Red Sox manager Alex Cora still remembers the day his former Dodgers teammate Dave Roberts was shipped off to Boston in the middle of the 2004 season.
“We were in San Diego,” recalled Cora, who started his MLB career with the Dodgers in 1998. “At the time, we had the best team in the National League West. [Dave] got called into the office by Jim Tracy. He told him he got traded to the Red Sox. [Dave] was down, upset. It was a good group. We felt that we had something special.”
Cora — who overlapped with Roberts for two and a half seasons in Los Angeles — said he remembers telling his friend, “Hey man, you’re going to a great baseball city.