Dave Roberts back in Boston with a title on mind

BOSTON – In the souvenir store across from Fenway Park, it will set you back $100 for a framed, autographed photo of "The Steal," Dave Roberts' stolen base in the 2004 American League Championship Series that kick-started the Red Sox comeback against the New York Yankees and ended Boston's 86-year title drought.

"We used to have a big panorama of it," said the clerk, Nick Fosman, "but we sold out of them a while ago."

Other mementos from that drought-busting championship might fade, but the intervening years have done little to dim Roberts' legacy in Boston since he helped the Red Sox rally after they lost the first three games to the rival Yankees.

Now, as he returns to Boston as the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Roberts will be trying to prevent the city that celebrates him from claiming a fourth title this century. Even so, he can expect a big cheer when he is introduced before Game 1 on Tuesday night.

"Obviously, for me personally I have a lot of fond memories of the Red Sox and Fenway Park," he said after the Dodgers clinched the NL pennant and advanced to the Series for the second year in a row. "To be wearing another uniform going in there playing for a World Series championship is going to be special for me."

Havlicek stole the ball, Orr sailed through the air and Vinatieri split the uprights twice to cement themselves in Boston history. But few athletes have squeezed their way into the city's lore like Roberts.

A July 2004 trade deadline acquisition from the Dodgers who was obtained for his speed, he hadn't played in 10 days when he entered Game 4 of that ALCS as a pinch runner in the ninth inning at Fenway, after Kevin Millar drew a leadoff walk off Mariano Rivera. The Red Sox trailed 4-3 in the game and 0-3 in the best-of-seven series.

Roberts pinch ran again, and scored again, in Game 5, but he never appeared in another game for the Red Sox, standing by as they swept St. Louis for their first World Series championship since 1918, setting off a celebration that generations of New Englanders had been waiting for.

No matter.

"He came here. He stole that base," said Red Sox first-year manager Alex Cora, who was Roberts' Dodgers teammate in '04 and helped console him after he was traded. "I texted him right after he stole second base. I was like, 'I don't know what's going to happen here, but if this happens, you're going to become a hero.'

"And he is, here in this city."

Roberts and Cora are the first minority managers to face each other in the Series. Cora's playing career includes his own championship; he was a Boston utility infielder when the Red Sox went back to the Series in 2007 vs. Colorado. He entered Game 1 as a defensive replacement and had his only plate appearance in Game 3, when he laid down a ninth-inning sacrifice bunt that led to an insurance run.

The lesson, he said, is not lost on his players.