 481 Oriole batters to face him had hit home runs (Rafael Palmeiro and Aubrey Huff each touched him up twice - Edgar Martinez is the only other hitter with two HR off of him), and only four of those were game-tying or go-ahead homers.

Today the script was flipped from last week's series in Yankee Stadium. It was the Bronx Bombers who were trying to wrap up a road sweep, and who were undone by a ninth-inning homer. Luke Scott (1-for-12 in his career vs. Rivera) led off with a solo shot on a low cut fastball from Mariano to tie the game at three. Though he had blown his sixth career save against the Birds, he did not get the loss. The game pushed along into the 11th inning, at which point Luke did his best to single-handedly deliver the win. He led off with a double off of David Robertson, smartly hitting against the defensive shift to turn a routine fly ball to left field into extra bases. Ty Wigginton was the next hitter, and he delivered Baltimore's major league-best 13th extra-inning win with a wallop to the right-center field gap. 4-3, Orioles. Well done.

Luke Scott, 2009 Topps Heritage #190

Oh Luke Scott, how I enjoy your inexplicable hot streaks. I wish there were more to celebrate than briefly excellent performances from individual players, but the Orioles are 0-10 against the stinking Blue Jays, so I'm left with the very definition of small consolation.

Luke missed nearly three weeks of action this month after pulling a hamstring during a home run trot on June 30, and it looked like the resurgence that had boosted his average from .177 on May 4 to .274 at the time of his injury would be stalled. Instead, he came back from the layoff as locked-in as he had been before. The Oklahoma State product earned American League Player of the Week honors for his efforts over the past seven games: 13-for-27 (.481) with six runs scored, three doubles, four home runs, and eight RBI. His OPS was a tidy 1.537. You've really got to do something to get noticed when your club is thirty-odd games under .500 and loses five out of seven games during the week in question, and that stat line certainly qualifies.

Shockingly, the O's lost again tonight, 9-5, with a comeback from an 8-0 deficit falling short. Luke had one measly hit...a two-run homer that gave him six round-trippers in his last nine games played and a team-leading 17 overall. He's got a good shot at establishing a career high in home runs for the fifth straight season. Last year, he hit 25. Nine more to go; as we've seen, that's a couple good weeks for Luke.

Luke Scott, 2008 Topps Allen and Ginter #42

It's a poorly-kept secret that Luke Scott is a streaky hitter. Sometimes, it can be painful to watch him scuffle for extended periods of time, like the second half of last season (.208 AVG/.292 OBP/.375 SLG). But the upside is that when he gets hot, he's blazing. It's just plain fun to see him blasting the ball all over - and out of - the park.

In his first six games as an Oriole, Luke was 10-for-20 with three doubles and a home run. Over a nine-game stretch in June of 2008, he batted .387 with five homers and ten runs scored. He batted .485 and reached based at a .553 clip in a ten-game run that August, scoring eight times and tallying seven extra-base hits. And of course, there was a ridiculous 13-game swing in May and June of 2009 (interrupted by an injury) in which he batted .465 (20-for-43) and slugged 1.116, thanks to a double and nine home runs. He also drove in 20 runs and scored 14. Y'know, O's fans don't just bellow "LUUUUUKKKKEEEEE!!!" because it sounds neat.

Don't look now, but the soft-spoken, gun-toting, Bible-loving slugger is torching the opposition again. Since an 0-for-4 on May 4 left his average in a crater at .177, he has had 15 hits in his last 33 at-bats entering play tonight (.455). He's slugging 1.030, with a double, six homers, and 11 RBI in those nine games. That paltry batting average has been boosted 82 points to a healthier .259. Last night all he did was go deep twice off of 2009's Cy Young, Zack Greinke.

Enjoy the ride, folks.

Luke Scott, 2010 Topps #231

Yesterday, my girlfriend Barbara and I started our Valentine's Day off right with breakfast at a small cafe near her house, followed by a quick and relatively bloodless trip to Wal-mart. I've been holding off on buying new cards, hoping vainly that I could do a better job of organizing and storing the ones I already own before I move into my new house next month, but I just had to dip my toes in the water. So I grabbed a 36-card rack pack of 2010 Topps on our way to the checkout, and tore it open as soon as I got in the car.

The card you see above was the first Topps card of the new year for me. I'm hoping it's a good omen, particularly since it took me so blasted long to pull an Oriole out of 2009 Topps last year. As for the card itself, it looks great. I like the design, with the Orioles script large enough to be distinctive, yet placed somewhere relatively out of the way. The little vortex design thingy on the left side of the photo is decent, too. The photo, with Luke Scott celebrating what was likely a home run by giving a little dap to the man upstairs, is pretty unique. You'd probably prefer to see Luke's smiling face, but the picture is framed well and I do like being able to see his name and number on the back of his jersey.

I wish I could place this game, but my best guess is that it's a day game and is not taking place on a Friday (otherwise the O's would have their black alternate jerseys). I think the mook in the second row is wearing a red alternate Red Sox jersey, so we could give him the benefit of the doubt and suppose that the Sawx are the visiting team. If Scott has just gone deep, that narrows it down to two games. On July 1, he took Josh Beckett deep in an eventual 6-5 Oriole loss. On September 20, he touched up Daisuke Matsuzaka in a 9-3 loss. But then again, maybe it wasn't Scott that delivered the big hit. After all, the players in the dugout still seem to be looking out toward the field and applauding another teammate. Ah well, I'm just happy to have this card in my collection.

By the way, I typed in my code for the Million Card Giveaway that I received in this pack. My prize? A 1988 Topps Juan Samuel that I already have. Just another reason for me to dislike the much-maligned current third base coach of the Birds.

Luke Scott, 2009 Upper Deck #34

Firstly: sorry for the eBay image, but I'm not connected to a scanner at the moment. Onward and upward.

For a few anxious moments last night, I thought that I was going to miss Matt Wieters' major league debut. I left work at 4:30, which gave me just enough time to get to the train station and take the 5:16 train, set to arrive at Camden Yards at 6:33. Or so I thought. I had a sneaking feeling all day that I should have slipped out of work earlier, but that was really just because I wanted to get to the park in time to meet the Camden Chatters across the street for a drink or two. Cutting to the chase, the train did not even board until the scheduled departure time, and then we learned that there was no train crew, and we were delayed 20 minutes until a crew could be located. Yikes. Fortunately, my family arrived downtown before I did and bought the tickets. The crummy weather lent an assist as well, as thunderstorms rolled through Baltimore and did just enough damage to delay the start of the game by half an hour. It was almost 7:00 by the time I arrived, and I had time to grab some hot dogs from a street vendor and walked through the gate just as the pre-game ceremonies were taking place. They were announcing the Orioles starting lineup as my father and I walked to the escalator, and the first six O's hitters were introduced to polite applause. Then: "At catcher, number fifteen, Matt...WIETERS!" An overwhelming cheer rained down from the stands. It was the first of several goosebump moments that night.

When we got to our seats on the upper level and met up with my mother and sister, the stadium was still filling, but there was orange everywhere you looked, as opposed to the usual high-attendance games against New York or Boston. The game got under way, and there was a Wieters moment right away. Tigers leadoff hitter Josh Anderson tried to test the rookie by bunting, but #15 pounced on the ball and threw a perfect strike to first to collect the out. Again, there was a raucous shout of approval from all of us. He was really here, at last. There wasn't much more excitement until the bottom of the second inning, when the Birds put the first two runners on base against Dontrelle Willis, giving Wieters an RBI opportunity in his first at-bat. It's not often that you see a standing ovation when a rookie comes to the plate, but that was the case. Most of the crowd remained standing for the duration, until the catcher hit a sharp liner to Clete Thomas in right field, who then gunned down the terribly slow Melvin Mora trying to advance to third. It was the best-hit ball all night for Matt, who went 0-for-4 to bring a little reality to the outsized expectations that swirled around him. Luckily, his tough night at the dish hardly mattered.

The following inning, the O's bats erupted. Three straight hits by Brian Roberts, Adam Jones, and Nick Markakis gave the team a 1-0 lead, and Brandon Inge chose to nail Jones trying to score on an Aubrey Huff grounder, rather than going for the force at second and an apparent tailor-made inning-ending double play. Mora singled, and the bases were loaded with two outs. That brought Tiger killer Luke Scott to the plate. Luke's two-home-run performance on Thursday was his third such feat of strength against Detroit in the last two years. Here was a chance to break the game open, as the Birds had been letting a pretty sloppy Willis off the hook early. As Luke stood in, we noticed a rainbow arcing right over the stadium, a bizarre and portentous sight against the still-dark-gray sky. Suddenly, Luke took a big swing and sent a fly ball to right field. Thomas backpedaled and soon gave up, and the crowd game unglued as the ball disappeared onto the flag court. GRAND SLAM! The cries of "LUUUUUUKKKKEEEEE!!!!" were deafening; it was 5-0 and Mr. Wieters had some competition for the limelight.

Scott, of course, went deep again in his next at-bat and was even coaxed out of the dugout for a sheepish and brief curtain call in the middle of Wieters' subsequent at-bat. With his second-inning single and an eighth-inning walk, he didn't make an out all night. His unbelievable career stat line against Detroit now stands at: 18-for-31 (.580), 9 HR, 19 RBI, 4 2B, 5 BB, and a 2.220 OPS. There's nothing you can do but laugh...if you're an Orioles fan, I guess.

With all of the Wieters excitement and the fireworks from Luke, I can't forget the masterful performance from rookie pitcher Brad Bergesen. The sinkerballer, who outed himself as a baseball card collector in an interview with MASN, had reportedly been chomping at the bit to be reunited with his former minor league catcher, and last night he showed why. With Wieters calling every pitch, Brad breezed through the first six innings with only two hits allowed to a fairly strong Tigers lineup before running into a spot of trouble in the seventh. Still, he had a decent shot at a complete game and settle for eight full innings with two runs allowed on seven hits and no walks. As he left the field after being removed, he got a standing "O" that rivaled the stirring reception for Wieters and the huzzahs for Scott. Jim Johnson stranded two runners in the ninth to close it out in a tidy two hours and twelve minutes, and Baltimore had its fifth straight win (and seventh out of eight games).

Look out baseball, here come the Baby Birds.

Luke Scott, 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Green #168

Without a doubt, this has to be the greenest card in my collection. It's a fitting selection, since we just celebrated St. Patrick's Day yesterday (at least I did, with a six pack of Smithwick's). I'm also thinking green because bit by bit, Spring is coming. I stubbornly believe that. Calendar-wise, the vernal equinox is this coming Sunday. I loathe cold weather and most everything that comes with it. But little indicators are sprouting up to give me hope and encouragement. The dehumidifier in my basement just kicked on for the first time in months, and I saw fit to buy a new lightweight jacket during my last shopping trip. Opening Day is less than three weeks away, and thanks to the bump in Daylight Savings Time, it's light outside when I get home from work. Now the frustrating dance begins. High of 65 today, but Maryland tops out at 50 tomorrow. Still chilly enough in the mornings to wrap up in a heavier jacket and scarf, but warm enough in the afternoon to awkwardly stuff the ensemble in my backpack. Come on, Spring. We're waiting.

Luke Scott, 2008 Upper Deck #419

Today I salute the reigning American League Player of the Week. It's astonishing how quickly and fervently the fans in Baltimore have embraced Luke Scott, and I'm sure it's a pleasant surprise for Luke himself. When he arrived during the winter, he was not exactly the centerpiece of the Miguel Tejada trade. The outfielder was known as a power hitter who was not complete enough to crack the Astros' everyday lineup, and as he neared the age of thirty, he wasn't a prospect in any sense. But sometimes all a guy needs is a fresh start and the faith of the higher-ups.

So far this year, Luke has been streaky, but the hot streaks have made his presence on the team more than worthwhile. He's within one home run of his career high, and is on pace to best his high-water marks in most other offensive categories. In the first four games after the All-Star Break, Scott earned the recognition of the league office by hitting .538 (7-for-13) with four runs scored, two doubles, three home runs, and six RBI. That's a pretty small sample size, but a 1.956 OPS is never something to sneeze at. The exclamation point came in Saturday night's come-from-behind thriller. The Birds had trailed 6-0 before they even came to bat but battled back to take a 9-7 lead, only to relinquish the advantage in the sixth inning. After Ramon Hernandez's leadoff homer in the ninth tied the score, Luke sent everyone home happy with a monstrous longball onto Eutaw Street beyond right field in the tenth inning. Giddy over his walkoff shot, Luke rounded third base and saw his jubilant teammates waiting to mob him at the plate. With a huge grin on his face, the left fielder doffed his helmet and rolled it home like a bowling ball. He then took a few halting steps and slid legs-first into the plate.

So we all know that "chicks dig the long ball", but that alone doesn't explain Luke's popularity. I'd say a large part of it is the simple fact that he's seemingly brought an end to the parade of horse crap that the Orioles trotted out to left field for the past few years: sagging veterans (Jays Payton and Gibbons, Kevin Millar, Jeff Conine, B.J. Surhoff), hastily converted infielders (Brandon Fahey, Eddie Rogers, Freddie Bynum, Fernando Tatis), and suspect prospects and 4-A types (Luis Matos, Larry Bigbie, Jeff Fiorentino, Luis Terrero, David Newhan)...and then there's Eric Byrnes, who deserves his own category of futility.

But Luke also seems like a truly personable, nice guy. He's shown gratitude to the fans that shout "LUUUUUUKKKKEEEEE" whenever he comes to bat, strokes a hit, or even catches a routine fly ball (I've seen it myself), as well as those who pack the left field reserve section and cheer him on. He evens seems amused by the guy who shows up to home games dressed as Darth Vader (get it? Luke?). The two best-known non-baseball passions of Luke's life are Christianity and gun ownership. Many jaded fans roll their eyes whenever a professional athlete suggests that God is responsible for his success, wondering aloud if God wanted the other players to fail. It seems cliche, a crutch for simple-minded, conservative, or image-conscious men. But with Luke Scott, there is a genuine note to his declarations of faith. I don't get the impression that Jesus is a buzzword to him, an easy answer. Nor do I suspect that he's trying to convert the masses in one fell swoop. Regardless of his motivations, I like Luke Scott, and I hope he's found his place in the baseball world.