NICE GUY FIRST

Dusty! Dusty! Dusty! (Photo credit Fox Sports)

A good oldie

The baseball gods, maybe sensing the persistent dour mood of the country, finally smiled on the venerable, highly esteemed Dusty Baker, manager of the Houston Astros. Baker, at 73 years old, is a baseball lifer of the highest order who, for nearly half a century, has hung around big league ballparks as a player and manager. The future Hall of Famer is one of just two people to amass 1,800 hits as a player and 1,800 wins as a manager.

Along the way, Baker lead five different teams to the playoffs. And he suffered two heartbreaking endings in the World Series, losing when it appeared his teams were on the cusp of taking the title. His 2002 San Francisco Giants lead by five runs in Game 6, just eight outs from winning the championship. The Giants collapsed and then lost Game 7, losing the World Series.

In 2021, the heavily favored Houston Astros (still reviled for cheating in 2017 while winning the World Series – before Baker became their manager) blew it in the World Series. Dusty Baker, it seemed, was destined for the same fate as the NFL’s Marv Levy. Levy, formerly head coach of the Buffalo Bills, took his team to four consecutive Super Bowls and the Bills lost four times.

But finally, last weekend, Dusty Baker won his first World Series championship – as a manager – when his Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1, in Game 6. At 73, Baker is the oldest coach to win a championship in any of America’s Big Four professional sports including MLB, the NFL, the NBA and the NHL.

The Astros World Series triumph ended an amazing playoff run that saw the best team in baseball sweep their first two opponents leading up to the Fall Classic. All told, Houston sported a nifty 11-2 won-loss record during the 2022 playoffs.

For Dusty Baker, it was a long awaited, overdue accomplishment. Yes, he won a World Series ring as a player with the L.A. Dodgers in 1981. But after being denied twice as a manager in the World Series, and numerous times in the playoffs, it was sweet redemption to see Baker win it all this year.

After all, who will ever forget Baker’s Chicago Cubs losing in the National League Championship Series in 2003? The Cubs lost Game 6, when they were on the verge of going to the World Series, leading 3-0 in the eighth inning, and needing just five outs to advance to baseball’s biggest dance.

But after a fan reached for a foul ball as Cubs left fielder Moises Alou was attempting to make the catch, the Cubs suffered a meltdown. The Cubbies allowed 8 runs in the inning as the Florida Marlins rallied to win. Then the Marlins won Game 7, leaving Baker and Cubs fans cursing the curse of the infamous Billy Goat.

Last weekend’s victory was not only sweet for Dusty Baker. It was sweet for the truth, too. Baker, a cultural icon in his own right, never shies away from tackling tough subjects such as the difficulty of managing professional baseball as a Black man. As he relates it, his mother told him you have to be twice as good to succeed when you are Black. This is not Baker getting in anyone’s face or crying the blues. It’s Baker speaking from experience, having grown up in the late 1950s and 1960s.

A master of class

Operating with a level of grace, dignity and class sorely lacking these days, Baker is a joy to behold, speaking his, and our, truths without making a spectacle of himself. Dusty Baker looks you in the eye, gaining respect and admiration from friend and foe alike.

Baker winning the World Series is a dose of much needed salve. Not only for an Astros franchise still tainted by scandal, but for the soul of a country suffering from grand delusions of becoming great again while subscribing to myriad conspiracy theories. At least for a moment, the juxtaposition of mature, self-composed Dusty Baker perfectly offsets the selfishness and nihilism of, say, erratic-behaving Elon Musk.

One of the beautiful aspects of Dusty Baker is he appears to know who he is. It is doubtful he would say, “Oh, I won a World Series. I’m a celebrity. I should run for political office.” (Please, Dusty, don’t make me look like a fool. Keep managing baseball.)

Dusty Baker, like a popsicle on a 90-degree summer day, is refreshing. He doesn’t succumb to trite baseball phrases or nauseating data analytics. Baker ‘gets it’ that a manager’s intuition and his hard-earned, deep experience are as important as a 30-something’s ability to program data into a computer.

If baseball is to regain popularity, it needs more people like Dusty Baker because, as it stands now, the game is burying itself in groupthink overthink resulting in a boring product.

So, raise a glass to Dusty Baker. A man’s man. An American’s American. A good guy just finished first.

Douglas FreelandNovember 10, 2022