Making his own sort of peace

Dusty Baker comes full circle, tells all about D.C.

BERKELEY – Early Friday evening, a few hours after the Washington Nationals opened their season in Cincinnati, their former manager Dusty Baker arrived at another stadium 2,300 miles away, where the hits make a metallic “ping” sound, where admission costs $13 but Baker qualifies for the $5 senior discount, and where the freshman second baseman for the University of California bears an uncanny, familial resemblance to a young Dusty.

Baker unfolded a hard-backed, cushioned stadium seat on the concrete stands and set up camp, surrounded by a handful of old friends and a bag of peanuts, in the back row of Evans Diamond. Did he catch the Nationals’ opener, he was asked?

“No, did they win? I saw they were up 1-0.” Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker, right, in the dugout before Game 2 of the National League Division Series against the Chicago Cubs at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., on October 7.

Actually, it ended up 2-0. Max Scherzer went six innings, struck out 10.

“Yeah,” Baker nodded. “I’m gonna miss that dude.”

It was the closest Baker, 68, would come during a half-hour interview to a hint of wistulness

or regret. Fired by the Nationals in October, following a second straight National League East title and a second straight first-round playoff exit, he went through the full gamut of emotions in the days and weeks that followed: shock, anger, resentment

- and even sadness, as he realized his last, best chance at a World Series title had probably passed him by.

But now, as he prepared to watch his son Darren, a fresh-