Shannon Penn
Dave Roberts was the other half of the 1-2 punch for the
1976 Tigers pitching staff. The combo
was Mark Fidrych and Dave Roberts. The
lefty Dave Roberts had been in the National League since 1969 when he was with
the expansion San Diego Padres. He was
there for three years as a starter before heading to the Houston Astros in
1972. He was there until the off season between
1975 and 1976 when the Tiges made a rather large deal of sending Terry
Humphrey, Mark Lemongello, Gene Pentz and Leon Roberts for Jim “Catfish”
Crawford, Milt May and Dave. Dave
actually started more games in 1976 for the Tigers than any other pitcher in
36. The poor Tigers were 16-17 behind
Dave despite his 18 complete games and a 4.00 ERA. Fidrych was 19-9 in 29 starts and a 2.34 ERA
and 24 complete games. That 1.66
difference in ERA was huge in terms of won/loss and complete games. In 1977 the
Tigers ace of the staff became young Dave Rozema. Dave Roberts struggled to a 4-10 record with
a 5.15 ERA by July while making $75,000 a year.
The Tigers figured they had a new 1-2 combo for the future in Fidrych
and Rozema so at the end of July the Tiges sold Dave Roberts to the Cubs. Dave bounced around again for until 1981 with
the Cubs, Giants, Pirates, Mariners and Mets before ending his major league
career in 1981. But he never won more
than 6 games in any other season. His
final stats of a 13 year career was a 103-125 record with a 3.78 ERA. He
died in 2009 due to cancer linked to asbestos. The asbestos was from when
Dave had taken a job in the offseason to make ends meet early in his career as
a boilermaker.
Clay Smith
Frank Kitson
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