In third trip, Roberts leads Dodgers to first World Series title in 32 years

ASIAN AMERiCAN PIONEER ­— Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts celebrates after the club’s World Series victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Oct. 27 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Born in Okinawa, Japan to an American father and Japanese mother, Roberts is the first Asian American major league manager to win a World Series. Kyodo News photo

The third time’s a charm for Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts, who led the Dodgers to their first World Series championship since 1988 Oct. 29, defeating American League champs the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 in the six-game series.

The victory came in Roberts’ third trip to the World Series in four years at the helm of the National League team, making him the first Asian American and second Black manager to win baseball’s championship.

“This is our year!” Roberts exclaimed Roberts in front of 11,437 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, where the World Series was being held amid the coronavirus pandemic to cap an abbreviated 60-game season.

Roberts became the first manager of color of the team in 2015. According to the Associated Press, he is the third Dodgers manager to win the World Series, joining Hall of Famers Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda.

While he reached the playoffs in all of his five seasons at the helm of the Dodgers — part of a string of eight consecutive NL West titles — a World Series championship proved elusive, with Roberts facing criticism during that span.

The Dodgers lost the 2017 World Series to the Houston Astros, and to the Boston Red Sox in 2018.

A cancer survivor, Roberts became the second major league manager of Japanese descent after former Seattle Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu.

Like Wakamatsu, the Okinawa-born Roberts is a product of a multiracial union, with his father being an African American Marine and his mother Japanese.