By MIKE MASTOVICH
In his first season as a AAABA League pitcher, Rick Roberts led his Principle Development team into the 1996 AAABA Tournament.
Back then, Roberts was a wide-eyed, 17-year-old left-hander pitching in front of an estimated 8,000 fans on opening night at Point Stadium.
Twelve years later, Roberts is back in the tournament, this time during his debut season as a AAABA League manager with Delweld.
Roberts, 29, will have first-hand knowledge of the AAABA Tournament – and the atmosphere surrounding opening night – when he guides this mostly youthful Delweld squad in the franchise’s second consecutive tournament appearance.
“He’s an aggressive guy. I like the fact that he has instant credibility from what he’s accomplished on the field and what he’s done for young baseball players in the area,” said Delweld General Manager Chris DelSignore, who hand-picked Roberts as his successor after stepping down as field manager following the 2007 tournament.
“It was a no-brainer. We’re happy to have him with us,” DelSignore said. “Rick brings the same kind of mentality that I brought. He plays an aggressive game. He’s a fiery guy. He’s highly competitive and he has the kids’ best interest at the forefront.”
Roberts is respected in the area baseball community. He is an assistant coach at Pitt-Johnstown. The former minor league pitcher also teaches hundreds of young ballplayers at the E.R.A. facility in Richland Township. Roberts and ex-Major League pitcher Mike Holtz operate the school.
This summer, he led a third-seeded team to the playoff title after a 6-1 postseason run.
Roberts knows the game. But he also cares about his players’ development and health.
Roberts stresses good habits and emphasizes appropriate rest for pitchers. His own career, which led him to Class AAA in the minors, was cut short by arm ailments.
“Ricky never stands still. He’s involved. He loves to win,” said AAABA Hall of Famer Dee Dee Osborne, who managed Roberts in the 1996 tournament. “He’s a very, very competitive guy, as a player and as a coach. In the Junior League he was a sure win, no matter what. He could bring it. He focused on every pitch. He would give you a good day’s work.”
Roberts and Principle ran into misfortune in that ’96 tournament, going 0-2. Roberts had won both the local Pete Vuckovich Award as the top pitcher and the Bill Jenkins Award as top rookie pitcher with 102 strikeouts. He already had been offered a full scholarship to West Virginia University, and a few weeks later was drafted in the 10th round by the Detroit Tigers. He opted to turn pro.
Roberts said he and his teammates had the opening night jitters in front of a large crowd and live television audiences locally on WJAC-TV and regionally on the former KBL Network during the 1996 opener.
“The first game, the big thing was I was overwhelmed with the crowd and the Bomb Squad setting off the bombs. I sort of lost focus being a kid,” said Roberts, who walked more batters than usual and was hurt by six Principle errors in a 20-3 loss to Philadelphia. “The big thing is, that experience helped me down the road in my pro career. I went 0-2 in the tournament, but you learn a lot from your failures. I learned I didn’t want to lose in front of a big crowd. I lost my concentration, and I learned from that.”
Roberts pitched effectively in relief in an 11-9 setback to Brooklyn the next night, but got the loss after a late Youth Service rally. Another teenager, Brooklyn’s 16-year-old reliever Rudy Lugo, won after striking out seven in three innings. Lugo eventually pitched in the majors, joining his brother, Julio, another former Brooklyn player in the big leagues.
“Even though I lost two games in the tournament, I’ll never forget the fans in Johnstown and the people who come out and support you,” Roberts said. “I just want to keep my young guys calm and focused. We’ve got a lot of good young kids. I want them to learn to let the crowd work for them instead of the kids getting too pumped up and being nervous.”
Roberts is thankful that the AAABA switched to wooden bats three years after his tournament appearance.
“When I played it was crazy. It was minus-5 aluminum bats. It was more offensive,” Roberts said. “Now, pitching and defense get you by with wooden bats. Those minus-5 bats were like weapons. An aluminum bat totally changes the game. The nice thing about wood is if you throw strikes and play defense, they are going to be quality games.”
Delweld’s players will enjoy their tournament time if Roberts has his way. After playing in the minors and being touted as a prospect in the Tigers and Dodgers organizations, Roberts knows moments such as these only occur so often in life.
“The AAABA Tournament is probably the biggest amateur tournament in the country,” he said. “This is probably going to be the closest thing to the big leagues that a lot of these kids are going to experience.”
