With a second world championship, Roberts may have punched his ticket to the Baseball Hall of Fame
NEW YORK – Finally, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is asterisk-free.
Asterisks are a vital part of baseball. They’re like the scarlet letter that some players wear throughout their baseball lives. They often resonate after their careers are over.
New York Yankees right fielder Roger Maris set the single-season home run record in 1961. That year, MLB commissioner Ford Frick attached an asterisk to Maris’ home run record because Yankees outfielder Babe Ruth needed only 154 games to hit 60 home runs in 1927, and Maris took 162 games to break Ruth’s record.
As a manager, Roberts has carried around an asterisk for the last four seasons. He led the Dodgers to the World Series championship in 2020. There is an asterisk on that championship because it came at the end of a season shortened by the coronavirus pandemic. The one distinction is that Roberts, whose mother is Japanese and father is African American, became the first manager of Asian descent to win a World Series title.
That asterisk is still there, but Roberts was able to do something Maris couldn’t do. He didn’t remove an asterisk. He simply accomplished the same feat and did it without an asterisk.
The Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees 7-6 in Game 5 to win the World Series 4-1 on Wednesday. The victory was the eighth championship in Dodgers history, or more importantly, the victory was the first “legitimate” championship for Roberts in only nine seasons as Dodgers manager.
Robert’s second title — and first without an asterisk — probably punched his ticket to Cooperstown, New York.
Roberts is tied with Tommy Lasorda, who won two championships with the Dodgers, and may join the list of managers with three titles: Tony LaRussa, Sparky Anderson, Miller Huggins and John McGraw. Roberts is within striking distance of Bruce Bochy and Joe Torre, who have won four each.
Even the legends are in reach if Roberts wants to manage that long. Joe McCarthy won seven titles, Casey Stengel won seven and Connie Mack won five. After Wednesday’s victory, Roberts said he is in awe to simply be in the same cathedral as those legends.
“Humbling. Never thought I would be in that same conversation,” Roberts said. “I’m a part of a great organization, a lot of great people around me supporting me, and we’ve won a lot of ball games. This is something I really wanted. I wanted this one.”
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