Brady Anderson

LAKELAND, Fla. -- There are numbers, there are statistics and then there are opinions. Numbers don't lie, statistics can and opinions usually do. Such are life's lessons as experienced by Brady Anderson. At 36, the Orioles center fielder is entering his 13th major-league season and ninth as a starter, having constructed the most impressive offensive season of any American League leadoff hitter last year. The numbers say Anderson enjoyed the highest on-base percentage (.404) of his career and swiped his age with 36 stolen bases.

The search for the missing link in Brady Anderson's evolution from slap-hitting leadoff guy to larger-than-life major-league home run leader has turned up an interesting incident in Rochester, N.Y., in summer 1991.Anderson had been sent to the minor leagues by the Orioles for the third time, and Red Wings manager Greg Biagini was tiptoeing around the subject of where the disappointed young prospect would fit into the Triple-A lineup."I think Greg thought I was hacked off at being sent down, so he asked me where I wanted to play," Anderson said.

May 3, 1996: Brady Anderson and B.J. Surhoff both hit a pair of home runs in a 8-2 win over the Brewers.

Brady AndersonInning: FifthCount: 1-0Distance: 379 feetLocation: Right fieldIndians pitcher: Orel HershiserScore: Orioles, 2-0Team total in series: 5Pub Date: 10/03/96

No mailed delivered on Nixon Day. It could become an annual holiday.General Cedras wouldn't fall so Ambassador Pezzullo did.The Serbs keep refuting everyone who denies that the appeasement and firmness lessons of Nazi aggression of the 1930s apply in Bosnia today.Charlie Fenwick Jr. decided to give someone else a chance.Brady Anderson can stay.Nobody for governor!

On the field: Cal Ripken came a few feet from hitting for the cycle for the second time in his career. He singled in the first, tripled in the third, doubled in the fifth and then one-hopped the right-center-field wall in the seventh. The only other Oriole to hit for the cycle besides Ripken was Brooks Robinson in 1960.In the dugout: With Brady Anderson leading off and Curtis Goodwin batting ninth, Orioles manager Phil Regan went back to his lineup that worked so well during the last homestand.

FOR ALL OF her 11 years, I have been preaching and posturing for my daughter a life of education, meaningful work and financial independence in an effort to balance her inclination to dress up stuffed animals and stage weddings.I have encouraged her in sports -- four seasons of empty water bottles, dirty uniforms and practice times that are also mealtimes -- to promote physical confidence and courage and to slow her premature rush toward makeup, pantyhose and high heels.Wow, have I failed or what?