I know he has fans here...

Brady's a Beaver

As of when that article was written he was hitting .250. Okay, it's with a .444 on-base percentage. But it's still .250. In the minor leagues.

He says his problems have stemmed from bad mechanics in his swing. For three years??

For a second I thought you were talking about Portland, Maine, in the Red Sox system, which is less than two hours away. :cool: Alas, it is not to be. frown

I had a good time reading the article in the "Brady's a Beaver" link you provided. I have to hand it to the boy, Brady displays commendable diligence, and I'll always root for the guys who are trying to re-invigorate their athletic careers through attention to every detail of their game, a focus made necessary by their increasing maturity. Now, of course for me the two factoids that leaped immediately out of the text of that article were Brady's age: 39, and marital status: single -- but no doubt those biographical attributes have been turning the gay rumor-mills ceaselessly, within other parts of the OUTSPORTS discussion board, so I won't stray off-topic by introducing any silly notions here, in our well-esteemed Baseball forum. It sounds like Brady is maintaining a great attitude, and I can't help but admire a minor-league player who brown-bags sushi to the ballpark because the food concessions there are a bit lacking in variety. Here's hoping you find your swing again, kiddo, and it lands you another spot on a major league team before too long.

[ May 01, 2003, 11:07 PM: Message edited by: fielderschoice ]

I saw Brady when the Beavers (I can't even type that without laughing!) came to Tucson last month to play the Sidewinders. I got a seat in the first row behind the visitors dugout. Brady looks DAMN FINE. I had an Orioles tee shirt on, and I yelled hello to him as he was coming back to the dugout after workouts. He smiled and kinda waved to me. Sigh...

When I lived in Portland--way back in the '70s--I would go to Beavers games. After having experienced baseball only at Dodger Stadium or the Big A, watching a Triple-A game was rather mind-boggling! The players were sooooo close to us and the park was soooo intimate!! And, the players were ALL friendly.

What most strikes me about the Brady Anderson story is the realization that he's 39 already. I remember when he came up to the bigs in Baltimore as the young buck who could jack 50 homers...Man, time flies.

~Adam

Brady hit 50 home runs in one season. And that was 1996, when he was 32. A little too old for "young buck" status in my opinion (unless he were on the D-Backs).

Brady struggled until about 1992, age 28, when he finally put it together. His inability to put up consistently good numbers on those late 80's Baltimore teams was a bit of mystery. He had an incredible body back then ... no waist whatsoever ... the most perfect V-shaped torso I ever saw in a baseball uniform, But he wasn't putting up great numbers until relatively late in his career.

And even at that ... Brady's 50 HR season is considered to be one of the great flukes in baseball history. A single season so extraordinarily superior to the player's career norms. Only Bret Boone's 145 RBI season in 2001 (for the 116-win Mariners) is even remotely considered a rival to Brady's 1996 in terms of sheer flukiness.

Brady's out. So to speak.

Brady Cut Again

From the Washington Post: Anderson Cut Again

Former Orioles star Brady Anderson's attempt to get back to the major leagues suffered another setback when he was released by the Portland (Ore.) Beavers, the San Diego Padres' Class AAA affiliate.

Anderson, 39, was hitting .294 with a .455 on-base average and five stolen bases, but the team was forced to release him when they claimed Jermaine Clark off waivers from the Texas Rangers.

"Basically, it's not the best players [whom the Padres keep]. It's not the guys producing the most," Beavers Manager Rick Sweet, who broke the news to Anderson, told the Oregonian newspaper. "It's just what the major league team felt would fit for them. . . . This guy can still play. He needs to get a job somewhere."

Anderson has been released by the Orioles, Indians and now the Padres in the last two years.

Even though he's not in the majors anymore, I still love him. I still think he's one of the best-looking men out there.

There was a funny faux on-line chat with Brady Anderson from a few years ago....

Brady Chat

I suspect that Gabe Kapler will join Brady in the dustbin of history; beauty expires, but career stats are forever. And neither of those guys are gonna have anything left for posterity.

Excessive weightlifting, by the way, can be bad for the sweet science. Loss of flexibility, etc.

Hey, as long as I have pictures of them in their prime, that's all that matters. Besides, I think Brady and Gabe will hold up a lot better than the rest of us. Unfortunately.