Monday, September 26, 2011

Player Profile: Brady Anderson

Check out the latest installment of This Week in Baseball Cards over at the Hall of Very Good, featuring Charlie Sheen, Lenny Dykstra and the scantiest-clad girl on a baseball card.

I have 51 cards of Brady Anderson. This one is from 1998 Topps.

Playing career: Brady Anderson played 15 seasons in the major leagues, almost all with Baltimore, and hit 210 home runs. Almost a quarter of those came in one season, 1996, when he hit 50. He never hit more than 24 in any one season, making that a very unusual season for Anderson, who outside of HR and RBI had a season very much within his established norms. That year was also the first of four straight 15+ HBP seasons for Anderson, who led the league three times. Other than 1996 he was known as a speedy leadoff man and center fielder for the Orioles.

My memories: I remember him as a highly touted prospect with the Red Sox. I was actually on a family vacation in Massachusetts when the Red Sox traded him to the Orioles for Mike Boddicker. It was fun in those pre-internet trade to read sports pages from a city other than New York, and it was cool that the local team made a blockbuster deal. Actually, because my memory of them only stretched back to their World Series against the Mets, I was actually a Yankee fan who liked the Red Sox, until the rivalry ramped up again in 2003/2004.

Where he is now: Doing some coaching for the Orioles, and is the hitting coach for the Glendale Angelenos of the California Collegiate League.

Interesting stories: From a Brady Anderson fansite: Had a baby with former Playboy model Sonia Vassi. Co-Owned an ABA team with Nick Lachey and Kyle Boller. Favorite book is Atlas Shrugged. Played in “Tee Ball on the South Lawn” at the White House in 2002 with President Bush. In 1987, tried out to be a replacement player (running back) with the Los Angeles Rams.

Google Autocomplete results: He is seventh when you type Brady, between Brady Hoke, the head football coach at Michigan, and Bradykinin, a peptide that causes blood vessels to dilate. There do not appear to be any other prominent Brady Andersons.

Coming up next: The next profile will be Brian J. Anderson.

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