Independent Baseball Insider – by Bob Wirz
Chris Roberson (pictured) and Jon Weber are a pair of former American Association outfielders who have never gotten much opportunity to shine in the major leagues, but they certainly do not have trouble filling up trophy cases.
The duo, who both played at Winnipeg as recently as two summers ago, now have a combined 16 championships to their credit after helping Mexico repeat as Caribbean Series champion, taking the final step in a 7-1 win against Puerto Rico. Roberson was named Most Valuable Player after his sixth inning home run broke a scoreless tie and ignited a six-run inning. “This is a big league environment, and these teams bring their best every time out,” the 34-year-old told MLB.com.
This was the sixth time Roberson has been part of a championship team although he still lags four behind Weber. They were strong contributors in ’12 when Winnipeg swept six consecutive playoff games on its way to the American Association title. Roberson got into 85 major league games with Philadelphia in ’06-07, but only had 69 at-bats (.232) while the closest Weber has come to the majors was in 2010 when he was voted the top rookie in the New York Yankees spring training camp because of his .483 batting average. No other player was within 100 points, but he was sent to Triple-A anyway.
Roberson hit .370 with two homers and six RBI in the six games of the Caribbean Series while Weber, who also has played independent baseball for the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks (hit .333 and was 2-for-4 with a run in the finale. Other Indy players having a strong series for Mexico were third baseman Yunesky Sanchez (Laredo, American Association, 2012) hitting .384, and first baseman Daryle Ward (Newark, Can-Am League, 2011) hitting .333.
