Last week, Charm City’s 2nd baseman left the sunny Sarasota weather to return home to Baltimore to see a Dr. Lee Riley, a back specialist at Johns Hopkins. Speculation remains on how he really hurt his back, but whatever the cause, B-Rob is in some pain.

How much pain you may ask???– enough to get an Epidural shot in the back! In a time where needles and baseball players are looked down upon, B-Rob was in enough pain to get a shot usually reserved for women in labor. I’m not one for needles so giving me a shot with a 5 inch needle would be enough to land me on the 15-day DL.

Frankly, I think it’s an act of God that Mrs. Brian Roberts wasn’t there to join him. After all of the off-season “conditioning” going on in the Roberts household, you’d figure the doctor offered them a 2 for 1 discount.

What does this mean for the Orioles you may ask? Roberts apparently has been feeling better after taking batting practice from both sides of the plate earlier this week, although he did experience a small set-back,  getting a tummy ache after taking a medicine to reduce inflammation in his herniated disk (a common side effect of a higher dose antibiotic- look at my pharmaceutical rep knowledge coming into play).

Manager Dave Trembley as well as the rest of the Orioles organization is hoping B-Rob will be ready to play when the Orioles kick off the season on April 6. Trembley has been looking at other options if Roberts cannot bend over to put on his stirrups by Opening Day.

“We need to do what we can with what we have right here in camp, and if something happens from outside the camp, we will deal with it then,” Trembley said. “I’d still like to believe that Roberts will be our guy, but we’re at the point now where you have to start thinking about the possibility [of] what we could do elsewhere.”

I’d like to wish Brian a speedy recovery and hope that he can suit up for Opening Day. If he can’t, there is no way I can be upset because he is way more of a man than most of us are after taking that needle to the back.

Side Note: Sorry for such a late post, I’ve been on vacation and working a ton which has kept me out of  pocket for the past two weeks. More constant updates will occur when the actual season starts.