Baker reminisces after 2,000th win
HOUSTON – Melissa Baker, sitting in Section 122 at Minute Maid Park with some of Dusty’s closest friends, hasn’t moved all evening.
This is a game no one ever envisioned, and certainly never discussed 25 years ago, when Baker managed his first game on April 6, 1993 for the San Francisco Giants. It didn’t seemed possible when Baker was sitting home for nearly 2 1/2 years, believing his managerial career was over, only for the Houston Astros to call in the aftermath of their infamous cheating scandal.
Now, with one out to go Tuesday night, and the Astros leading the Seattle Mariners, 4-0, they looked around, and were startled to hear the chant starting in the next section to their right: “Dusty Baker! Dusty Baker! Dusty Baker!”
“I was getting a little embarrassed,” Dusty Baker tells USA TODAY Sports sitting late in his office, with four bottles of Dom Perignon on ice in front of him. “I never heard my name chanted like that as a manager. Pretty special.”
Now, with his wife, Melissa, and longtime friends David Donati, George Santiago, Matt Starcevich and Ralph Garr all standing, holding their cell phones high in the air to take pictures and video for posterity, shouted the moment Astros reliever Bryan Abreu struck out rookie Julio Rodriguez for the final out. The crowd of 23,796 erupted. The scoreboard immediately flashed a picture of Baker on the huge scoreboard with the words: 2K wins.
“I am so happy for him, look at him,” says Melissa. “He deserves this. He deserves every bit of this. This is his moment.”
Baker, 72, became the 12th manager in Major League Baseball history to win 2,000 career games, and most important to Baker, the first Black manager to accomplish the feat.
“It means a lot, because there were a lot of people that didn’t think we had the capabilities to handle this situation,” Baker says, remembering former Dodgers GM Al Campanis’ racist remarks on Nightline in 1987. “It means extra to the culture. Means extra to society. It means extra for my races. It means extra hopefully for others to get an opportunity to not be the last.”
Baker, given a champagne toast by Astros veteran Lance McCullers immediately after the game, talked for 13 1/2
minutes at the press conference, retreated to his office, where the Hall of Fame and the Astros asked for nearly everything on his body to be authenticated. He gave them his wrist bands, jersey, cap, lineup card, and yes, even his toothpicks.
Astros owner Jim Crane, who hugged Baker on the field immediately after the game, stopped by his office where Baker thanked him again for giving him this opportunity.
“I had to sort of (resign myself) to the fact I wasn’t going to get it,” Baker says. “I said, ‘Well, maybe God didn’t want me to get it. Go on with your life.’ Then I got the call from Jim. …
“If there wasn’t a scandal, I wouldn’t be in this position. I’m here. I’m where I’m supposed to be. I’ll always be grateful for Jim giving me this opportunity.”
Catcher Martin Maldonado walked in, congratulated him, and nodded his head when Baker told him he would not be in the lineup Wednesday. “Hey, you’re the boss,” Maldonado said. Dan Firova, Baker’s quality control coach and close friend, stopped in and Baker handed him one of his bottles of Dom Perignon to take home to his wife. The 2008 Dom Perignon Vintage, signed by each player with a gold marker with the inscription, “Congratulations. 2000 Wins” was going home with Baker.
“He came in here in a rough spot, and he smoothed it out,” Crane said. “Dusty’s done such a magnificent job. He’s proven that over and over. There’s not a day where you don’t come into his office and he’s not smiling to a point you get aggravated once in awhile, but that’s Dusty.”
Baker showered, and reminisced, thinking about everyone who made this evening possible, from Jackie Robinson to Frank Robinson to Henry Aaron to Joe Morgan to Cito Gaston to his father, trying as hard as he could not to be emotional. It was just one game, and he vowed to look forward, still badly craving that one elusive accomplishment in his managerial career: a World Series championship.
He has come close, taking the Giants to the World Series in 2002, the Astros to the 2021 World Series, and twice coming within one game of a World Series berth. He’s the only manager in history to lead five different teams to the postseason, and could become only the seventh manager to win 90 games in 12 seasons. He reached 2,000 victories in fewer games than the likes of Connie Mack, Tony La Russa, Bruce Bochy and Bucky Harris.
“I’ve been on many teams,” Baker says. “I’ve been in the Marines, but I’ve never been in the club. Quite frankly, there were times when I never wanted to be in the club. But I’m in a club with some of the most elite managers that ever managed this game.”
Really, Baker should have joined the 2,000-win club years ago. He was dismissed four times, each after leading his team to the playoffs. He was out of work 2 1/2 years after his contract was not renewed by the Washington Nationals. He was unemployed for two years after being fired by the Cincinnati Reds. He sat out a year after the Chicago Cubs fired him.
“Dusty talks about that all of the time,” Melissa Baker said, “bringing up all the years he was out of the game. He just doesn’t let that go.”
“It’s such an honor to play for him,” Astros All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman says, “somebody who loves the game, who loves this team, and had such a storied career. Just suiting up every day is pretty special, nobody takes that for granted.
“He just connects with everyone so well.”
What manager do you know brings food to his players, whether it’s bagels on every Jewish holiday to Bregman, to enchiladas and steak for Maldonado, to the boxes of turkey he bought at the Turkey Leg Hut and delivered to his team Tuesday before the game?
Superstitious? Nah. Baker has been doing this at every stop throughout his career.
When Baker woke up Tuesday morning, knowing the significance of the game, he casually dismissed it talking to Melissa and his friends, knowing this night would eventually come as long as he was alive.
“He told me, ‘I just want to get it over with,”’ Melissa Baker said in the sixth inning.
During the game, Melissa and Baker’s friends were too nervous to really eat. Melissa had only a soda and box of popcorn during the 3-hour game. The only time she took her eye off the field was checking her cell phone to see how their son, Darren Baker, was doing for the Class A Wilmington Blue Rocks. She believed in karma when Darren hit the game-winning sacrifice fly in the 10th inning to beat Bowling Green.
Oh, and wouldn’t you know it would be Astros rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena who delivered that two-run, two-out single in the sixth inning, sending popcorn flying, to give the Astros a 3-0 lead. Guess who was the first opposing batter for the St. Louis Cardinals in Baker’s first game as manager?
Yep, Pena’s father, Geronimo Pena, who was at the game.
“Can you believe that?” Melissa said. “Everything’s lining up.”