Some of the greatest baseball stories ever written involve a player overcoming adversity and receiving a second chance. Nobody knows that story better than Seoul’s 30 year-old third baseman, Vic Roberts.

Roberts is just another ballplayer with great promise whose career stalled thanks in large part to nagging injuries.

Roberts was drafted in the 2007 inaugural PEBA draft by the Arlington All Blacks. At 19 years old, Roberts started to look like a kid with big league potential. By the time he was 20, he was looking like he may compete for a big league job within a few years.

Then the first of many injuries occurred. An inguinal hernia gave Roberts his first big test as a professional baseball player. He not only healed within the estimated 4 weeks; he was also named to the 2009 Great Northern League All-Star team.

Roberts was on his way. A few injuries here and there didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. Roberts would prove in 2011 that he needed more minor league seasoning, but the work he had done prior to then had paid off. Scouts around the league agreed that he was the #40 ranked prospect in the entire league.

It looked like Roberts was just about ready when everything changed in 2015.

“When you’re making league minimums for 8 years as a professional ballplayer, it weighs on you. The grind of the minor leagues is something you just have to experience to understand,” Roberts explained.

Indeed, just as Roberts was seemingly declining at the big league level, Arlington’s GM called him into his office to give him the news.

“He said, ‘Vic…we want to give you a chance to stay here and we’re going to give you $3 million guaranteed’,” Roberts recalled.

Up until that point, Roberts had been playing professional baseball for 8 years and in total he had made just over $1million.

“All I could think about was, I finally made it. But I was failing the biggest test of them all. Not everybody can make it as a big leaguer; I know that now.”

Roberts fell into bad habits that certain high school coaches had warned Arlington scouts about. Suddenly, the demons of Roberts’spast came back – all with knowledge that their longtime friend now had cash to burn.

“Baseball was what got me away from Indianapolis, and that group I used to hang around. When I signed my new contract, it felt so good to have people in my life that wanted to be around me that I just got lost in it all.”

Roberts showed up to the stadium either stinking of alcohol from the night before, or in one instance, high as a kite.

“I remember Johnny Morse coming up to me and telling that I had 30 seconds to get off his field before he kicked my ass back to Newport. That was one of my last games in the PEBA, and that was the last thing I remember from that day.”

Reality started to kick in on November 19^th, 2006. Roberts was told that Arlington would not be picking up his contract for the 2017 season and he would become a free agent.

“At first, I thought, ‘this is great. More money on the open market.’ But then my agent explained to me that nobody in PEBA wanted me and I needed to check into rehab if I wanted the LRS to even talk to me.”

So, that’s what Roberts did. He checked himself into a 30-day program, and cut ties with his past demons from Indianapolis.

The day after he voluntarily left the program, he was signed by LRS’s Seoul.

“They came to visit me at my home the day after I got out, and they explained to me their offer was contingent on me staying sober at all times. I gave them my word, and I feel I have paid them back with my performance.”

Since joining Seoul, Roberts has been elected to the all-star game once, won four Player of the Week awards, and one Batter of the Month award. In his first year with Seoul, Roberts hit 32 HR and drove in 100 Runs.

Roberts is the type of story people pay a movie ticket to see. A kid with a promising future turns to a rough crowd with drugs and alcohol; but somebody (in this case the Seoul Crushers) sees enough in him to give him a second chance, and he repays them by turning his life around.

Just another baseball story.