Brian Roberts

Safe At Second

For the first time in his four years as a big league player, Brian Roberts is going to spring training knowing that he has a job.

He is the second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles. No questions asked: No “what ifs.” No “who elses.” No “if onlys.” The position is his. Roberts will not have to prove himself this time. He will not have to face competition from his long-time friend and fellow second base aspirant, the departed Jerry Hairston.

Or from anyone else. He will not have to worry about whether he will be on the bench or in the Opening Day lineup. He won’t have to wonder if he will be wearing the uniform of the Baltimore Orioles or some other major or minor league club.

When the Opening Day lineup is handed by manager Lee Mazzilli to the umpires, Brian Roberts’ name will be on it as the Oriole second baseman — barring injury, of course.

“It’s very different this time,” Roberts acknowledged, as he was packing up his belongings at his winter home in Scottsdale, Arizona, a week before his scheduled arrival at the Orioles’ spring training camp in Ft. Lauderdale. “In my five previous years of going to Ft. Lauderdale, I’ve never had the opportunity to go to spring training and know I’m going to get the chance to play every day and know that the position is mine. It really gives me a peace of mind going into spring training this year.”

That peace of mind, of course, can work two ways.

It could absorb some of the stress off Roberts, who is 27, and help him concentrate more on his game instead of worrying about earning and keeping a job. Or the lack of competition could take the edge off Roberts’ approach to the game.

Roberts insists that the fact that he no longer is competing for the second base job with Hairston, who was traded to the Chicago Cubs in February for Sammy Sosa, will not alter his approach to the way he plays.

“I think 75% of big leaguers are people who know they are going to have regular jobs, so I don’t think the job performance goes down,” he explains. “We’re professionals. I don’t think we let down — if you have any pride.”

The Orioles’ co-general manager, Jim Beattie, believes it will be up to Robert s to show how he reacts to being assured of having an everyday major league job for the first time in his life. “He needs to keep pushing himself,” says the Oriole official.

A year ago Roberts came to spring training, once again, in fierce competition with Hairston for the second base job.

The rivalry didn’t last very long. In the very first exhibition game of 2004 in Ft. Lauderdale, Hairston, playing second base, led off the bottom of the first inning with a single. He stole second. Then he immediately stole third, but while sliding into the bag, he broke the knuckle of his right index finger.

So much for Baltimore’s battle for the second base job. Hairston went on the disabled list for two and one half months. By the time he returned to the Orioles, Roberts was ensconced at second, hitting .305 and playing great in the field. He hadn’t made an error by the time Hairston returned to the lineup on May 11. Roberts’ performance had convinced manager Lee Mazzilli that it made sense to keep him at second. So Hairston primarily served as an outfielder or DH (although he again landed on the disabled list for the last seven weeks of the season after injuring an ankle trying to make a play in the outfield).

Ironically, although they have been rivals for the second base job ever since the Orioles decided after the 2001 season that Roberts was better suited for second than for shortstop — the position he played in the minors — Hairston and Roberts are good friends.

Second base is not the only interest they have shared. They both are religious Christians and make their winter homes in Scottsdale, Ariz., where they have worked out together the past several years.

This past winter Roberts and Hairston spent six days a week with workout and athletic performance guru Mark Verstegen and about two dozen other major and minor leaguers, including Oriole teammates Jay Gibbons and Darnell McDonald. Every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from mid-November up until a week before spring training, Roberts would go to Vestegen’s workout center in Tempe, Arizona, from about nine in the morning until four in the afternoon. On Wednesdays and Saturdays they put in a half day’s work. On the full days Roberts would undergo physical conditioning twice a day, sandwiched around baseball workouts.

When the program ended this year, and it was time to depart for spring training, Roberts and Hairston headed in different directions for the first time, Roberts to Ft. Lauderdale and Hairston to the Cubs camp in Mesa, Arizona. “It’s going to be weird, because we’re used to being on the same team,” says Roberts. “I think we’re both excited to have this [competition] behind us. We’re both pretty confident people and feel we deserve the right to play regularly. I think we both are happy for each other.”

Roberts says he doesn’t think the competition between the two friends was a bad thing.

“It made us both stronger players,” he explains.

“We learned a lot from it. I think we learned from each other. I know I learned a lot from him. He played second before I did. I learned a lot from being able to talk to him and watch him.”

Roberts had his best season in 2004. He batted .273 with four home runs, 53 RBIs, and 107 runs scored. He also led the American League with 50 doubles—the most in Oriole history—and stole 29 bases, the fourth highest total in the league. Roberts’ fielding has improved immensely since he first arrived in the big leagues as a shortstop in June of 2001 to replace the injured Mike Bordick. Last year he had the third highest fielding average of any AL second baseman, .988, with eight errors in 159 games.

Still, it is his ability to get on base and his speed as a leadoff hitter, in front of power hitters like Miguel Tejada, Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Javy Lopez, that represent his greatest assets as an Oriole.

“He brings us speed and the ability to get on base and make things happen,” says Mazzilli. ”He can create havoc on the bases. And it’s a plus that he’s a switch hitter.”

Roberts is still young as a major leaguer, and the Orioles expect him to improve this year.

“Brian has all the talent he needs to be a very successful major leaguer,” says Beattie.

What does Roberts expect from himself for the 2005 season?

He sets no specific goals.

“I don’t want to restrict myself,” he explains. “I don’t know what I can do yet. I think I’m still learning, still growing, still getting better.”

But while the Durham, North Carolina, native (his father was coach of the University of North Carolina baseball team) offers no personal goals, he does have one for his team.

“First and foremost, I want to play for a winning team,” Roberts says. “I’m tired of losing.”

Losing, unfortunately, is something Roberts has been accustomed to as an Oriole. They’ve haven’t had a winning season in the four years he’s played at Camden Yards.

But with the added bat of Sosa, the year of experience of the young pitching staff, and the fact that he and Larry Bigbie now have a complete season of regular, big league play under their belts, Roberts believes the Orioles finally can end their seven-year streak of losing seasons.

“I definitely think so,” says Roberts. “I think everyone knows we can score runs. We can win. That would be awesome.”