Dave Roberts, Red Sox Legend, Named Dodgers' New Manager
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers sure are nice to the Boston Red Sox. First, they took on the obscene contracts of Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett to give Boston the freedom to build a World Series-winning roster back in the summer of 2012, and now they're hiring a Red Sox legend to be their manager.
The Dodgers have officially hired Dave Roberts to be their next manager.
He'll replace Don Mattingly and an inherit a team that's averaged 93 wins over the past three years but has just one NLCS appearance and no titles.
Roberts' task will be to change that, and, well, delivering in October is something that is not foreign to him.
Of course, Boston is a city with a rich, storied sports history that stretches longer than a century, one with countless legends who have been immortalized for their contributions. Yet there's just nobody who earned his spot in Boston sports lore quite like Roberts.
A career .250 hitter, Roberts was a forgotten man when he arrived in Boston in July 2004, overshadowed by Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz, the two players who came in return for Nomar Gariaparra. Roberts, meanwhile, came to Boston in exchange for a minor leaguer named Henri Stanley, who was slightly less well-known than Nomar.
He started in just 19 games over the final two months of the season, batting. 256 while going 5-for-7 in stolen-base attempts. Needless to say, he wasn't on anyone's mind when the Red Sox began their postseason play in the ALDS against the Angels. In that series, his only appearance came as a pinch runner, and he was promptly thrown out on a fielder's choice. He didn't get a chance to play again until 11 days later, but he sure made the most of it.
By now, everyone's seen his stolen base replayed a million times over, and with good reason. It was only one base, yet to the Red Sox, it was everything. Following an uncharacteristically awful job by Mariano Rivera in a five-pitch walk to Kevin Millar, Roberts trotted out of the dugout as a pinch runner. At that point, even though the Sox were trailing 3-0 in the series and were down to their final three outs, and even though the Yankees had outscored them 36-19 in the series, there was a feeling that if Roberts could just steal that base, that somehow the Red Sox would be able to make something happen. Nobody was thinking of a historic comeback or the first World Series title since 1918 at that very point in time, but for some reason, just about everybody in Boston was on the same page: Roberts needed to steal that base.
Rivera, who was just 34 years old and plenty capable of retiring the side no matter what Roberts did on the basepaths, seemed keenly aware of Roberts' importance, too, as he threw over three times to try to pick him off. He came close the third time and decided to finally pitch to Bill Mueller. The pitch was high-and-away, tailor-made for Jorge Posada to climb out of his crouch and fire to second base. Posada's throw to Derek Jeter was on the money, but it was a split-second too late. Roberts was safe, Bill Mueller drove him in, and the rest was history.
What tends to be forgotten about Roberts is what he did the next night, after David Ortiz's dramatic 12th-inning home run kept the series alive. But in Game 5, the Red Sox once again trailed late, and they once again called upon Roberts to provide a desperately needed spark.
After Ortiz led off the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer over the Monster to cut the Yankees' lead to 4-3, Millar again worked a walk, this time against reliever Tom Gordon after falling behind 0-2 in the count. Once again, Roberts came on to replace Millar on the bases.
"This is like seeing the same movie again, two days in a row," Tim McCarver said on the broadcast.
Clearly, what Roberts did the night before rattled Gordon, as the veteran reliever threw over to first base three times, stepped off the mound three more times, and mixed in three pitches to Trot Nixon, two of which badly missed low and inside. Gordon again missed badly with a 2-1 offering, prompting a visit from third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Earlier in the at-bat, Posada visited the mound, and both teammates likely told Gordon to focus on the batter and ignore whatever Roberts was doing off first base.
And Gordon did leave Roberts alone on that 3-1 pitch, with Roberts taking off for second. Problem was, Gordon threw a meatball to Trot Nixon, who smoked it into center field, setting up a first-and-third, nobody-out situation for Jason Varitek. The soon-to-be captain lofted a 2-0 pitch from Rivera into center field, Roberts tagged and scored to tie the game, and though it took six more innings, the Red Sox once again were victorious.
And for Roberts, that was it. He never had to hold a bat, and he never even had to grab his glove. Solely with his feet, his smarts and his focus, Roberts authored two of the most important plays in Red Sox history. His steal went into the Red Sox Hall of Fame as a "Memorable Moment," and his contributions to those two unforgettable comeback wins helped lead to something much bigger -- the franchise's first World Series in 86 years.
Since stealing that base, Roberts has returned to multiple standing ovations at Fenway Park, batting .273 in his final four seasons in the majors, stealing 108 more bases along the way. In 2010, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a disease which he was able to beat. He's been a first base coach and a bench coach for the Padres, but to Red Sox fans, he'll always be remembered for what he did in October 2004.
This is all a long way of saying that there may be a few more folks in the Northeast who wouldn't mind seeing the Los Angeles Dodgers find some success over the next couple of years.
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here. You can email him or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
