The video is grainy, but Dave Roberts’ thin mustache and Aaron Boone’s peach fuzz are noticeable. The year was 1992, and the future managers of the Dodgers and New York Yankees were 19-year-old freshmen immersed in an exciting chapter in Los Angeles history. significant college rivalry.
Now 52, Roberts and Boone will lead the Major League titans into the World Series, which begins Friday at Dodger Stadium. Since college, they’ve followed parallel paths, enjoying solid professional playing careers punctuated by a single unforgettable playoff moment before becoming fixtures on the top step of the dugouts of baseball’s most storied franchises.
That’s how things are supposed to be for alumni of a city’s two most prestigious universities, right?
Roberts took leadoff and played left field for UCLA. Boone batted sixth and played third base for USC. The game was wild, with the Bruins jumping out to an early 7-1 lead and the Trojans scoring nine runs in the eighth inning to win 13-8.
Roberts, batting left, led off the game with a single on an inside chopper that leapt over the pitcher’s head. The Bruins’ all-time leading base stealer to date with 109, Roberts was thrown out attempting to slide to third, with Boone applying the tag.
Boone, batting right-handed, scored the go-ahead run in the eighth after hitting an RBI single. He also dove to catch a bunt on the fly early in the game. Roberts was at first base and stepped back alertly to avoid a double play.
“We weren’t friends,” Roberts said of Boone, smiling at the memory. “At that point, I didn’t care too much about him. I don’t think he cared too much about me. I remember they probably got the better of us, which probably increased my disgust for him and the Trojans. But he was a hell of a baseball player.
So did Roberts, who in three seasons at UCLA hit .326 with a .425 on-base percentage, scoring 176 runs and accumulating 241 hits in 181 games. Boone played in 174 games at USC, hitting .302 with 11 home runs and 94 RBIs.
Boone flourished as a junior, hitting .340 with a .922 OPS and 26 stolen bases, and was a third-round draft pick of the Cincinnati Reds. The Boone family is baseball royalty, with his grandfather Ray, father Bob and brother Bret enjoying long playing careers.
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Bob Boone regularly took Aaron and Bret to the stadium during his 19 seasons as a catcher, mainly with the Angels and the Philadelphia Phillies.
“One of the things I’m so grateful for is that my dad always took us with him,” Aaron Boone told USC Today in 2018. “We got to know and be around so many great guys, got to do so many great things at the ballpark growing up, which helped us fall in love with the game.”
The slightly built Roberts was not as highly regarded by scouts and lasted until the 28th round until he was selected by the Detroit Tigers. However, he defied all odds by playing 10 seasons in the major leagues and earning $23.6 million.
With Boone and Roberts in the lineup, the Trojans won 11 of 20 games against the Bruins. Boone scored the winning run in the 10th inning of another game in 1992 and his RBI single in the ninth gave the Trojans a 1-0 victory in 1994. Roberts scored the winning run for UCLA in the 11th. inning of a game in 1994 after hitting a single and stealing second.
Neither player traveled to Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series. UCLA lost in the regional final in 1992 and USC did the same in 1993 and 1994. Yet their playoff fortunes changed a decade later. The two are best remembered for a brilliant postseason moment in the legendary American League rivalry between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.
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Boone’s home run in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, the Yankees were sent to the World Series and the Red Sox were sent home. To the cheers of 56,000 fans in Yankee Stadium, Boone joked: “What I want to know is, what are all these people doing in my dream?”
Roberts stolen base a year later, the Red Sox were able to stay alive in the ALCS and ultimately eliminate the Yankees and win the World Series for the first time since 1918 by sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals. Years later, in an interview with the Times, Roberts said he relied on advice from Dodgers’ stolen base king Maury Wills: “Maury told me that anyone can do the safe thing, but it takes someone special to take a chance.”
The memories are sweet, but Boone and Roberts know better than to bring them up in conversation.
“I’d probably give him a lot of grief if he brought up that home run to beat the Sox and he’d give me the same grief if I brought up the stolen base,” Roberts said.
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They have a lot of news to discuss. Roberts is in his ninth season as Dodgers manager, having posted a regular season record of 851-506 for a winning percentage of .627 – the highest in Major League history. His teams have made the playoffs every year and are 52-43 with four World Series appearances, including a championship in 2020.
Boone enjoyed sustained regular season success during seven seasons with the Yankees, posting a winning record each year and a record of 603-429 (.584). He is 21-19 in the postseason and this is the Yankees’ first World Series appearance since 2009.
“We have a lot of mutual friends, we kind of have similar circles,” Roberts said. “We talked before he got the job with the Yankees. We have a very good relationship.”
To this day, Boone follows USC, particularly the football team. He played football in high school and even considered attending a college where he could play both sports. But his brother Bret was a Trojan.
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“I went through high school with nothing else in mind other than wanting to go to USC. And it became a reality,” he said. “It’s one of those places where almost everyone who experiences it understands that they are in a very special place. It’s three years of my life that I look back on with such fondness.”
Roberts feels the same way about UCLA. He became the first minority manager of the Dodgers – his father is black and his mother Japanese – and he was another former Bruin, Jackie Robinsonwho broke the color barrier as a player when he debuted with the Dodgers in 1947.
“Also being the first African-American manager, it’s kind of multi-layered for me,” Roberts said. UCLA Optimism Magazine in 2015. “I played at Jackie Robinson Stadium. I played for UCLA and the Dodgers. On the road, my alias is Jackie Robinson. He’s someone I have so much adoration for , and it’s fascinating to see African American culture express itself, and Japanese culture relate, and the UCLA faithful relate.
College allegiances must take a backseat to Dodger blue and Yankee pinstripes for now. A few years ago during spring training, Boone was asked what he would think about playing against the Dodgers and facing Roberts in a World Series.
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“I would sign up for that!” he said. “If it was planned, I would definitely sign up.”
It starts Friday.
“It’s very cool that we played against each other as college rivals and now you can see that this rivalry with the Dodgers and the Yankees, it’s pretty special, it goes back a long way and we’ll do it again, we pitting one against the other,’” Roberts says. “It’s quite remarkable.”
This story was originally published in Los Angeles Times.
