Fresh off his second World Series victory as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Japanese-American Dave Roberts will likely take the next few days off to celebrate with his players, family, and friends.
Roberts became the first Major League Baseball manager of Asian heritage to help guide a team to the World Series with the Dodgers in 2017, and he is the second manager of African American heritage to lead a team to a World Series title.
There are some baseball fans too young to remember Roberts stealing second base in game four of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees, a move that jolted the Boston Red Sox from down 3-0 in the series to win four games in a row, becoming the first and only team to win a postseason series after losing the first three games.
However, Robert’s playing career, which spanned ten MLB seasons from 1999 to 2008, also included a stint in the LBPRC with the Criollos de Caguas during the winter season of 1999-2000.
Then, 23 years later, Robert’s son Cole, a 24-year-old second baseman who spent the 2023 and 2024 minor league baseball seasons in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, debuted in Puerto Rico with the RA12. Dave Roberts visited Estadio Hiram Bithorn in San Juan, Puerto Rico, last November to watch his son play.
In 18 games with the RA12 during the 2023-24 LBPRC season, the younger Roberts hit .180 with four RBI in 53 plate appearances but thoroughly enjoyed his time facing off against tough pitchers in Puerto Rico. Roberts was just a few months removed from competing in the Arizona Complex League.
“I wanted to see some really good competition and pitching,” Cole Roberts said in an interview on the Off The Field podcast in January. “It was to give myself more of an overall experience of the sport of baseball, kinda being around teammates from Puerto Rico, and I played with some people from the Dominican, which was really cool.”
In the podcast, Roberts mentioned one of his favorite moments from the LBPRC: helping break up an on-field brawl that included former Criollos de Caguas manager Yadier Molina.
“There was a big benches-clearing brawl, and one of their guys got hit, and everyone started running on the field,” Roberts said. “Our coach and Yadi were kinda going at it, and I didn’t know what they were saying, but I kinda tried to play peacemaker a little bit, so I can check that one off the bucket list.”
Maybe Molina and RA12 manager Eduardo Galarza’s shouting match reminded Roberts of his father or his father’s Criollos de Caguas teammate, Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who spoke highly of Dave Roberts as a teammate and manager when the Dodgers and Red Sox met in the 2018 World Series. Both of them have done their fair share of shouting as MLB managers.
“It was there (Puerto Rico); he played with a lot of energy and was a tremendous teammate,” Cora said about Roberts at a 2018 World Series press conference. “His family is very genuine, and they love each other. They helped us a lot early in our career in Los Angeles,” Cora said. “And the truth is, I’m extremely proud that he’s leading the Dodgers. He’s done an excellent job and is a worthy rival.”
Dave and Cole Robert’s interconnection to the LBPRC is one of the most unique father-son stories in international baseball, and the story may not be over if Cole decides to return to Puerto Rico this winter to play for one of the league’s six organizations. If Cole returns to the LBPRC, don’t be surprised to see his father in the stands cheering him on.
