USA TODAY International Edition
Baker the right choice for Astros at right time
The Astros, a franchise in the cross hairs of Major League Baseball’s cheating scandal, is about to choose Dusty Baker to be their next manager, according to a person familiar with the hiring.
The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because Baker’s contract had yet to be finalized.
Baker, 70, the three- time National League Manager of the Year who guided four teams to nine postseason berths, seven division titles and an NL pennant, is the perfect choice.
This organization finally did something right.
Baker is the ideal man to get them through perhaps the most tumultuous time an entire organization will face since the Black Sox scandal in 1919.
The Astros, caught using illegal electronic equipment to steal signs, resulting in the suspensions and firings of general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A. J. Hinch, are going to be facing horrendous backlash every time they leave the city limits of Houston.
They will be insulted, scorned and ridiculed.
And that’s just by the opposing players.
Fans will taunt them every time they step to the plate, hearing chants of “Cheater! Cheater! Cheater!”
It will be relentless and vicious.
“I’m sure,” Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. said last week, “it’s going to be hostile.”
Astros owner Jim Crane, realizing what lies ahead, had to find the man who would best insulate the clubhouse from the outside noise, and threats, keeping them together.
He chose Baker.
Baker, who has led his teams to three division championships in the last five years in Cincinnati and Washington, is the Dalai Lama of managers.
There’s no manager in the game more well- liked, respected and admired by his peers and players throughout the industry.
“His greatest attribute is the way he manages people,” Davey Lopes, the former Dodgers great and longtime friend
This Astros organization finally did something right. Baker, 70, is the ideal man to get them through perhaps the most tumultuous time an entire organization will face since the Black Sox scandal in 1919.
of Baker’s, told USA TODAY Sports in 2017. “I find it hard to find someone who’s better.
“Getting the best out of the players, getting them to want to play, getting them to want to put that extra effort into it, that takes a special talent.”
That attribute will be needed more than ever when it will be so easy for the Astros to succumb to the pressure and the distractions and fall apart.
It’s up to Baker to make sure it doesn’t happen.
So when the entire team assembles in spring training on Feb. 17 at West Palm Beach, Florida, Baker will have them gather around, and he’ll tell them about his own battlefield.
He withstood the heavy scrutiny during the 1980s when some of his closest friends were implicated in the Pittsburgh drug trials, resulting in mandatory drug tests the rest of his playing career.
He endured the public embarrassment of the IRS coming after him for $ 4 million in back taxes and penalties when a series of tax shelters were disallowed, garnishing his paychecks.
He insulated Barry Bonds from the media circus in 2001 when he set the single- season home run record with 73 amid the BALCO fallout and kept the feud between his two best players, Jeff Kent and Bonds, from dividing the clubhouse.
He will remind the Astros the importance of staying together, just as he kept his two best players, Bonds and Jeff Kent – who once fought in the dugout – from dividing the clubhouse.
He has been fired four times as manager and hired five times.
He has had glory, winning more games than any other active manager, and horrific heartbreak.
He was one game away from winning the 2002 World Series when the Giants lost the World Series in seven games to the Angels in 2002, and his Cubs’ team squandered a 3- 1 series lead to the Marlins in the 2003 NL Championship Series.
He survived prostate cancer, an irregular heartbeat and a stroke.
He also persevered through racism in his playing career and later as a manager, deluged with hate letters when managing the Cubs.
Now, here he is, being given the greatest challenge of his managerial career, ensuring this talented collection of players stays strong in what looms as the most ordeal they’ve faced.
If Baker leads the Astros back to the World Series, the road could lead him right to baseball’s greatest resting place: Baseball’s Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, New York.
“It would mean a lot to me and my family to be the first African American manager in there,” Baker recently told USA TODAY Sports. “But what matters to me the most is the championship. That’s what I want. I want to be a World Series champion.
“That’s what has always brought me back.”
He is in for one final ride, knowing deep in his heart that he deserved another chance, while believing he was the perfect man for an imperfect job.
His calming presence will help soothe the angry masses.
You can loathe the Astros all you want, but how can anyone be mad at Baker?
He had nothing to do with it. Why, his Nationals team even played the Astros at Minute Maid Park in 2017 during the heart of the scandal and took two of the three games, trash can knocking and all.
He’ll be asked about whether he suspected the Astros of cheating that series. He’ll be asked whether the Astros’ players should have been disciplined. He’ll be asked how the Astros should handle the scandal going forward.
Baker, who has managed everyone from Bonds to Sammy Sosa to Bryce Harper and Joey Votto, will handle all of the scrutiny impeccably.
He’ll be in complete control, shielding his team the best he can from all of the hatred.
He comes along at just the right time, when not only the Astros, but Major League Baseball, needs him most.
Baker is ready to buckle up for the ride of his life.