Even many longtime Atlanta Braves’ fans will have a tough time rooting against the Houston Astros when the World Series begins this week. That’s because the Astros’ have as their manager one of the most beloved figures in Major League Baseball. That’s 72-year-old Dusty Baker, who’s already achieved a host of firsts in his long career. These include being the first manager to lead five different teams to division titles. When the Astros defeated the Red Sox 5-0 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series, Baker also became the first Black manager to win pennants in both leagues.
The only thing Baker hasn’t won is a World Series title. If he wins he would join Cito Gaston and Dave Roberts as Black managers who’ve won world championships. But last week, after his team’s series clinching victory, getting that first World Series crown wasn’t what Baker first mentioned in the postgame press conference.“I said a prayer to my dad and to Hank Aaron, and Al Kaline and Joe Morgan and Bob Watson, and all my partners that are in heaven,” the Astros manager said.
Baker once played in the same Braves outfield as Aaron, the man who considers his mentor, and whom he idolized throughout his lifetime. Aaron’s memory has been a theme for the surprising Braves, who only won 88 regular season games, but have now upset both the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers in reaching the World Series for the first time since 1999. In any other year their success would be the talk of baseball specifically, and sports in general.
But not this year. Instead it’s been Baker almost single-handedly restoring the image of the Astros, a team whose 2017 World Series crown was tainted by the discovery of widespread cheating. The Astros fired both the manager and general manager in the aftermath, and reached out to Baker, out of baseball at the time after being fired by the Washington Nationals despite taking them to another division title. Now he leads the Astros into a World Series where many people will still be rooting against them, the memory of the scandal far from gone.
“I don’t think people were giving him the thought that he’s going to lead them back to the World Series after the whole scandal,” Keith Watson, the son of Bob Watson, told the New York Post. He was stunned when Baker paid tribute to his father because they never played together. “For [Baker] to overcome that and continue to be a man of character, it speaks volumes to his commitment to winning. It’s an example for other people to follow, for sure.” Keith Watson said his father and Baker got to know each other as amateur players, Bob Watson growing up in Southern California and Baker in Northern California. “There was always that camaraderie as players,” added Watson, who recalled the days when Bob Watson’s Astros and Baker’s Dodgers were fierce National League West rivals.
Bob Watson became the first Black general manager when he took over the Astros in 1994, and later was also general manager of the Yankees under George Steinbrenner, a position that often came with lots of scrutiny and criticism.
Baker, one of only two current Black managers in MLB, understands how much African Americans in leadership positions constantly face intense analysis and evaluation. “When I got to different jobs, I heard mostly criticism,” Baker said. He took the Giants to the 2002 Fall Classic, at which they lost to the Angels in seven games, and also guided the Cubs, Reds and Nationals to the postseason. “ ‘You didn’t do this,’ or ‘You’re not good at that.’ ‘You don’t know how to use your bullpen’, or ‘You don’t like young players.’ I heard a whole bunch of stuff. Most of it not complimentary, you know what I mean? As an African-American, most of the time they don’t really say that you are of a certain intelligence. That’s not something that we usually get, and so I’ve been hearing a lot of this stuff most of my life.”
He was passed over for the Philadelphia Phillies’ opening in 2019-2020. Many thought his days in baseball were over. But then the cheating scandal led to Astros’ owner Jim Crane canning manager A.J. Hinch, and offering the job to Baker. “My son [Darren] told me in his infinite wisdom, he goes, ‘Dad, maybe that job wasn’t yours, and this is a better job,’ ” Baker said. “I inherited a good team, much like Sparky Anderson inherited the Big Red Machine.”
“I had some things over my head too,” Baker said, referring to the aforementioned criticisms of his managing, “and so we had a lot in common. When you can identify with the people that you’re with no matter what age they are, you know, it’s easier to get along and identify the struggles that they’re going through.”
So now it’s the Astros, with Baker seeking to make more history, against the surprising Braves, who want to win this World Series as the ideal tribute to Aaron. The greatest player in team history, Aaron passed in January, a month before his 79th birthday. It should be quite a World Series.
