• During a family vacation in Florida when Brian was one year old, a doctor determined that he had pneumonia and a heart defect. It was an atrial septal defect, which is a hole in the wall between two heart chambers. It caused him to be exhausted all the time.
  
  He had heart surgery at age 5. There was no way of knowing how much he would grow up. Doctors had to carve a Y-shaped incision in your chest. They do this to stop your heart while a machine keeps you alive so they can close the quarter-sized hole in an organ smaller than a fist. And even when the heart starts beating again and the Y becomes a badge of courage, it takes more than two years to reach the first percentile of growth for kids your age.
  
  "There have been a lot of obstacles in my way," Roberts said, "but I've really put a lot of trust in my faith. I believe there's a purpose and a plan for everything."
• Roberts has always had to fight the stigma that he is too small to play at the next level. "At times, it got frustrating because you couldn't really tell if people thought you were a good player or not or if they were just classifying me because of my size," Brian says.

• Brian played a lot of basketball as a youth in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. "I could play point guard pretty decent," he recalled. "I was a decent passer and I could hit the open shot. I played through my sophomore year (of high school). I realized I should probably concentrate on baseball as well as the fact that I really hated basketball practice. I loved the games, but hated practice, mostly because of the running."

• Roberts grew up with access to the baseball facilities at the University of North Carolina. Because his father, Mike, was a baseball coach, he had ready access to batting cages, pitching machines and the entire field. Sometimes, a player such as 1985 #1 draft pick B.J. Surhoff, and often his Dad the coach, stayed after practice to pitch batting practice or hit ground balls to him.

• Roberts earned a scholarship to North Carolina and was a two-year starter playing for Mike, as his mother, who spent most of Brian's adolescence as the team mom, team cook and team chauffeur, helped with fundraising and moral support.

  When Brian needed to talk about topics off the field, he talked to mom. She didn't give him much advice on how to hit a curveball or how to turn a double play. "He talked to me more about relationships and friends," Nancy said. "Mike was gone a lot on recruiting trips. We had kids in the home a lot, his teammates and friends. I guess I was kind of the one inside of his friendships and relationships."

• Then there was the basement, which Brian divided into his bedroom, video library, and batting cage. His Dad, Mike, hung an old tennis net and stretched it from wall to wall in the room, and Brian practiced his swing hitting off a tee, banging tennis balls into the net at all hours of the day and night.

• Brian played at the University of North Carolina until his Dad was let go after the 1998 season. So Brian transferred to South Carolina.
  
  He led NCAA Division I in stolen bases at both schools. And he ranks 5th all-time in the NCAA with 177 stolen bases.

• Brian was the Orioles compensation for losing Rafael Palmeiro to free agency.

• Roberts' tremendous enthusiasm is contagious. He can pick up a whole team with his excellent attitude. He is a gamer. "He's a baseball player is what he is," Rochester (IL-Orioles) manager Andy Etchebarren said.

• After the 2002 season, Brian hit .322-2-22 with a .417 on-base percentage for Ponce in the Puerto Rican Winter League.
  
  STRONG CHRISTIAN

• His closest friends are the South Carolina students he met in 1998 at a religion conference.

• Roberts enjoyed reading "The Power of Money and Sex" by Deion Sanders, who writes of his conversion to Christianity. A devout Christian, Roberts, along with a couple of teammates, attend chapel before Sunday afternoon games.

• Though Brian and Jerry Hairston were vying for the same position with the Orioles in 2004, they are close friends. They both moved to Scottsdale, Arizona and worked out every day during the offseason at Mark Verstegen's Athletes Performance training center. They are both strong Christians. They truly like each other.

• Brian relies on his Biblical beliefs to get him through the rough areas in life, like the horrible injury he suffered in September 2005 (detailed below in CAREER INJURY REPORT).
  
  "I wanted to be positive. I really didn't think it was the end of my career," Roberts said the next spring.

• Brian's commitment to the community, especially children, stems from the way his parents raised him and from his Christian faith, he said.
  
  "I believe it's important to put value in other people and certainly in those who are less fortunate than you, or in tough situations," Roberts explained. "It's easy for us to get caught up in what the world makes us out to be and forget what's around us and the people who aren't as fortunate as us. For me, it's really about impacting those people."

• One reason Roberts moved to Arizona was because he hates the cold. And he loves to golf. Scottsdale has a golf course virtually on every other block.
  
  Brian also likes going to movies and reading books, particularly those involving religion or biographies. "I just like reading about people," he said. "We go through hard times, so I like to read how other people handle the situations they go through."

• Because he knows his baseball career won't last forever, Roberts is contemplating completing his degree work in radio/TV broadcasting.

• July 14, 2006: Brian Roberts Bobblehead Day had to be put on hold. Originally scheduled to be given out to fans attending the July 15th game against the Rangers, a manufacturer's error made Brian's skin much darker than it really is. So fans at the game received a voucher good for the bobblehead when it became available in September.
  
  "As soon as they arrived, we knew it was something that we were not going to hand out," said Bill Stetka, director of public relations for the Orioles.

• July 19, 2006: Roberts has started a charitable event to help fundraise for the University of Maryland Hospital for Children. Brian's Baseball Bash will be held August 20, 2006 at the ESPNZone in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, near Camden Yards. Roberts, who had open-heart surgery when he was 5, is a frequent visitor to the hospital, talking to parents and signing autographs.
  
  "I started visiting the hospital I guess three years ago," Roberts said. "The hospital is a place that I am familiar with, especially as a child. For me, it was something that I could really sink in to, something that I was familiar with and something I wanted to give back to."
  
  Several Orioles teammates as well as Baltimore Ravens players are schedule to appear.

• August 21, 2006: Brian's Baseball Blast was a smashing success. Looking to give back to the community and help children with medical care needs, Roberts created the Bash as a fundraiser to benefit the University of Maryland Hospital for Children. The ESPN Zone near Camden Yards hosted the event and the place was packed.
  
  "I wanted to do something a little more tangible. This was something that I've been looking forward to for a long, long time," Roberts told the crowd during the event. "It's beyond my wildest dreams. It's been a wonderful event."
  
  Numerous Baltimore players and coaches past and present were on hand as well as many sports items donated for auction including autographed jerseys.

• Roberts is a big fan of "American Idol," admitting, "I like watching it. Gibby (Jay Gibbons) got me into it. I probably never would have started watching it if it wasn't for him. He likes girl stuff like that. It's cool, though. It's interesting. Simon's funny. And sometimes they have really talented people on there who probably never would have been discovered if it hadn't been for that. I think it's a cool opportunity for people." (Roch Kubatko-Baltimore Sun-3/19/07)

• Roberts name appeared in the Mitchell Report on December 13, 2007. Former Orioles teammate Larry Bigbie, who recalled to Mitchell investigators a conversation with Roberts in 2004 in which the second baseman allegedly admitted injecting himself with steroids "once or twice" in 2003.
  
  Four days after the Mitchell Report was released, Roberts issued a statement: "I would like to address the allegations that were made against me in the Mitchell Report. I will begin by saying that I have worked very hard to develop a good reputation both on and off the field. I have always taken pride in being a man of integrity and values. I know that by being a professional athlete, I am held to a very high standard. I never have and never will take that for granted. However, I am also human and I have made mistakes.
  
  "In 2003, when I took one shot of steroids, I immediately realized that this was not what I stood for or anything that I wanted to continue doing. I never used steroids, human growth hormone, or any other performance-enhancing drugs prior to or since that single incident. I can honestly say before God, myself, my family and all of my fans that steroids or any performance-enhancing drugs have never had any effect on what I have worked so hard to accomplish in the game of baseball. I am very sorry and I deeply regret ever making that terrible decision. My only hope and prayer is that the Orioles, my family, friends, and fans that have supported me so faithfully will forgive me."
  
  Brian said he had no ill will toward Larry Bigbie. "I'm not mad at Larry. I don't hate Larry. Larry is one of my good friends. "Obviously from the report, what I gathered was Larry was in a situation where he was asked a question and he had to tell the truth. Larry and I must have had a conversation about it at some point and he thought he remembered. I don't resent Larry, I'm not mad at Larry. It boils down to me, not Larry. I have no problems there."
  
  Asked why he chose to break his silence after four days, Brian said, "For me, it boils down to the fact that my faith, my beliefs and what I believe is right was wearing on me," Roberts said. "To not be able to look someone in the eye, to avoid phone calls and to deal with it that way, it's just not the right thing to do. I can't live my life that way. I've never been able to live it that way, and I never will. I've always been an honest person and I haven't been able to say things. I'm tired of it. That's what essentially has led me to really need to do this."

• During the 2008 season, Roberts had two Biblical quotes hanging from his Camden Yards locker: "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind." The other was: "Let each of you regard one another as more important than himself."
  
  Brian relies on the the Word of God to guide him through life, even when he is standing on a baseball field during a game.
  
  "For me, it's a way of life. I think about them (the Scriptures) on the field all the time," he says.

• In 2008, Brian had a serious girlfriend. He acknowledges that her presence in his life has helped balance things out.

• Brian threw a "Baseball Bash" in September of 2008 to support the Maryland Hospital for Children.

• On January 18, 2009, Roberts got married in Phoenix, Ariz. to his long-time girlfriend Diana Chiafair.

• Roberts' son, Jax, was born on August 2, 2013.
  

TRANSACTIONS

• 1999: The Orioles chose Roberts in the first round of the supplemental draft, out of the University of South Carolina.

• February 15, 2006: Roberts and the Orioles agreed on a one-year contract with a base value of $3.075 million—a compromise between the two sides' arbitration figures—Roberts had requested $3.6 million, while the Orioles had offered $2.4 million.

• February 1, 2007: Roberts and the Orioles avoided salary arbiration, agreeing to a $4.2 million contract for 2007.

• March 14, 2007: Brian and the Orioles agreed to a two-year contract extension, worth $14.3 million, taking him through the 2009 season with Baltimore. The extension calls for $6.3 million in 2008 and $8 million in 2009, meaning he will make $18.5 million over three seasons.
  
  "His hair's shorter and his contract's longer," said Orioles' VP Mike Flanagan.

• February 19, 2009: Roberts and the Orioles agreed on a four-year, $40 million contract extension that takes him through 2013 with the Orioles. Brian has some graduating no-trade protection. He is allowed to designate eight teams he doesn't want to play for in 2009 and 12 teams the following season. The no-trade clause becomes blanket protection a couple months before he gets it anyway as a 10-5 player.
  
  (The 10-5 rule in baseball's collective bargaining agreement allows every Major League player to veto any trade involving him after he has spent 10 full years in the Major Leagues and has five full years of service with his current club.)

• December 17, 2013: Roberts signed a one-year contract worth $2 million, plus incentives.
  
• August 1, 2014: The Yankees released Roberts.

• Roberts has been switch-hitting since he was three years old. Brian makes good contact from both sides of the plate. He doesn't strike out much. But he needs to accept more walks to justify batting at the top of the order.
  
  He figured out the walks thing. Since 2005, Brian has been entrenched as the Orioles' leadoff hitter.
  
• In 2004, Brian broke John Anderson's American League record for doubles by a switch-hitter with his 47th on September 17.

• He needs to put the ball on the ground more, making better use of his excellent speed. But really, Brian has become a great leadoff hitter.

• Brian is an intelligent hitter and good bat-handler.
  
  "Brian's the prototypical leadoff hitter," former Orioles manager Mike Hargrove in 2003. "He's a well above average runner, and he's not afraid to work deep into the count. He understands how to do that. And he's probably the best runner we have on the club, even with Jerry Hairston here."

• On September 18, 2004: Brian's 47th double of the season eclipsed the record set by John Anderson in 1901 for the most two-base hits in a year by a switch-hitter. He also tied Cal Ripken, Jr. for the Orioles' team record for most doubles in a season. "I never would have thought it would have been me, that's for sure," Roberts said.
  
  That year, Brian led the American league in doubles with 50. 
  
  In the second half of the season, his batting average jumped up 41 points and his on-base pcercentage 37 points.

• June 9, 2006: Stuck in an 0-for-19 slump over his previous five games and worried that Orioles' skipper Perlozzo might bench him, Roberts reached out and touched someone.

  Perlozzo got a text message from Roberts on his cell phone.

  "Totally out of the clear, blue sky. 'Not to worry, I'll be fine. I'm not tired. I promise you I'm going to help you soon,'" Perlozzo said. "I text-messaged him back and said, "'Thanks, I can sleep now.'"

  In the next two games Roberts went 5-for-8 with 2 RBIs. Modern technology at work.
  

• Brian connected on a single to right field for his 1,500th career hit on June, 20, 2014, against the Orioles at Yankee Stadium.  The milestone hit came fittingly against the team that drafted him. Roberts spent 13 years and collected 1,452 hits with Baltimore before signing with the Yankees in the offseason.
  
  

• As of the start of the 201 season, Roberts's career Major League stats were: .276 batting average, 97 home runs and 1,452 hits, with 577 RBI's in 5,531 at-bats.

• At shortstop, Brian can really pick it. His intangibles and superb instincts shine through with a glove on his hand. He is a quality defender with a fair arm. Roberts plays short with veteran actions and real intensity. He is very smooth and has real good range. He is a gamer.
• Brian is does an excellent job of fielding ground balls. He has great hands and gets great reads on balls hit his way.

• In 2001, after playing shortstop almost all of his baseball life, he moved to second base. Roberts shows good instincts and can make some highlight plays. A rapid learner who receives instruction well, Brian took little time to excel at second. His arm is really better there. Other than one nightmarish stretch in 2001, Roberts has improved with the glove.

• Brian uses Nike baseball gloves.
  
  "Every inning I spray inside the glove with sticky stuff," Roberts said. "It's like the adhesive used for taping your ankles. I like the glove to feel like it's stuck on my hand. I also spray it on the inside of my palm. I don't care if people put their hands in it, but most people are scared of my glove. People say it is nasty." (Sports Illustrated-5/21/07)
  
• In 2003, Brian was better than ever on defense. He is comfortable and relaxed enough to maximize his ability with the glove. He turns the double-play well. The Orioles put Roberts at second base, replacing an injured Jerry Hairston for most of the 2003 season. But they moved Brian back to shortstop late in the campaign, replacing Deivi Cruz.

• Roberts is adequate on defense, but sometimes messes up on routine plays. He occasionally rushes to turn a double play instead of slowing down and getting the first out.

• Roberts is an excellent baserunner with good instincts.
• To sharpen Brian's running skills, his father hired Uday Shah as his personal running coach. Shah, then an assistant track coach at North Carolina (and now at the University of South Carolina in the same capacity), put Brian on a strict regimen of exercises that maximize his running skills. Shah used "proper force mechanics."

• Brian steals a lot of bases, but his speed is not much above average. He depends on his first-step quickness and reading the pitcher.

• Roberts has the ultimate confidence when it comes to stealing third base.
  As of August 18, 2009, in his career, Brian had stolen third a Major League leading 72 times since the 2003 season, one more than Dodgers OF Juan Pierre. During that span, the Orioles' leadoff man had been caught only 6 times in 78 attempts at third.
  
  "I feel like I can beat the other team in stealing third base pretty much every time," said Roberts, after he stole third without a throw from Angels catcher Mike Napoli, and then scored the game-tying run on a sacrifice fly. "Not in an arrogant way, but I don't think there are very many ways that they can stop you if you know what you're doing.
  
  "A lot of people don't feel that way, but I think it should be a lot easier than stealing second," Roberts said. "You can get a bigger lead, there's not somebody on the base holding you on. People will say the catcher's throw is shorter, but I think the runner's advantage is a lot greater at second base than it is at first. There are a lot less things that they can do to stop you at second base."

• April-July 2000: Brian went on the D.L. after surgery to remove bone chips from his throwing elbow. 
• October 2000: Roberts suffered ligament damage in his right elbow the first week of the Arizona Fall League.

• March 1, 2000: Brian hyperextended his right elbow while swinging at a pitch.

• Roberts has back spasms that flare up on him from time-to-time. He said the injury dates back to his freshman year at the University of North Carolina and the spasms last a few days.

• March 10, 2005: Brian was diagnosed with a posterior right shoulder strain, missing over a week of spring training.

• September 20, 2005: Roberts suffered a dislocated left elbow, a torn pronator tendon and torn ulnar collateral ligament in a collision with Yankees right fielder Bubba Crosby. Though Brian did not sustain any structural bone damage, surgery was required.
  
  It was a grotesque injury. Brian was trying to cover first base after Crosby bunted. Then Crosby ran over Roberts' left arm, dislocating the elbow. His left arm hung horrifically askew. He didn't know at that moment if his arm was still attached to the rest of his body.

  "He pulled the tendon off the bone and that needed to be repaired," Orioles trainer Richie Bancells said. "His arm got twisted out of a normal position. He tore a lot of soft tissue and suffered a lot of bleeding."

  The fortunate news for the Orioles is that it occurred on Roberts' non-throwing elbow.

  Roberts laid on the dirt, writhing in pain as the ball sat near first base. Bernie Williams scored from third, his face wincing as he watched Roberts in agony. It was hard to watch, especially for Roberts' teammates.
  
  * * * September 30, 2005: Roberts had his ulnar collateral ligament reconstructed during elbow surgery in Cincinnati. Reds team doctor Timothy Kremchek  performed the surgery and also reattached Roberts' flexor tendon to the bone. Dr. Kremchek not only had to fix the ligament, but he also had to repair the tendons and muscles on the inside of Roberts' elbow, a process that he said made the procedure and the rehab twice as difficult.
  
  It left a six-inch scar on his eblow, as well as a scar under his right wrist, where a tendon was removed and put in his right elbow.

• April 30–May 24, 2006: Roberts was on the D.L. with a pulled left groin. He was originally bothered by a left hip flexor, and the ailment got progressively worse.

• February 20, 2008: Brian woke up at 4:00 a.m. with what he characterized as a "very, very, very sharp pain in the stomach" and had to call for an ambulance. He got to the hospital a half hour later, where they hit him with a battery of tests designed to diagnose his ailment. He didn't get home until 8:30 and didn't feel better until the following day.

  "It just kind of gradually started going away," Roberts said. "I think they think it's a kidney stone, but I didn't have the excruciating pass of it. Mine must've broken up or something. It was more of the onset that was so bad."

• February 20, 2010: Roberts reported to Orioles spring training and said he was diagnosed with a "small" herniated disk in his lower back.

• April 10-July 23, 2010: Brian was on the D.L. with a strained abdominal muscle. And on May 19, he was diagnosed with pneumonia and entered a Baltimore-area hospital.

• September 27–end of season 2010: Roberts literally knocked himself out of the last six games of the season with concussion-like symptoms.
  
  "In frustration [after a strikeout], I whacked myself on the head with my bat in the ninth. I had my helmet on," Roberts told reporters. "It's something I've done a million times, but I still can't tell you for sure if that was it. But that's the only thing that I can point to because that night and the next morning, I just didn't feel good. So it's been going on since then."

• March, 2011: Roberts missed some spring training time with back spasms.

• May 3, 2011: Brian had a root canal and missed that night's game.

• May 19, 2011: Roberts went on the special 7-day DL with concussion-like symptoms (headaches). Brian was hurt following a headfirst slide into first base after he hit a ball off starter Daisuke Matsuzaka's midsection in the top of the first.

• March 26-June 12, 2012: Brian began the season on the D.L. while still striving to return from a concussion. He did not play in any exhibition games.
  
  July 2, 2012: Roberts was back on the D.L. This time it was from a strained right groin.
  
  Early in August, 2012: Roberts underwent season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right hip at the Steadman Clinic in Colorado. Following that was a rehabilitation period of four to six months. Thus, he'd be ready for 2013 spring training.

• April 5-June 30, 2013: Roberts was on the D.L. with a strained right hamstring.

  May 9, 2013: Brian underwent surgery to repair his right hamstring via Dr. Daniel Cooper at the Carrell Clinic. Baltimore said the recovery time is expected to be about six weeks.
  
  The surgical procedure is called a semitendinosus release, involving one of the three muscles that make up the hamstring itself.

  Roberts sustained the injury while sliding during a game against the Tampa Bay Rays on April 4, and he needed to be helped off the field. The Orioles placed him on the 15-day disabled list.