"First full major league season exceeded expectations. Kelly's final average of .302 was 42 points higher than his career minor league mark. He wore down late in the season and sat put the final two games to preserve his .300 average. His ability to hit for a high average in the majors remains a question mark.
Kelly finished eighth in the American League with 35 stolen bases and will improve in that category when he knows pitchers' moves better. He's an exceptional center fielder who prides himself who prides himself on making dazzling plays.
Born in Panama City, Panama, Kelly was signed by the Yankees as a free agent on February 21, 1982. He's due for a big pay raise after earning only $80,000 in 1989."
-Tom Pedulla, The Complete Handbook of Baseball, 1990 Edition
"It's been a long road to Yankee Stadium for Roberto Kelly. But that may explain why he maintains such a level of high intensity every game. With all of the obstacles he's had to overcome, there's no way the 25-year-old outfielder is turning back.
After losing the job as starting center fielder in 1988, Kelly won the job again in the spring of 1989. He has never looked back. He has emerged among the league's best and has the look of a true superstar. In his first full season he hit .302, was among the league leaders in stolen bases, and played brilliant defense in New York's Death Valley.
'I didn't really expect all of this. But when you get the chance, you have to take advantage of it. That's the name of the game,' Kelly says.
In fact, it seemed the only thing that could hold him back was the unrest in his native Panama. But, with Kelly and his family safe, it's back to baseball."
-The New York Yankees Official 1990 Yearbook
"Roberto had a career major league average of .256 in two short stints entering 1989 but put together an outstanding season, hitting .302 as the Yankee starting center fielder.
He started the season with a bang, getting his first career four-hit game with a home run, two RBIs and two stolen bases. Roberto had a five-game hit streak from April 14-19 (8-for-17), registering a two-hit and a three-hit game in that span. He also had a career-high four-RBI game on April 17 at Toronto. For the month, he hit a club-best .329 and made two errors.
He started out slowly in May, as over the first ten games (May 2-13) he hit .115 (3-for-26), dropping his average to .278. Then, from May 14-20, Roberto hit in seven straight games (12-for-25, .480). He was placed on the 15-day disabled list on May 26 with a sprained left wrist which he aggravated diving for a ball the previous evening against California and remained on the DL until June 12. He hit .254 for the month of May.
Roberto started playing again on June 14 and hit in five straight (7-for-16), raising his average from .294 to .309. A 2-for-2 effort on June 16 (first game) put him over .300 to stay for the season. Overall in June, he reached base safely in 14 of 16 games, hitting .340 for the month.
July was his best month offensively, with Roberto hitting .349 with 15 RBIs. He had a four-game hitting streak (4-for-12, .333) from July 5-8 that included a home run off Roger Clemens in Boston. He was hitting .312 with five errors at the break; he committed his sixth and final error of the 1989 season in the third game after the break (July 14, second game). From July 19-26, Roberto hit in eight straight games (11-for-29, .379), and for the month reached safely in 24 of 27 games including the final 13 games.
He continued his torrid hitting in August with a .324 mark for the month. Roberto hit in a career best 11 straight games from July 29-August 7 (20-for-38, .526), and from July 19-August 7 reached base in 20 straight games while hitting .470 to raise his average from .305 to .341. In Minnesota he went 4-for-4 on August 11 and 2-for-4 on August 12 to boost his batting average to .345, his highest mark since the third game of the season.
Roberto hit .197 (12-for-61) with 15 strikeouts during the rest of August to give him a .324 average for the month. September was his slowest month, as he hit .188 (12-for-64) with three home runs and six RBIs. His post-break average was .291.
For the season, Roberto ranked first on the club in on-base-percantage (.369), second in stolen bases (35), second in sacrifice hits (8), fourth in runs (65), games (137) and hits (133), and sixth in doubles (18). He hit .273 (27-for-99) with men in scoring position and was fourth on the club in multi-hit games with 34. Roberto reached single-game career highs in hits (4, twice), stolen bases (4) and runs (4). He hit .316 in day games and .264 at night, .372 against left-handed pitchers and .267 against right-handed pitchers, and .317 at home and .288 on the road. He was awarded first base twice on catcher's interference.
He stole 35 bases in 47 attempts (74%), bringing his career mark to 49 steals in 66 attempts (74%). He teamed with Steve Sax (43 steals) to become the first Yankee tandem to each steal 30-plus bases since Mickey Rivers (43) and Roy White (31) in 1976.
In the outfield, Roberto contributed nine assists (second on the club to Jesse Barfield) and his .984 fielding percentage ranked 15th in the league. He committed one error after the break (July 14) and ended the year with 66 straight errorless games. Roberto signed a contract for the 1990 season.
Roberto was signed as a free agent by the Yankees (scout Fred Ferreira) on February 21, 1982. In his first pro season he hit .198 at Bradenton in 31 games, and in 1983 batted .265 in 20 games at Greensboro and .216 in 48 games in Oneonta. In 111 games with Greensboro in 1984, Roberto hit .238 with 68 runs and 42 stolen bases. He batted .247 in 1985 in 114 games at Ft. Lauderdale of the 'A' Florida State League, had 86 runs along with 49 stolen bases and led that circuit with 13 triples.
In 1986, Roberto batted .291 in 86 games with the Albany-Colonie Yankees (AA Eastern League) with 11 doubles, two homers, 43 RBIs, 42 runs scored and 10 stolen bases. He was placed on the disabled list on July 10 due to the presence of bone chips in his right ankle and was not activated until August 23. Roberto was named to the Eastern League All-Star team but was unable to play due to his injury.
Roberto spent the first part of the 1987 season with the Columbus Clippers before being recalled to New York on July 29. At that point, he was hitting .300 in 102 games with the Clippers, with 10 home runs, 54 RBIs, 48 stolen bases and six times caught stealing.
He made his major league debut with the Yankees on July 29 against Kansas City at Yankee Stadium, going 0-for-3 with a run scored and two stolen bases. His first major league hit came on July 30 off the Royals' Bud Black, a first-inning double. He went 2-for-4 with an RBI (his first major league RBI) on August 1 against Detroit. Roberto's first major league home run came on August 6 at Detroit, a three-run homer in the eighth inning off Willie Hernandez; his three RBIs in that game is his single-game high.
Roberto was optioned to Columbus on August 14 after playing 10 games with the Yankees, hitting .300 (6-for-20) with a homer, five RBIs and three stolen bases. He remained with the Clippers until the conclusion of their season, finishing with a .278 batting average with 13 home runs and 62 RBIs, and was 51 of 61 in stolen base attempts. His 51 stolen bases led the International League, and he was named as the designated hitter on the postseason IL all-star team.
He was recalled to the Yankees on September 10 and had his first big league three-hit game on September 22 at Milwaukee (second game) when he also recorded his first major league game-winning RBI. In his two stints with the Yankees, Roberto combined to play in 23 games, batting .269 (14-for-52) with a home run and seven RBIs, stealing nine bases in 12 attempts and scoring 12 runs in those 23 games. He also had five walks and 15 strikeouts and had four multi-hit games.
In 1988, an injury-plagued year cut his season short. Roberto began the season on the Yankees roster but was optioned to Columbus on May 21. At the time of his option he was hitting .254 with five RBIs.
Roberto had three multi-hit games in that time, including two three-hit games: on April 5 against Minnesota, when he started as the Opening Day center fielder and went 3-for-4, and on April 14 at Toronto, going 3-for-4. In that April 14 game, he was 1-for-2 in stolen base attempts, getting caught attempting to steal home.
Following his option, Roberto played 30 games with the Clippers, batting .333 with three homers and 16 RBIs, and was successful on 11 of 14 stolen base attempts. He was recalled to New York on June 24, and on that day, his first game back, he hit a leadoff home run off Cleveland's Tom Candiotti at Yankee Stadium, his only home run of the year and one of the two leadoff home runs hit by the Yankees in 1988.
He hit safely in his first four games back, June 24-28, and coupled with his base hit on May 17 (his final game before his option), his five-game hitting streak from May 17-June 28 is a career high, with Roberto going 5-for-19 in those five games. In the final game of that streak, against Detroit, he was injured running against the center field wall attempting to catch a triple hit in the 9th inning. Roberto suffered a sprained left wrist and a bruised right knee and was placed on the 15-day disabled list on June 30. He was transferred to the 30-day DL on July 25 and was activated on September 2.
Roberto made 10 appearances with the Yankees after that, all in a pinch-running or defensive replacement capacity, and did not have any plate appearances due to his sprained left wrist. He recorded a stolen base in each of three successive pinch-running appearances from September 8-11 and scored twice as a pinch runner.
Overall for the season Roberto batted .247 (19-for-77) in 38 games (making plate apperances in 23 of them, and none after his June 28 injury) with a home run and seven RBIs, and was successful in five out of seven stolen base attempts- he has outstanding speed.
Roberto played Little League and in 1982 graduated from Instituto Jose Delores Moscote, a high school in Panama City, where he played baseball, basketball and volleyball."
-1990 New York Yankees Information Guide
Led International League outfielders in total chances (345), 1987.
-1990 New York Yankees Information Guide
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