This Could Be the Start of Some Dream Gig

“And now, the starting lineup for your Los Angeles Dodgers--leading off, and playing center field, No. 30, Dave Roberts ... “

When he hears those words from the Dodger Stadium public address announcer before today’s season opener against the San Francisco Giants, all those summers in Visalia, Jacksonville, Akron and Buffalo, all those years of trying to emerge from the shadow of six-time all-star Kenny Lofton, will melt away.

Dave Roberts has finally made it.

In his ninth year of professional baseball, after 798 minor league games and 3,079 minor league at-bats and a batch of late-March disappointments, the former UCLA standout will make his first big league opening-day start today.

It won’t be Roberts’ major league debut--the 5-foot-10, 180-pound speedster played in 75 games for the Cleveland Indians in the last three seasons--but this is the first time he’s broken camp with a big league team and has a starting job to call his own.

“Playing in the big leagues was a dream come true, but to play on opening day in Los Angeles is off the charts,” Roberts said. “This is something I can’t describe. It didn’t even seem like this was possible.”

Roberts was probably fourth on the center-field depth chart when camp opened, behind Marquis Grissom and his guaranteed $5-million contract, Tom Goodwin and his $3.25-million contract, and McKay Christensen and his short-but-successful track record of hitting .327 in 28 games for the Dodgers last season.

But the more Manager Jim Tracy saw of Roberts, the more Roberts, 29, seemed the solution to filling a four-year void at the top of the Dodger order.

Roberts hit .368 with a .478 on-base percentage, nine runs, three doubles, five runs batted in, eight walks, four strikeouts and six stolen bases in 18 Grapefruit League games.

He worked counts, bunted for hits and ran the bases aggressively. He got good jumps and ran good routes in the outfield, and although he doesn’t have the world’s best arm, he hit cutoff men and threw to the right bases.

Eventually, Grissom was sent to the bench, Goodwin and Christensen were designated for assignment, and Roberts, acquired for two minor league pitchers in a winter trade with Cleveland, is still standing.

“He sent a clear message that he’s the guy to play center field and lead off,” Tracy said. “We weren’t asking for things from that position, we were demanding things. From the beginning of camp, his instincts, his intelligence, his willingness to do things for the club to be successful stood out.

“If he can do those things to the level he’s done them in spring training, he could be a valuable addition and something this team hasn’t had since Brett Butler [who led off from 1991-97] was here.”

In Roberts, Tracy sees a lot of Paul Lo Duca, the Dodger catcher who spent eight years in the minor leagues before winning a starting job in spring training last year.

Lo Duca batted .320 with 25 homers and 90 runs batted in after a manager finally gave him a chance. Tracy thinks Roberts can have a similar breakthrough season, though no one expects him to approach Lo Duca’s power numbers.

Dodger leadoff batters--mostly Goodwin and Grissom--combined for a .306 on-base percentage in 2001, 15th among 16 National League teams, but Tracy believes Roberts and speedy No. 2 batter Cesar Izturis will bring some energy and a run-producing punch to a sluggish offense.

But to do that, they have to get on base a lot. Roberts had a .381 career on-base percentage and a .295 batting average in the minor leagues and has a .292 on-base percentage and a .242 average in the big leagues.

“If I don’t give at-bats away, if I have a game plan, positive things will happen,” Roberts said. “Being a leadoff hitter, it’s not just about getting hits, it’s about getting on base. And sometimes if you don’t get on, it’s about seeing a lot of pitches so your teammates get a feel for what the pitcher is throwing. I just have to play my game.”

Roberts, a former three-sport star at Rancho Buena Vista High in North San Diego County, didn’t get much of a chance to play his game in Cleveland.

“When the guy you’re playing behind is making $8 million a year, that’s a pretty good-sized road block,” Roberts said.

That barrier was removed for a month in 1999, when Lofton was on the disabled list. Roberts was recalled from triple-A Buffalo and installed as the Indians’ regular center fielder for 32 games, during which he hit .248 and stole 10 bases, showing flashes of brilliance.

Roberts had three hits and scored three runs in his big league debut against Tampa Bay on Aug. 7 that year and had nine multihit games from Aug. 7-Sept. 10.

He played solid defense, created some havoc on the basepaths, and his hard-nosed style of play endeared him to Indian fans, who considered Roberts such a mirror image of Lofton that they started calling him “Lenny Clofton.”

Roberts was flattered.

“I’ve had a couple of different nicknames,” he said. “But anytime you can be compared to a perennial all-star, it’s a compliment.”

Though Roberts was something of a Lofton clone, former Indian second baseman Roberto Alomar made the bigger impression on Roberts.

“He taught me to not be afraid to make a mistake, that you can’t always have a great game but you can always do something positive to help the team win,” Roberts said. “Whether he went 0 for 4 or four for four, he always did something to help the team. He told me to be fearless, to put pressure on the defense.”

Tracy told Roberts the same thing this spring. Roberts stole 65 bases for Class-A Visalia in 1996 and 39 for triple-A Buffalo in 1999 and again in 2000. He has an explosive first step--”It takes him one step to reach full speed,” Tracy said--and will have the green light most of the time.

“I have the luxury of Trace letting me be aggressive,” Roberts said. “I’ve always been a base stealer. That’s a big part of my game.”

Roberts knows he’ll be under a microscope in Los Angeles. He’s never experienced the physical and mental rigors of a full big league season, and there will be questions as to whether he will be exposed by a steady stream of major league pitching.

“I haven’t proven I can play in the big leagues for six months ... but I think that’s overrated, because if you can’t get up to play 162 games in the big leagues, there’s something wrong with you,” Roberts said. “I’ve played too long in the minor leagues to give it away now.”