Watch: RHP Ethan Roberts Learns He Made Cubs’ Opening Day Roster
It’s always exciting when a player is called up to the big league club, but we don’t often get to see those moments unfold in real-time. In the case of Ethan Roberts, however, the Marquee dugout camera caught the exchange in which David Ross informed the reliever that he’d be breaking camp with the Cubs.
This is the moment Ethan Roberts found out he made the opening day roster. @EthanXXVI @WatchMarquee @Cubs pic.twitter.com/78fGenu9ZD
— Elise Menaker (@EliseMenaker) April 4, 2022
“I was out there in the game and of course the comebacker back to me hits my hand and I underhand tossed to first,” Roberts said about the final out he recorded in his inning of work. “And I get back in the dugout and everyone’s like, ‘Good job,’ whatever, ‘How’s your hand?’ And guys start, like, looking at me weird and I was like, ‘What is going on?’
“But anyway, Rossy comes up and he’s like, ‘Can you still shake my hand?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m good. My hand’s fine, I promise. It’s good.’ And he was like, ‘Good, you just made the team.'”
It’s impossible not to be happy for Roberts, who addressed the media through a smile that probably won’t leave his face for the next several days. That’s because it rarely leaves his face at all, save for his transformation into a bulldog when he’s on the mound, but he was clearly floating when he addressed the media after his appearance.
On a personal note, this one means a lot to me because Roberts has impacted my family in a very big way over the last few years. I won’t share the story again here, but you can read a little about it on Twitter or hear more about it in this interview we did with him on our live podcast, The Rant Live. Bias aside, it’s worth your time just to see him talking with us for around an hour while holding his infant daughter the whole time.
Such great stuff, I can’t wait to watch this guy shove out of the bullpen. The Cubs might want to keep him away from the dessert menu, though, because it sounds like he might have something of a sweet tooth.
“This is like three different layers of icing on top of my cake.”
