Dusty Baker, then manager of the San Francisco Giants, had just left the stadium after a heartbreaking loss in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series to the Angeles of Anaheim when he crossed paths with his father.
Johnnie B. Baker Sr. did not mince his words.
“He said to me, ‘The way you lost that one, I don’t know if you’re going to win another one,'” Baker Jr. said on Sunday.
Nineteen years after that conversation and more than ten years after his father’s death, Baker will finally have the opportunity to make his beloved father lie, when his Houston Astros take on the Atlanta Braves starting in Tuesday.
The 72-year-old has often rethought this conversation over the years. Ever since the Astros knocked out the Boston Red Sox on Friday to reach their third World Series in five years, he’s been hearing his father’s words constantly in his head.
“I used it as a motivation,” he admitted.
This is Baker’s second World Series appearance as a manager. As a player, he played there three times with the Los Angeles Dodgers, winning in 1981.
After a successful career spanning nearly 50 years as a player and manager, winning a World Series in this role is the only feat left for him to accomplish.
” I know. All I have to do is do it. “
“I think that would make a nice addition to his resume,” said October, Reggie Jackson, who is an advisor to Astros owner Jim Crane.
Astros star shortstop Carlos Correa, who will become a free agent at the end of the current playoffs, will do whatever he can to help Baker in his quest.
“He’s been here for a long time, and he still hasn’t won it,” Correa said. So we will try to win it for him. “
The past two years have been eventful for Baker. After being fired following a 97-game winning season by the Washington Nationals in 2017, he questioned whether he was going to lead a team in major league again. Winning the World Series was a long way off.
Back home in northern California, busy growing his vineyard and growing cabbages in his garden, he often wondered why he wasn’t even offered positions that were available. He told himself that his age and the salary he commanded must be obstacles to his hiring.
“Do you make your peace with that at some point? Yes, but you are losing faith in humanity a bit, he has already said. You understand that in the world, especially in the world we live in, there has always been discrimination, racial discrimination, but in today’s world, there is also ageism and wage discrimination, that go hand in hand. “
It was during this time that his father’s words resonated the loudest.
“The whole time I wondered if I was going to get another chance, I thought about it. “
Then came January 2019 and the astonishing revelation that the Astros cheated to win their only World Series title and again in 2018. The scandal cost manager AJ Hinch his job, leaving a team with a major problem. image without a major leader.
Crane found this leader in Baker, a man who now occupies the 12e all-time ranking for manager wins and leading five clubs to the playoffs. Last year, his Astros advanced to the playoffs as fourth ace, before finding their rhythm and only being stopped with a World Series victory.
“The first time I met him, we chatted for almost two hours,” Crane recalled. Nothing bothered him, since he had lived so much. “
This week, he comes full circle when he reunites with the team that drafted him from high school in 1967 and where he spent the first eight seasons of his 19-year career.
He is looking forward to returning to Atlanta, where he can reunite with the widow and children of his great friend Hank Aaron.
“It’s special to go back there. It will be like the conclusion of a great story for all of us, ”Baker pictured.
The Astros have been baseball villains since the stolen signals scandal. But Baker is so loved everywhere that many find themselves cheering on the Astros because of the venerable Manager’s presence.
“There’s a lot of negativity in baseball, but there are also a lot of people behind us,” said Baker. Many want to see me win. “
Brandon Phillips, who played six years under Baker in Cincinnati, is one of them.
“I’m glad he has the opportunity to be here, to change the perception some have of the organization because of his righteousness, the kind of man he is,” said Phillips.
He is convinced that Baker’s presence helped rehabilitate this concession.
“Dusty was the right guy for the job because he can turn a negative atmosphere into a positive one,” Phillips insisted. This scandal will never be forgotten, but you must see that this team is a great team that Dusty helped shape. “
With Janie McCauley, Associated Press, in San Francisco.
