Up until this year, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had become a bit of a scapegoat for the organization’s inability to win a World Series since 1988.
Roberts’ regular-season winning percentage since taking over as manager in 2016 is the best in franchise history, but his questionable decisions in October helped lead to the team’s demise every year.
That changed this past season with the Dodgers finally breaking through and winning it all. This time around, Roberts made some key decisions that worked out such as going to Julio Urias to close out both the National League Championship Series and World Series, establishing himself as a championship manager.
Now that he has had some time to process everything that happened, Roberts did some reflecting on the emotions he felt after winning the World Series and when focus shifts to the 2021 season.
“I think my progression was joy and elate right after the last out was recorded. Then shortly thereafter it went to relief, and that lasted for probably a good week,” he said. “And then I think the joy started to filter in.
“So I’m still on a high and in a joyful state with the thoughts of ’21, how we’re going to put together this roster and kind of re-connecting with players, that’s kind of happening right now. I think it will ramp up more, for me personally, once I get through the holidays.”
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman had received similar criticism to Roberts in recent years and had no problem admitting to feeling more relief than joy after finally bringing a championship back to L.A.
Roberts agreed with that sentiment and is enjoying not being criticized this offseason. “It’s a nice change,” he said.
“I agree with Andrew that it was certainly a lot more relief than elation. I guess it’s more over the past five years, you’re just so focused on the process and how we go about it, but obviously the ultimate goal is to win a championship.
“When you finally get to that point, you’re just like, ‘Man, we did it!’ And you have so much relief for many different reasons. Now the balance and inner struggle is how to get past that relief and enjoy it to then focus on ’21.
“I’m still in the middle. I think for me, getting past the holidays, then I’ll really bear down on ’21.”
Roberts feels validation after winning World Series
In addition to feeling joy and relief, Roberts also admitted to having some validity now.
“I think that’s certainly a fair question, and a lot of it is validation. I’m the first to say you can’t live your life and coach for just solely results, because I do believe the body of work we’ve done as an organization is pretty special,” he said.
“But you are in this to win championships. Having done that for the city, for the organization, I think certainly is a lot of validation.”
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