Tag: Dave Roberts

UCLA baseball congratulates Dodgers manager Dave Roberts

The Bruins tipped their cap to the former UCLA-great.

Two former UCLA Bruins were central to the 2024 World Series this season.

New York Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole and Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts played key roles for their respective teams on the world’s biggest stage in baseball, but only one left with a ring.

Roberts, who graduated from UCLA in 1995, holds the all-time steals record for the Bruins in his time and is now a three-time Major League Baseball champion. Leading the Dodgers to their eighth title as a franchise, Roberts has two rings with Los Angeles and one with the Boston Red Sox.

On Wednesday, in a post on X, the UCLA Bruins baseball team tipped their cap to the former Bruin. Roberts not only boasts a fruitful playing career but has established himself as one of the best skippers in all of baseball.

For the UCLA baseball team, Roberts is yet another decorated program alumni and someone the Bruins could use this season. After a tough season in 2024, UCLA should consider inviting Roberts to Westwood to inspire the underperforming program.

Will Shohei Ohtani play in World Series Game 3? What we know before first pitch vs. the Yankees

This was a SCARY moment, but it looks like Ohtani is OK.

Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani unfortunately got hurt during Game 2 of the 2024 MLB World Series.

Ohtani left the game after injuring his left shoulder on a failed stolen base attempt at Dodger Stadium before securing a victory against the Yankees on Saturday evening in Los Angeles. This was a nightmare scenario for baseball fans everywhere as Ohtani is the biggest and brightest star in the sport right now.

While it was initially unclear if Ohtani would miss time after the scary moment, there was some optimism from the organization.

SHOHEI OHTANI: Everything we know about the Dodgers star’s World Series status.

It seemed like Ohtani immediately knew his shoulder popped out on the stolen base attempt, which is unpleasant but not too big of a concern for his availability.

The good news is that Ohtani was cleared to play in Game 3, per Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

Then on Monday before game time, Ohtani was officially added to the Dodgers’ Game 3 lineup.

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Video of Manny Machado’s throw to Dodgers dugout that Dave Roberts called ‘unsettling’ had MLB fans so confused

Someone should check on the Dodgers.

The Dodgers and Padres didn’t need Sunday night’s Game 2 to add to an already-heated NL West rivalry, but it’s certainly playing out that way.

We already saw as tempers flared when Dodgers fans threw baseballs and other items in the direction of Padres players on Sunday. Yet, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts took exception with one throw in particular from Padres third baseman Manny Machado.

Speaking to reporters, Roberts called out Machado for throwing a baseball at the Dodgers dugout, calling the toss “unsettling” and wondering if Machado intended to hit him specifically with the throw. But by how Roberts described the incident, you would have expected a blatant throw on the line.

That wasn’t what the footage showed, though.

Machado did direct a baseball toward the Dodgers dugout, but the throw was on multiple bounces and seemed intended for the ball boy. And sure, it’s common courtesy to throw the warm-up baseballs towards your own dugout, but Machado clearly just bounced the throw. It wasn’t going to hurt anyone, and Roberts didn’t even notice it until Teoscar Hernández started shouting at the Padres third baseman.

The entire controversy had fans so confused after seeing the footage.

This was how Twitter/X reacted

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Dave Roberts surprisingly opened up about the Dodgers’ meeting with free agent Shohei Ohtani

Dodgers fans didn’t love that Roberts broke Ohtani’s no-leak rule.

Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani has understandably been all the talk at MLB’s winter meetings. With the expectation that Ohtani could make his free-agency decision any day now, the teams in pursuit have generally played it cool about their chances.

In fact, it was reported early on in Ohtani’s free agency that any leaks could actually hurt a team’s chances, which made Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ comments on Tuesday even more surprising.

He openly spoke about the team’s presentation to Ohtani.

Roberts told reporters that the Dodgers had their meeting with Ohtani a couple days ago, and that he felt the presentation went well. Roberts was asked about why he decided to share those details publicly, and he basically said that he didn’t see the point in lying about it. After all, the Dodgers’ interest in Ohtani hasn’t been a secret, and Roberts felt that details of the meeting were going to come out eventually.

Along with the Dodgers, the Cubs, Blue Jays, Giants and Braves are thought to be in contention for Ohtani’s services. But thus far, there haven’t been many leaks from teams. So, you can understand why some Dodgers fans weren’t thrilled about Roberts casually sharing those details.

Dave Roberts was thrilled for Albert Pujols after his 700th home run until he remembered they’re not on the same team anymore

Dave Roberts is a real one, man. That’s all you can say about this.

Dave Roberts seems like such a great friend, man. It’s one thing to root for the success of one of the homies. But to do it when that success literally comes at a cost to you? That’s a real one.

That’s the only way to describe Roberts from Friday night when Albert Pujols hit his 700th home run against his Dodgers. He legitimately made real history against Roberts’ team.

Did Roberts care? Certainly. But he was over the moon for Pujols and we all visually saw it happen. Roberts got up and celebrated after her realized what Pujols did, but then immediately got this dejected look after he remembered…Pujols just did this against his team.

That. Is. Hilarious. Dave Roberts is a real one, man.

It makes sense for him to be happy for Pujols here — he did play for Roberts’ Dodgers last season. They’ve got a legitimate connection here and Roberts seems genuinely happy for one of his guys.

It just…came at his expense. And that’s fine! The Dodgers are sitting pretty, anyway. Real friends are OK with that. Fans absolutely loved this.

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Dodgers shared a look at Dave Roberts’ clubhouse speech after they clinched the NL West title

A very cool moment.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have been atop the National League standings for nearly the entire season, so their reclaiming of the NL West crown was inevitable. It got to the point where the Diamondbacks had security on hand to guard their outfield pool from celebrating Dodgers players.

But when it came time to actually celebrate their ninth NL West title in the past 10 seasons, the Dodgers were focused on larger goals.

The official Twitter account for the Dodgers shared a video from the clubhouse celebration following the 4-0 win over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday. The video showed manager Dave Roberts emphasizing that this was just the first step towards a postseason journey. The celebration also included Clayton Kershaw getting put on the spot to give a speech.

Roberts said:

“This is the first step. This is the first step. We got a lot of first timers here. … There’s a lot of hard work in to winning the division. The championship, the west, is back in Los Angeles where it deserves to be. Where it belongs to be … Congratulations, everybody. Everybody’s that’s here, everybody’s that’s not here, it’s about you guys — the players.”

And then, of course, Kershaw followed with his delightfully uncomfortable speech.

Dodgers fans loved the video too, as expected.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ favorite Clayton Kershaw moment is a very sweet one

We asked Dave Roberts for his favorite Clayton Kershaw moment… and the Dodgers manager’s answer was pretty great.

Dave Roberts has been the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2016, which means he and his ace pitcher, Clayton Kershaw, have spent a lot of time together and won a number of big games together.

So when I asked Roberts this week about what his favorite Clayton Kershaw moment has been it was interesting to find out it involved a game that the lefty didn’t even pitch in.

Roberts, who will be on the bench tonight at Dodger Stadium when Kershaw makes his first start in an All-Star Game, said he loves thinking about the time he saw Kershaw celebrating a World Series title in 2020:

That’s pretty awesome.

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An obscure MLB rule bizarrely prevented Dodgers’ Dave Roberts from bringing in a position player to pitch

This was weird.

I’ll bet a lot that you didn’t know this Major League Baseball rule that was enforced Saturday night.

And that’s totally OK, because neither did an MLB manager: The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Dave Roberts.

On Saturday night, the Dodgers were down 9-4 to the New York Mets. In the ninth inning, Roberts decided that he didn’t want to waste a reliever — although, that’s a pretty close game to do so in — so he called on Zach McKinstry to pitch.

McKinstry is a utility player.

But umpires declared that it was against the rules to bring in a position player to pitch in this case, so the Dodgers needed to call on Evan Phillips instead. And the Dodgers’ bullpen coach was furious because Phillips didn’t have enough time to warm up. It was a whole mess.

Let’s break this all down:

Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts may have cost his team first place in the NL West with this wild decision

This is a rough one.

Baseball is so awesome because there’s really no such thing as a buzzer beater. There are, occasionally, walk-off plays to end games, though, and they’re almost always insane.

And, a lot of times, those walk-offs are determined by literal inches. That’s why it’s important to put players in a position to succeed. And that’s why managers are so important.

But that’s exactly what Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts didn’t do on Friday against the Giants.

In the bottom of the 11th up against the Dodgers with the score tied 2-2, Posey knocks the ball between first and second for what seems like it’ll be a routine out.

And here’s where things get sticky.

‘Don’t [expletive] touch me.’ Dave Roberts’ story on getting to know Max Scherzer is priceless

He learned the hard way.

Apparently, no one told Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts that new pitcher Max Scherzer — whom the franchise traded with the Washington Nationals to acquire — doesn’t like to be touched while he’s pitching.

That’s right. No pats on the backside, no tap of the shoulder, nothing.

On Sunday night, as the Dodgers beat the New York Mets, Roberts told the story to Sunday Night Baseball: He said that he gave Scherzer a pat as the pitcher came into the dugout, and Roberts heard him say, “Don’t [expletive] touch me.” When his players told him that’s Scherzer’s thing, he clearly listened, because there’s video of Roberts clearly avoiding putting his hands on the pitcher.

Here’s the story:

And here’s the video from Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) with the moment that Roberts made sure he didn’t touch Scherzer:

Amazing.

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