Bip Roberts returned to the Padres 21 years ago

This day in 1994, after two years with the Reds, first-time free agent Bip Roberts returned to San Diego for his second stint with the Padres. Roberts was coming off a down-year and signed a one-year deal; he made the most of it and cashed in with a two-year pact with San Diego after the '94 season. I'm having trouble thinking of anything original to say since I covered this about three weeks ago on the twentieth anniversary of his re-return.

The first time Roberts hit the free agent market was after the 1993 season. He had spent the past two seasons with the Reds after being traded by the Padres for Randy Myers following the 1991 season. Bip was an All-Star for Cincinnati in 1992, but had an injury-abbreviated and otherwise underwhelming '93 season, making him a classic Padres buy-low candidate as well as a classic Padres bring-back candidate.

Bip bounced back in the strike-shortened 1994 season. He slashed .320/ .383/ .397 with 21 steals while playing in 105 of the 108 games played that season. That was enough to earn his first multi-year contract; he signed for $4.8 million over two years. [...]

Redundant and convoluted as this may be, it gave me an excuse to use one of these rad archives photos of Bip, and that's all that really matters.