Auction Ends: Jun 11, 2011 01:00 AM PDT

Memorabilia

"The Steal"- Dave Roberts Signed photo and Ball

Item Number: 346

Estimated Value: Priceless
Sold: 205 USD to fpag73

Number of Bids: 12 - Bid History

Item Description

Own piece of Red Sox history. Dave Roberts broke "The Curse" and helped the Red Sox to win their 1st world series in decades. This amazing moment in time was captured in a photograph and personally signed by Dave solely for the purpose of raising funds for Kentwood. One lucky bidder will own a piece of sports history!

As long as baseball is played in Boston, Dave Roberts will be remembered. On the basis of a three-second dash to second base, Roberts made himself into a Red Sox folk hero. For "that stolen base" is the most celebrated pilfered sack in Red Sox history, perhaps even in the annals of baseball.

What baseball fan doesn't recall the entire scene in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series? The inning- opening base on balls to Kevin Millar. Pinch runner Roberts trotting to the bag. The throws over from Mariano Rivera. The takeoff on the first pitch to Bill Mueller. The head-first slide. The Jorge Posada throw just inches to the shortstop side of the bag. The artful swipe tag by Derek Jeter. And, most important, the "safe" sign executed by umpire Joe West.

Three people were involved in the manufacture of the run that saved the Red Sox' season and set the forces in motion for the greatest postseason comeback march in American sports history. Millar had to draw that walk from Rivera, Roberts had to steal that base. And Mueller had to bring him home with a single to center. But it is Roberts, the journeyman outfielder, whose star shines a bit brighter in the storytelling than the other two. For, in theory, any position player on the roster could have done what Millar and Mueller did. But no one else on the roster could have done what Roberts did, and everyone knows it.

''When I was with the Dodgers," Roberts reflects, ''Maury Wills once told me that there will come a point in my career when everyone in the ballpark will know that I have to steal a base, and I will steal that base. When I got out there, I knew that was what Maury Wills was talking about."