Dave Roberts (baseball manager)

David Ray Roberts was born on May 31, 1972, in Naha, Okinawa in Japan, to Waymon, an African American United States Marine stationed in Japan and Eiko, a Japanese woman native to Okinawa. He has a younger sister, Melissa. His childhood was spent moving from one military base to another in two- and three-year sequences, first in Okinawa and then in multiple bases in California, to Okinawa again, to North Carolina, to Hawaii, and finally back to California In football, he was a three-year starter at quarterback; as a senior, he helped lead his team to the San Diego Section Class 3A championship. Roberts was recruited to play football for the Air Force Academy as an option quarterback, but declined because he wanted to play baseball. ==College career==

Roberts decided to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and joined their Bruins baseball team as a walk-on outfielder after impressing coaches with his speed and enthusiasm. and as a junior he hit .296 with 28 stolen bases. He was disappointed with being drafted so low, behind seven other UCLA juniors, and his coach told him he needed to improve his defense and that his weak throwing arm was hurting his draft stock. ==Professional career==

Draft and minor leagues The Detroit Tigers selected Roberts in the 28th round of the 1994 MLB draft and signed him on June 9, 1994. He began his career with the Jamestown Jammers, the Tigers' short-season class A team in the New York–Pennsylvania League. Roberts hit .292 with 12 steals for the Jammers, who won the division title with a 42–32 record. For the 1995 season, he was promoted to play for the Lakeland Tigers in the Florida State League, where he hit .303 in 92 games with 30 stolen bases, fourth best in the league. In 1996, Roberts was assigned to the Visalia Oaks of the California League. The Oaks were a co-op team made up of players from several organizations. He was frustrated with the assignment and thought about quitting baseball but his father talked him out of it. In 126 games, he hit .272 with 65 stolen bases, He remained at Jacksonville the next season, playing in 105 games for them, with a .296 average and 23 steals. Roberts was traded just before the Southern League All-Star Game and played in the game wearing an Indians hat even though the Indians did not have a Southern League team at the time. He had only two hits in 15 at-bats for the Bisons and made it to the Triple-A World Series. His first MLB hit was a double to center field in his second at-bat, off of Bobby Witt of the Devil Rays in the second inning. On September 24, he hit a grand slam homer off of John Hudek of the Toronto Blue Jays. Overall, he was in 41 games for the Indians in 1999 and hit .238 with two homers, 12 RBI and 11 stolen bases. Roberts spent most of 2000 back in the minors with Buffalo, where he had a .292 average in 120 games with a career high 13 homers, 55 RBI and 39 steals. After the season, he had surgery on his left shoulder to repair a torn labrum and fraying around his rotator cuff, which caused him to begin the following season on the 60-day disabled list. The 2002 season with the Dodgers was Roberts's first full season on a major league roster. He was the leadoff hitter and starter as a center fielder. He finished the season with a .277 batting average in 127 games with 45 stolen bases. He missed the final seven games of the regular season with a partially torn oblique. Boston Red Sox (2004) On July 31, 2004, the Dodgers traded Roberts to the Boston Red Sox for minor league outfielder Henri Stanley. Roberts played in 45 games for the Red Sox and hit .256. In 2006, the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame recognized the steal as a Memorable Moment in Red Sox history. San Diego Padres (2005–2006) The Red Sox traded Roberts to the San Diego Padres on December 20, 2004, in exchange for outfielder Jay Payton, infielder Ramón Vázquez, minor league pitcher David Pauley, and cash. Roberts played center field for the Padres in 2005, hitting .275 in 115 games That season Roberts established career highs with a .293 batting average, 49 steals, and 13 triples. San Francisco Giants (2007–2008) In December 2006, Roberts signed with the San Francisco Giants. The Giants, trying to acquire a center fielder, first tried to sign Gary Matthews, Jr. and Juan Pierre, but both players passed on the Giants in favor of other teams. Roberts agreed to a 3-year, $18-million deal with the team in early December 2006. The Giants backloaded the deal agreeing to pay Roberts $5 million in 2007 and $6.5 million in 2008 and 2009. Roberts's career with the Giants got off to a slow start because of injury. He spent most of May and early June on the disabled list. Roberts was batting only .216 before he went on the disabled list, but his swing had been hampered by the bone chips and spurs in his elbow that required surgery. He finished the season hitting .260 in 114 games with 31 stolen bases. Player profile Roberts had above-average knowledge of the strike zone and used it to his advantage. He had little power, but was a spray hitter who used raw speed to get on base and stretch singles to doubles. Once on base, he commonly "manufactured" runs with such tactics as stealing second base, moving to third on a grounder, and coming home on a sacrifice fly. When healthy, Roberts was widely known as one of the best base stealers in baseball. From 2002 to 2006, he had 195 steals, as well as an 81 percent success rate, both of which were the second-best in the majors among base stealers with 175 steals just behind stolen base king Rickey Henderson in the career stolen base rate rankings. In fact, Roberts' career stolen base success rate is 21st all-time among players with at least 300 career attempts. He had exceptional range in the outfield, but his below-average arm occasionally allowed his opponents to take extra bases on him. ==Broadcasting career==

In May 2009, Roberts retired from baseball and joined NESN as a studio analyst and occasional color commentator for Red Sox telecasts. After one season as a broadcaster, he left the network to join the Padres as a Baseball Operations Special Assistant, where he would work with players in the organization on outfield defense, baserunning, and bunting. ==Coaching and managerial career==

San Diego Padres (2011–2015) On October 18, 2010, Roberts was hired by the San Diego Padres as the first base coach, replacing Rick Renteria, when he was promoted to bench coach. When Rentería was named manager of the Chicago Cubs after the 2013 season, Roberts once again succeeded him, named as manager Bud Black's bench coach for the 2014 campaign. On June 15, 2015, Roberts filled in as the Padres' manager for one game when Black was fired after starting 2015 at 32–33 and six games behind in the National League West. The Padres lost that game 9–1 to the Oakland Athletics. Pat Murphy was named as the new manager the next day and Roberts returned to his bench coach role for the rest of the season. Los Angeles Dodgers (2016–present) Roberts was named manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers on November 23, 2015. He became the first minority manager in the franchise's history. In 2016, the Dodgers set the MLB record in Roberts's first year by placing 28 players on the disabled list throughout the season, as well as the record for the most pitching changes (606) in a single season. Despite the injuries, the Dodgers won their fourth consecutive NL West title and advanced to the 2016 NLCS, losing to the eventual champions Chicago Cubs in 6 games. Roberts received praise during the postseason for how he used Kenley Jansen in non-traditional closer situations. He was selected as the Sporting News National League Manager of the Year The Dodgers faced the Houston Astros in the 2017 World Series, where they were defeated in seven games. It was later determined that the Astros illegally stole signs during the 2017 regular season and postseason. In 2018, the Dodgers got off to a rocky start at the beginning of the season with a 16–26 record, but rebounded to win the NL West, finishing 92–71. Roberts led the Dodgers to the 2018 World Series after the Dodgers defeated the Atlanta Braves three games to one in the 2018 NLDS and then defeated the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games in the NLCS. The Dodgers faced one of Roberts's former teams, the Boston Red Sox, and former Dodgers teammate Alex Cora for the championship. Boston won the series in five games, giving the Red Sox their ninth World Series title and the Dodgers a second consecutive World Series loss. (left), Dave Roberts and Dr. Lynn Lashbrook at the 2023 Winter Meetings Baseball Career Conference On December 3, 2018, Roberts and the Dodgers agreed to a four-year contract extension, through the 2022 season. In 2019, Roberts led the team to an 106–56 record, the second highest mark in the league that season and a franchise record. However, they were upset by the Washington Nationals in the NLDS in 5 games, who went on to win it all. In 2020, Roberts led the Dodgers to the playoffs once more. They swept the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2020 National League Wild Card Series and the San Diego Padres in the 2020 NLDS, both of which had modified schedules due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After coming back from a 3–1 deficit against the Atlanta Braves in the 2020 NLCS, the Dodgers defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in six games in the 2020 World Series. Roberts became the first African-American manager of a World Series-winning team since Cito Gaston and the first manager of Asian heritage to win the World Series. , Kamala Harris and the Dodgers at the White House in 2021 On March 25, 2022, Roberts signed a three-year contract extension with the Dodgers through the 2025 season. The Dodgers won 111 games in 2022, a mark only reached by four other teams in MLB history. It was the fourth time Roberts had a 100 win season, after doing it in 2017, 2019, and 2021. However, they lost in the 2022 National League Division Series to the San Diego Padres. This meant that the 2022 Dodgers had the most wins of a team to fail to win a postseason series in the division era. In the past four full seasons, the Dodgers won 100 games each time but only reached the NLCS once. They repeated as NL West champions with 100 wins in 2023 but lost yet again in the NLDS, this time to the 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks in a straight three-game sweep where Arizona never trailed at any point in the series. It was the third season in a row that the Dodgers had lost a playoff series to a team that had at least 15 more losses than the Dodgers. In 2024, Roberts led the Dodgers to the National League pennant for the fourth time in his tenure as manager. In the World Series, the Dodgers defeated the American League champion New York Yankees in five games, securing his second and the franchise's eighth World Series title. In 2025, the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 in Toronto, 5–4, securing another World Series win for Roberts. On March 10, 2025, Roberts agreed to a new four-year contract extension with the Dodgers for $8 million per year, a new record for average annual value for a Major League manager. Managerial record ==Personal life==

in 2015 Roberts married his high school girlfriend, Tricia, in 1997. They have two children, son Cole and daughter Emme. Cole played college baseball for Loyola Marymount University. He last played for the Clearwater Threshers before being released in July of 2025. Roberts, along with former teammate Rich Aurilia and friends John and Noelle Micek, have been partners in Red Stitch Winery, based in Cardiff, California, since 2008. In March 2010, Roberts was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. After receiving treatments for lymphoma, Roberts reported he received a clean bill of health in June 2011. Roberts is a Christian. ==See also==