Appreciation, Don Baylor and Darren Daulton:
Baylor made career of winning over clubhouses
One was an MVP, natural leader and genuinely good guy who made strides for American-American managers; the other willed a team and a city to a World Series.
It’s unjust to say Don Baylor was one of the greatest gentlemen to ever put on a baseball uniform.
When you say that, you’re shortchanging the man.
Baylor was one of the finest, kindest souls to walk the face of this earth, gracing everyone with his presence.
The passing of Baylor, 68, who battled multiple myeloma since 2003, shook the baseball world Monday.
“You try to prepare for this,” Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan said. “But it still hurts so bad and is shocking. He was a pretty special guy. People that didn’t know him didn’t know how special he was.
“He was a guy who always cared more about everyone else but himself. He kept a lot of that pain inside and didn’t tell anybody how he was hurting.”
His legs were broken from his disease, but he vowed one day to walk out of the hospital. He never made it, but, man, did he ever try.
Baylor broke the color barrier among athletes at Austin High School in Texas, and he would have been the first African-American athlete at the University of Texas if he hadn’t rejected a football scholarship and turned professional with the Baltimore Orioles.
He was a strong, powerful man, not just in physical nature but also in his belief and strength. When Baylor talked, you ran to the batting cage to listen.
He was a tremendous ballplayer, leading his team to seven postseasons and winning the 1979 American League MVP Award. He scored 120 runs for the California Angels that season and drove in 139, still a franchise record. He was hit by 267 pitches in his career and never winced.
Baylor will always be remembered as one of the greatest clubhouse leaders the game has ever seen, and it transcended into the clubhouses he managed.
Baylor was the first manager in Colorado Rockies history, leading them into the playoffs in 1995 and earning National League manager of the year honors.
“He was certainly the right guy to bring an expansion team together,” said Bob Gebhard, the Rockies’ inaugural general manager. “He laid the groundwork on what professional baseball needed to be in Denver, and his impact still resonates with that franchise today.”
He was the first African-American manager in Chicago Cubs history, spending three seasons there, and later became a coach with the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks.
“He opened a lot of doors for African Americans in baseball, always trying to help,” Morgan said. “When he became the manager of the Rockies and had the success he did, he made it possible for others to get a managerial opportunity.
“And when they succeeded, he was happier for them than himself.”
The man could scout, too. He was the first to tell me about a youngster named Mike Trout, who was playing on his team at the Futures Game. The Angels were looking for help at the trade deadline, and Trout’s name was being bandied about in baseball circles.
“If they trade him,” Baylor said, “they will regret it forever.”
Trout stayed, and it’s the best decision the Angels made.
“He was just such a leader of people’s lives and impacted so many people,” said Minnesota Twins third-base coach Gene Glynn, who coached eight years on Baylor’s staffs in Colorado and Chicago. “When people first met him, they were probably in awe by his size. But if you were lucky enough to know him, you saw the impact that he made on everyone. Everyone just gravitated to him.”
Baylor tried to hide his pain and anguish from the disease for years, but when he was unable to make it to the Twins’ 40-year World Series reunion or make the induction of Claire Smith, who wrote his biography, into the writers wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., last weekend, everyone knew the magnitude of the disease.
“He may be the toughest guy I was ever around,” Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers World Series hero Kirk Gibson said. “How he endured with what he had. … Nobody would out-loyal Don Baylor.”
Now, the pain is gone, he is at peace, and we are left with indelible memories that will be cherished forever.