University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Q&A With Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts
April 26, 2017 | Baseball
Prior to Friday night's UCLA Night at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers manager and UCLA alum Dave Roberts sat down with UCLABruins.com to talk about his time and experiences in Westwood as a Bruin. For more infomation on UCLA Night, visit Dodgers.com/UCLA. Fans who purchase tickets through the special event ticket package will recieve a exclusive co-branded UCLA Dodgers' cap.
Q: Coach, any open thoughts before getting started?
Dave Roberts: For me it's great to be back in Los Angeles and obviously this is the place that I called home during my four years at UCLA, some of the best of my life and really impacted me as an adult and I'm really looking forward to seeing the blue and gold in the stands for UCLA night, on Friday April 28th. You've got the Dodgers and the Bruins so it's a great day that's going to be a lot of fun.
Q: Do you have a particular favorite memory from your time as a student-athlete?
DR: I think that for me, going to the basketball games, football games, hanging out with my friends there that are still my best friends to this day and playing in Jackie Robinson Stadium. Also, for me just the daily walk up and down Bruin Walk is something that made me always realize how fortunate I was to go to UCLA. That's why when I talk to my kids about where potentially they can go to school, UCLA just really impacted me, from the professors to the student body, it's just a really special place.
Q: And what made you choose UCLA, what was the driving factor for you to Westwood?
DR: I just think for me, within Southern California I don't see any better university that encompasses what UCLA has to offer. I think for me, geography, not too far from home, it's got the academics, it's a beautiful campus, it's got the athletics all around and I think that for the cost of the education you're going to get, all those variables for me it was a no brainer.
Q: How has your time at UCLA translated into managing the Dodgers?
DR: It really started my real love for baseball that started when I got to UCLA and understanding that it potentially could be a career and every single day when you see that Jackie Robinson statue and getting to play at the Jackie Robinson Stadium, you just realize the honor and the opportunity that you have and I've never forgotten and as I learn more stories about Jackie Robinson as I spent four years at UCLA, just making me really aware of my responsibilities as a minority baseball player and going forward as a coach and now as a manager for the Dodgers. I owe a lot of that to obviously my father who passed, but my time at UCLA.
Q: Do you think your time at UCLA really encouraged you to excel?
DR: I think that my time at UCLA really opened my eyes that I can accomplish anything because that's a big pond, there's a lot of students there and a lot of brilliant people in it, a lot of different ways as far as what they major in, sports and there's a lot of dynamic brilliant people and I think for me to be around those people really inspired me and challenged me as opposed to being at a smaller school where you essentially could be a bigger fish, I was a small fish in a big pond but that sort of elevated me academically, athletically and socially. So I do think that those things helped shape who I am as a young adult at that time and really lead me potentially continuing to be a leader and a leader of men.
Q: What do you talk about when you reminisce with other Bruins in the major league?
DR: You know it was a different time, a different coach, obviously with Savage and I had coach Adams but just sort of how it shaped us and trying to imagine our lives now without the opportunities to go to UCLA and how different our paths might have been and how it really impacted us so there's not really any special moment that we really talk about, it's more just our life at UCLA and how it shaped us. At UCLA, it's sort of when you look at the guys who have gone and played at this level from UCLA there's a common thread in the sense of very upstanding men and are respectful of their teammates and the game and I think that if you look at this long list of former UCLA Major League players, there's a long list of not only great players but great men and we have one in our clubhouse right now, and that's Chase Utley.
Q: How cool do you think it's going to be for the fans coming out to UCLA night, just the fact that you guys have that amazing Jackie Robinson statue that you just unveiled, and how that comes full circle for someone that of course is an American icon but also especially for UCLA and the Dodgers?
DR: I think it's really hard for me to put into words but emotionally it's over the top, someone earlier mentioned UCLA's got a worldwide brand and we feel that the Dodgers have that same brand and there's only so many universities or sports franchises that can even come close to entertaining the thought of rivaling the Dodgers or UCLA and so I know that Jackie was very proud of his time at UCLA and how that university really embraced him and I feel the same way and speaking just as a former Bruin student, there's a lot of pride in knowing that one of the great social icons in our lifetime spent his years at UCLA and so for me in a small capacity field that responsibility to do right by UCLA baseball and Jackie. He paved the way for a lot of people and for me to continue to extend his legacy is a big responsibility that I take a lot of pride in.
