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Inside The Dodgers

Dave Roberts Shares Unique Father's Day Bond With Former Dodgers Teammate

Dave Roberts and David Ross are bonded by more than their first names and the Dodgers.
J.P. Hoornstra|
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts (30) gestures during batting practice before the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on June 10, 2026.
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts (30) gestures during batting practice before the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on June 10, 2026. | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

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Los Angeles Dodgers

David Ross and Dave Roberts have much in common.

Both have managed in the National League. Both have worked as television analysts. Before that, the two men played for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Roberts roamed the outfield in Chavez Ravine from 2002-04, while Ross was drafted by the Dodgers in 1998 and spent parts of the 2002, 2003 and 2004 seasons in Los Angeles.

Of course, the two share a common first name on their birth certificates, and that is the genesis of their even more unique bond.

During the third inning of ESPN's broadcast of the Dodgers-Tampa Bay Rays game this past week, Ross had a chance to interview his former teammate when Roberts was mic'd up in the Dodgers' dugout.

At the end of the interview, Ross revealed that he named his own son after Roberts' son.

“I was a rookie and Dave would take me to dinners. … My routine started as a young guy with him, we’d get up, go to breakfast, come back and hang out," Ross said. "I fell in love with his son, Cole David Roberts. And my son is Cole David Ross.”

The big reveal for the television audience was not news to Roberts. Cole Ross was 6 years old when David Ross decided to retire in the summer of 2016.

Ross played only the first three of his 14 MLB seasons with the Dodgers. In his final season, he was the Chicago Cubs' backup catcher for their postseason run, which culminated in a World Series championship.

Ross played in two of the Cubs' six National League Championship Series games against Roberts' Dodgers in October 2016.

For his next act, Ross managed the Cubs from 2020-23, a rebuilding period that saw the Cubs appear in only one postseason series and lose both games in a wild-card series to the Miami Marlins.

Ross returned to ESPN this year as an analyst after a seven-year absence.

While Cole Ross' future career plans are still in the works, Cole Roberts has already followed in the footsteps of his father. This year, Cole Roberts was named bench coach of the West Michigan Whitecaps, his first post-playing job in the baseball industry.

“It happened organically, and I’m very proud of him that he’s finishing his playing career and wants to be a coach,” Dave Roberts said in March. “I’m excited and I think he’s going to be a great coach and a future major league manager, but honestly I didn’t know until he took that job.”

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J.P. Hoornstra
J.P. HOORNSTRA

J.P. Hoornstra is an On SI Contributor. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers in California, J.P. covered MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angels (occasionally of Anaheim) from 2012-23 for the Southern California News Group. His first book, The 50 Greatest Dodgers Games of All-Time, published in 2015. In 2016, he won an Associated Press Sports Editors award for breaking news coverage. He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors.

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