Dave Roberts from SFGiants.com - Eric Risbert - AP

So the Giants released Dave Roberts today.  The Giants decided that with his injuries slowing him down, and young guys already showing promise that it was best to just eat his 6.5 million dollar salary this year. (See article here)

I offer a salute to Dave Roberts because I always liked him as a player.  He was by far my favorite player on the Dodgers when he played for them.  He played like I always loved to; with speed.  He would get on the bases and mess with the pitchers just like I used to try and do.  He always had a great success rate swiping bags and I didn’t think anyone other than Brett Butler could lay down a drag bunt from the left side like Dave Roberts could.

I was truly distraught when Paul DePodesta cleaned house that year and traded Dave Roberts away.  Dave always had one achilles heal and that was injuries.  When he played, he could field and run, but it always seemed like he couldn’t ever avoid injuries long enough to get up to speed for a long period of time.  He was horrible for me as a fantasy player.  Yeah, he could get SBs for you, but you never knew when he would play, so you never knew to play him.  Even worse if you left him in all the time, you lost points from other guys because he would suddenly be scratched from the lineup.

Even though he was traded away the fact that he went to the Red Sox that year was sweet justice.  No matter what anyone says, I believe that if Dave Roberts doesn’t steal that bag in the Championship Series, that they don’t eventually go on to win the World Series.  That was the spark.  That was the make it or break it play.  The moneyball Red Sox suddenly had to depend on speed and they traded for him just for that purpose.  Everyone watching that game knew he was sent in to steal a bag.  Everyone knew he was going.  Every viewer, every player on the other team, and especially the catcher.  That’s what I loved about that scene.  It was the best against the best.  Speed versus the catcher’s strong arm.  The catcher was tipped off, he just had to throw him out.  The best part was he couldn’t.  Dave was fast enough to steal the bag and the momentum just kept rising.  The Red Sox tied it and the rest is history.  (Here’s a cool article re-living that moment in Red Sox history.)

Dave Roberts went on to play for the Padres and Giants, but I never minded and always respected him.  When he’s one of your favorite players (and called one of the nicest guys in baseball), it really doesn’t matter what team he played on.

I have a good hunch someone will give him another chance next year, probably just for the off the bench hit or stolen base.  If they do, you bet I’ll still root for him.

Thanks for the memories Dave and happy trails.  It was great seeing you locally and someday I’ll teach my son to steal bags and mess with pitchers just like you did.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 6th, 2009 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Offseason News, Spy Game. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.