B. Rob: Brian Roberts Steps in at Second Base for the Injured Jerry Hairston

A mere week after being recalled from frigid Ottawa—the Orioles' own private Siberia—Brian Roberts was beaming. He stood in the Orioles clubhousee surrounded by a handful of reporters trying to help them understand how he—all 5-feet-9, 172 pounds of him—had hit two grand slams in the past seveen days off the defending world champion Anaheim Angels.

Roberts wasn't in Ottawa anymore. The owner of exactly zero career—and that means since birth—grand slams prior to that evening summed things up thusly: “It's just something you can't explain.”

It's much easier to explain how Roberts found himself in front of a major league locker, even if he was at a loss to describe his long-ball heroics. When the Orioles broke camp in the spring, Roberts was dispatched to Canada, although many thought he was ready for the majors; the team even toyed with the idea of using Roberts in the outfield as a rationalization for keeping him on the roster. But, as the logic usually goes in such cases, it was decided that another year of seasoning in the minors would better serve Roberts than irregular play off the Baltimore bench.

But all of that changed on May 21 when regular O's second baseman and Roberts' friend Jerry Hairston broke a bone in his foot. Roberts was summoned from the land of the Mountie to take over for Hairston, who was off to a stellar season. It was clear Roberts, who had only 242 at-bats above Single-A before his bi g league debut in 2001, was more prepared for this stay in the majors than he had been in stints over the two previous seasons.

“I think Brian understands his game and how it relates to the big league team better now,” says manager Mike Hargrove. “He's much more comfortable with his abilities and realizes that he doesn't have to do anything extra to be able to compete and succeed at the big league level. All players have to have that realization at some point in their career, and it looks like Brian may have reached that point. We'll see.”

Roberts is confidently succinct: “This year I feel like I'm ready.”

A life-long shortstop, Roberts shifted to second base only a year and a half ago. So, in addition to the usual adjustments that come with moving rapidly through the minors to the big leagues, he also had to contend with the shift to a new position. To gain more experience at second, following the 2002 season, he headed to the Puerto Rican Winter League, where he tied for first in the league with 57 hits and 12 stolen bases and was second with a .417 on-base percentage.

“Turning a double play is completely different from that side of the bag,” says the 25-year-old, “which has taken me a little while to get used to. I feel like I've gotten pretty comfortable with everything over there now. People always say if you can play one, you can play the other, but it's definitely different if you've never been over there before.”

“Since the time he got here we pretty much broke him down and rebuilt him,” says Orioles bench coach Sam Perlozzo, who has worked extensively with Roberts on his transition from short to second. “I think the biggest thing was this winter he went down in winter ball and he had a real good year, got his confidence back. When he came back to spring training this year, I went over to him and I said, ‘You've got all the parts. You can't do anything better than we're doing. Go ahead and express yourself, relax and I'm going to leave you alone.'”

Even though he had made progress, Roberts did not make the team out of camp and was sent north to endure Ottawa, the Orioles new Triple-A home. Despite the cold weather, long road trips and sparse fans, he made the most of the situation, hitting .315 while leading the International League with 36 runs, placing second with 19 stolen bases and third with 56 hits.

“We had a great team up there, we had a lot of fun and that helped a lot,” Roberts says of the Lynx, who were battling for the division lead at the time of his promotion. “We had a couple of guys that knew we could all be [in the majors], we just weren't at the time.”

Roberts also experienced first-hand the new stricter player conduct rules instituted by first-year minor league director of operations Darrell “Doc” Rodgers. “Honestly, our organization needed some discipline,” he says. “I would agree that we definitely needed some changes. Whether all of them are the right ones, who knows?”

While he yearned to be in Baltimore, Roberts realizes the wisdom of the decision to send him where he could play every day, even if it required a passport and a parka.

“The stadium, the fans, the trips, all that made it difficult, definitely. But that's part of minor league baseball. You just deal with it. It was definitely better than me sitting here on the bench. Who knows? When Jerry went down I might not have been prepared to play every day at that point if I'd been sitting for two months.”

Roberts' promotion was bittersweet because it came as a result of Hairston's injury just as his friend was finally fulfilling his potential and posting numbers that at the time made him the team's likely All-Star representative. Roberts and Hairston got to know each other in 2000 in Sarasota, Florida, when they both were rehabbing following surgery. At the time, Hairston was establishing himself as the everyday major league second baseman and Roberts was still a shortstop in the minors; the two envisioned a time when they would form a big league double-play combination.

“That was our goal,” recalls Roberts, “let's play together in Baltimore.”

“We got to be pretty close there,” remembers Hairston, who is expected to be out of action until at least mid-August. “Now we work out together in the offseason in Arizona. It's a good relationship.”

Roberts has seized the opportunity to take over for Hairston.

“I'm very comfortable at second now,” he says. “It's become more natural.” “You can tell he's a lot more comfortable out on the field and more sure of himself,” observes the hobbled Hairston. “It's really been good to see. He's really contributed to this team, and he keeps getting better.”

“I think he's doing a great job,” adds Perlozzo. “He's really relaxed out there. He turns the double play really well. We're just going to let him go.”

Roberts, a switch-hitter since he was three years old, has also settled in as the leadoff hitter and provided some unexpected punch. After hitting safely in the first seven games after his recall, including the two slams, Roberts soon pieced together another seven-game streak. Overall, he hit safely in 22 of his first 28 games with the Orioles, including 10 multi-hit games.

“If there was anybody I'd like to come in and replace me right now,” says Hairston, “it would be him. It's good to see he's getting that shot.”