Baker should be cinch for Hall now
Darting about the sporting world:
Dusty Baker just pulled off one of the finest managing jobs in the history of baseball. There should be no question about his future: an invitation to Cooperstown.
Some of the country’s most respected writers have been making Baker’s case for years, with this column in full agreement. But there can no longer be any doubt. With 1,892 wins, he’s a cinch next season to pass Casey Stengel ( 1,905) into 12th place on the alltime list. Among those ahead of Stengel, only Bruce Bochy is not in the Hall of Fame, and Bochy’s induction is a given. Add the fact that Baker is the only manager to guide five franchises into the postseason — and never forget what just took place.
It was properly stunning to watch Baker become only the second manager to rally his team from an 03 postseason deficit into a Game 7. Somehow, almost singlehandedly, he turned the Astros into a reasonably heartwarming story. It was all about Dusty, an innocent among the gallows; forgiveness lies well into the future for those players, if it ever comes. But his story took a singular path, and I really wonder if any other manager, any era, could have managed that team that well through the suffocation of disgrace with an unexpected layer, the pandemic, piled on.
“When we took the field, it was our playground. We zoned out of the outside world. This was the most fun we’ve ever had,” said a smiling Carlos Correa after the Game 7 ALCS loss to Tampa Bay, surely reflecting the mood of his teammates in his clubhouse. It took a man of exceptional compassion, and wisdom earned through the decades, to make that happen. If you’re summoning an argument against Baker’s Hall of Fame credentials, you forgot something: your heart.
Elsewhere on the sporting landscape:
Viva Mexico: In terms of national pride, this is Mexico’s most cherished World Series since “Fernandomania” — the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela capping a season of runaway popularity by beating the Yankees in Game 3 of the 1981 World Series. And who isn’t captivated by the stories of Randy Arozarena and Julio Urias?
Arozarena, the Rays’ mercurial outfielder who fled his native Cuba on a harrowing mission five years ago, wants to represent Mexico whenever the next World Baseball Classic is played ( probably 2023 at the earliest). His path of defection led him to Isla Mujeres, off the coast of Cancún, and from a climate of desolation — not knowing a soul, or how to get seen on a baseball field — he has made Mexico his adopted country.
His family has joined him there, he had a daughter born there two years ago, and after getting his start with Toros de Tijuana of the Mexican League, he launched a career that found him signed by the St. Louis Cardinals. He has played winter ball in Mexico the past three seasons and plans to become a Mexican citizen at the soonest opportunity. As much as he loves Cuba, he has felt the sting of players rejected from national teams out of fear they would defect. Now that he’s established, and flatout dominating the postseason — “Everybody is just in awe of him every time he steps in the box,” said teammate Mike Zunino of the ALCS MVP who went 9for28 (. 321) and hit four home runs against Houston — you wonder how the Cardinals could have let him go in a deal primarily targeting Matthew Liberatore, a pitching prospect who hopes to make his majorleague debut in a year or two.
Urias’ story dates to June 2012, when the Dodgers discovered him on the same scouting trip to Mexico that landed them Yasiel Puig. Urias grew up in the small town of La Higuerita, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, practicing on a dirt field built by his grandfather and other relatives. His precious left arm became his ticket to pro ball, although he had to overcome the removal of a benign mass from his left eye that had been there since birth. The residue of three operations caused the eye to droop, but as Urias has often said, “That’s how God works. He gave me a bad left eye but a good left arm.”
When Urias broke in with the Dodgers in 2016, the Giants’ Brandon Belt told USA Today, “For someone coming up at 19 to have that kind of composure and that good of stuff ... it’s hard to compare him to anybody.”
Constantly shifting between roles, and troubled by arm issues, Urias worked in the shadows for years. Then came Sunday’s Game 7 of the NLCS, when he saved the Dodgers’ season. At a time L. A. had shaky confidence in Kenley Jansen, Joe Kelly and everyone else it had tried in the closer’s role, here came Urias as a lefty Rollie Fingers, working three spotless innings to wrap up the game. Viva Mexico.
The view from Oakland: The Rays plays in an even more ridiculous stadium ( Tropicana Field) than the Oakland Coliseum. They draw terrible crowds. Their $ 28 million payroll ranks ahead only of Pittsburgh and Baltimore. They’re much like the A’s — except they get a lot more done, and for once, we don’t have to hear that “it takes money to win.” That’s always nice, but Tampa Bay’s system makes it difficult for the A’s to find excuses.
Not so crazy: The Rays are wildly unconventional, no doubt. After 12 pitchers earned saves for them during the season, they turned to a rookie not on that list, Pete Fairbanks, to close out Houston in Game 7. But like all the great teams, they strike a balance between analytics and the human element. They are renowned for the international and amateur scouting, and as manager Kevin Cash told espn. com, “When we acquire a player, as much work that goes into what he can do on the field, there’s that much on the personality and character. That’s where scouts and word of mouth come into play.”