Hmmm.

I think the Charlie Roberts story is apocryphal. He doesn't appear on baseball-reference.com's list of major leaguers or the all-time Dodger roster on Wikipedia. All kinds of marginal players managed to make it to the major leagues during the latter years of WWII (most notably, Pete Gray, a one-armed outfielder), but Roberts doesn't seem to be among.

Sadly, this is the Dodgers' last year in Dodgertown/Vero Beach; they are moving their spring training home west next year. From a tradition/history point of view, it is a real loss, which Inca and I bemoaned on the old board.

And I compeltely agree with you about the similarities with football in this respect; they go a long way to explaining why they are my two favourite sports.