Managerial mix
A.J. Hinch and Dave Roberts are close friends turned enemies.
LOS ANGELES — On a July morning in San Diego, two couples and their teenage children settled into a booth for breakfast.
It was Major League Baseball’s AllStar break, and A.J. Hinch had joined his wife, Erin, and their two daughters in their former hometown for a minivacation. Dave Roberts, who calls San Diego home, also was in town, so the managers of the then-two best teams in baseball brought their families together at a restaurant in Del Mar.
Close friends from their four seasons working together for the San Diego Padres, the Astros’ Hinch and the Dodgers’ Roberts spent the meal catching up on the first three months of the season. They discussed aspects of their teams’ first halves they liked, others they didn’t, and their approaches to managing with runaway division leads.
And naturally, they acknowledged the potential that their next meeting could come on the sport’s biggest stage.
“And what first started off as fun family banter turned serious during the conversation that, ‘We’re going to make this happen. We’re going to really do this,’ ” Hinch recalled. “And lo and behold, it’s finishing that way.”
Cherished photo op
On Tuesday night, mere minutes before Game 1 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium, Hinch, 43, and Roberts, 45, will convene at home plate with the umpiring crew for the customary exchange of lineup cards. Generally before the first game of a Fall Classic, a photo is taken to commemorate the moment. Hinch already has plans to frame it.
“It will be special,” the third-year Astros manager said. “Both of us have high compete buttons. There will be no dilemma on what we want the outcomes to be. But to share this experience with someone who I believe in and have such a personal bond with is really unbelievable.”
The friendship between Hinch and Roberts dates to their tenures with San Diego. In September 2010, less than three months after he was fired as the Arizona Diamondbacks’ manager, Hinch resurfaced as the Padres’ vice president of professional scouting. A year later, he was promoted to vice president/assistant general manager.
In the role, Hinch served as essentially a liaison to manager Bud Black’s coaching staff, which included Roberts, initially as first-base coach and then as Black’s bench coach.
Hinch, who routinely represented the San Diego front office on road trips, was welcome in the clubhouse and coaches’ room. Occasionally, he would even throw on a T-shirt and shorts and work with the Padres’ catchers, including now-Dodger Yasmani Grandal.
Time on the road presented many opportunities for meals and postgame drinks. On flights, Hinch and Roberts’ seats were across the aisle from each other. As Pac-10 school products and major league journeymen in the same era, they found plenty of shared interests. As Hinch put it, “He has a winery. I like wine.”
“We just kind of hit it off, and obviously, we were contemporaries and had mutual friends and just loved talking about the game,” said Roberts, in his second season leading the Dodgers. “To be managing against him now in this situation is really surreal.”
After the Dodgers beat the Cubs on Thursday at Chicago’s Wrigley Field in Game 5 of the NLCS, Roberts received a congratulatory text message from Hinch. Roberts returned the favor after the Astros knocked off the Yankees in Game 7 on Saturday night at Minute Maid Park.
“Then from that point on, it’s been radio silence,” Roberts said, smiling.
Rare on-field meeting
Hinch and Roberts knew of each other while at Stanford and UCLA, respectively, and while in the major leagues but didn’t get to know each other until the Padres hired Hinch. Because Hinch, the catcher, spent most of his playing days in the American League and Roberts, the outfielder, spent most of his in the National League, they played against each other only once.
That meeting came in a game in Oakland between the Athletics and Indians. The A’s won 11-10, despite their starter, Tim Hudson, giving up eight earned runs in 61⁄3 innings. Hinch caught all nine innings of the game for the A’s. The box score reflects Roberts as stealing a base against him.
“Gahh. That breaks my heart,” Hinch said Monday when a reporter brought this to his attention. “Did he punch out?” he followed up. Roberts did indeed strike out once in the game, Hinch was told.
“So obviously, I knew how to call pitches against him,” he quipped.
Roberts has a teenage son, Cole, who according to Hinch idolizes Astros shortstop Carlos Correa. Hinch promised Cole if the Astros and Dodgers reached the World Series, he would set up a meet-and-greet.
“I told him he can meet Carlos,” Hinch said, “but if he’s in a Dodgers uniform, he’s going to have to stay on his side of the field.”
Hinch and Roberts speak periodically throughout the season, and the eve of Game 1 provided Hinch an opportunity to reminisce about those conversations, particularly the meal at which they bantered about this very scenario, a meeting that next July would have to take place in Washington, D.C., where each will manage his respective league’s All-Star team.
But for the next five to nine days beginning Tuesday, Hinch and Roberts will constantly try to outfox one another as the rest of baseball watches.
“We’re not friends this week,” Hinch said, grinning. “We’re mortal enemies.”