Springing ahead with more Orioles camp memories

Until the lockout ends and major league spring training camps finally open, I'm left to reminisce about past stays in Florida.

The many stories that unfolded, some of which never made it into print. The many mornings spent inside the clubhouse and on the back fields.

The road trips, more grueling when the home site was down in Fort Lauderdale. The unexpected arrivals and departures.

I'll share a few more today:

Betemit's knee injury

Media wanting to interview the starting pitcher or a hitter during a spring training game must leave the press box and walk to an area outside the baseball operations building. The risk, of course, is missing how a run scored or a pitcher performed. An entire inning could disappear from view.

The live box score is a blessing.

It's unusual to miss something important just a few steps outside the press box, but that's what happened on March 25, 2013.

I didn't see how infielder Wilson Betemit injured his right knee, only that he clutched it while rolling and writhing in pain between first and second base. The details came later, how he was running on a full-count pitch and collapsed.

The knee buckled and Betemit's final season in the majors would consist of only six games and 10 hitless at-bats beginning Aug. 27. The Orioles released him on Sept. 24, with his spot on the 40-man roster handed to outfielder Henry Urrutia.

The right knee buckled mid-stride on the basepaths, and Betemit was carted off the field. Manager Buck Showalter left the dugout in the seventh inning to check on and console him, and the team announced later that an MRI revealed a Grade 2/3 tear of the posterior cruciate ligament with associated injuries.

No longer the club's third baseman, Betemit was supposed to serve as the designated hitter against right-handers. He hit a three-run homer before the injury.

I saw the home run.

Reyes only a rumor

Left-handed reliever Dennys Reyes agreed to a minor league deal with the Orioles in January 2012. The contract included an invitation to spring training.

Maybe it got lost in the mail.

We kept waiting for Reyes, a lefty specialist who pitched for 11 teams and looked like he enjoyed every post-game spread. We kept checking with executive Dan Duquette and Showalter. We were told that he was coming, that the delay was caused by a visa issue.

We were told on March 4 that the Orioles released him for failure to report.

The beat crew never got to meet Reyes, but he told Fernando Ballesteros at Puro Beisbol a day later that he still intended to join the Orioles. He tore a tendon in his left middle finger in the final game of the Mexican Winter League and claimed that he received permission to keep rehabbing at home.

"They had to release me because they couldn't pay my contract with me being here (in Mexico)," Reyes said in the interview. "If they hadn't released me, I could have complained to the players union in order to get them to pay me. Unofficially, I still belong to them."

Officially, he never got to Sarasota and never wore the uniform.

Injured for most of the year, Reyes signed with Naranjeros de Hermosillo of the Mexican Pacific League and made his first appearance in November.

Reyes isn't the only player who never made it into camp. He stands out to me because of the amount of time spent asking about him. Days that I'll never get back.

Paulino's car a star

The 2012 camp had so many weird and entertaining nuggets. In the article I published about Reyes' release, I also wrote the following:

If you're keeping tabs on the spring training roster, (Ronny) Paulino is a no-show, Reyes has been released, pitcher Ryan Edell retired and catcher Dane Sardinha failed his physical.

Minor league catcher Michael Ohlman, brought over to major league camp while Paulino was absent, flipped his truck after a driver sideswiped it. A month later, he failed a drug test.

Kevin Gregg's feelings were hurt because he still wanted to be the closer.

Paulino is an Orioles spring training legend based on his car arriving at the complex way ahead of him. It became a running joke.

Showalter wasn't amused.

"I'm not taking it as a positive," he said. "It's Day 12, right? Him and Reyes."

Paulino also was experiencing visa issues that dragged on way too long. He broke camp as the backup, appeared in 20 games that season, his last in the majors, and was 16-for-63 (.254). The Orioles didn't like his work behind the plate or his conditioning, but he went 4-for-4 with a double and two runs scored against the Twins in his debut and collected seven hits in his first 13 at-bats before cooling off.

The Orioles re-signed Paulino on May 15, 2013 after the Mariners released him, and the Tigers purchased his contract three months later.

Triple-A Norfolk used nine catchers in 2013, with Paulino appearing in 21 games. He was joined by Luis Exposito (64 games), Chris Snyder (52), Chris Robinson (29), Steve Clevenger (20), Jose Gil (seven), Taylor Teagarden (three), Luis Martinez (two) and Brian Ward (one).

My fondest and only memory of Martinez came in camp, when he informed reporters that he left a February workout with a strained oblique, but would return "tomorrow."

"Very minimal," he said.

I'm not a doctor, but there are no minimal oblique injuries. It's like a snipe hunt.

Martinez didn't play for about a month. But I respected his optimism, between chuckles.