There have been four major league baseball players with the name Dave Roberts.  The one that everybody knows is the only one that never played for Houston.  That said, all three that did play for Houston had amazing careers for very different reasons.

 

The second Dave Roberts to appear on the Houston Astros never played in the minor leagues before making a major league roster.  He was only the sixth player to ever accomplish this feat.  The Padres drafted him in the #1 spot in 1973 and he immediately made the team.  It was not until the end of April that he finally had to go to work on a minor league roster.

 

He would not make it back into the major leagues until 1977 but the Padres had finally decided that they had wasted their first pick on a flop.  In an effort to cut their losses, they sent him to the Texas Rangers.  He would still underperform and found himself a free agent desperate for a team.  He had fallen from #1 overall pick to begging.

 

In typical Houston style, they gave a down and out ballplayer a shot at redemption.  As usual, that player disappointed.  He played better in Houston than he had for any team previously, but his numbers were still not major league caliber.  After a short stint with the Phillies, his baseball career was done.

 

Roberts was not ready to give up on sports though.  Baseball had tossed him aside, but he still had another passion.  Dave Roberts is a roper.  What does it mean to be a master roper?  To explain, imagine an old cowboy trying to catch a stray calf.  That is roping.  He is also quite good at it.  Competition after competition ends with Dave Roberts taking first place in the team roping events.  A very unscientific analysis of his winnings shows that he makes far more money now than he ever did playing baseball.

 

Many players leave baseball and find success, though most of them find it in a baseball-related field.  Dave Roberts never did anything quite like other people.  He went straight to the majors.  He could not find success in his first love, so he went to his second love.  Feel free to hunt for it, but there is a picture of him wrestling a cow to the ground.  I highly suggest you never let Dave Roberts try to choke you out.  You will lose.

 

There is one more Dave Roberts that played for the Astros.  His career was the only one that would be considered successful out of the three.