Dusty Baker: The Astros Win the World Series, and it Hit Me Alright. And It Hasn’t He Heard Before
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I wanted to send a text to someone who had been a journalist for 45 years, first as a player and later as a coach and manager. The relationship evolved into a friendship over time.
My text read: “Go Astros! I won’t be there physically at the World Series, but I’ll be there mentally and spiritually cheering for Dusty Baker, along with all the other right-thinking folks.”
With your Astros winning 4-1 Saturday night at Minute Maid Park in Houston, you ended this World Series in Game 6 over the Philadelphia Phillies, and showed those facing adversity over the course of years (and years and years) that the answer is perseverance.
You proved that a team can win if the leader is positive, the defense is solid, and the outfielder is playing well. Yordan and the rest of the team will be proud of the way you went about it.
In 2002 and 2021, Baker was close to a World Series title with the Giants and Astros, but they failed to win it.
The most recent World Series won by a player or manager by Baker is between 1981 and 1986 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, as well as being a successful playing career that lasted 40 years.
But this time, as Baker stood with others from the Astros organization atop the victory stage, fans still screaming with glee, somebody asked Baker over the PA system if the whole thing had hit him yet.
“Oh, it’s hit me alright,” the oldest manager ever to win a World Series said, his face beaming with his contagious smile. As soon as that ball hit over the moon, I knew it was me. That was when it hit me.
Baker is a devout Christian who surely knows that the Bible is filled with verses counseling patience. When he signed his first Major League contract in 1967 to play outfield for the Atlanta Braves, he was unofficially adopted by future Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron.
The Astros were still hurting from the backlash that came about when MLB found that they had created a system that cheated opposing teams out of playing time and the World Series title was ruined.
Baker thought about his pre-World Series supporters (including a sports journalist friend), and he said, “There were people of color everywhere I go, and people of non-color. Hey, man. We’re all family.”
These guys are always the greatest, and I am feeling great. This is for my mom and my dad, my mom that passed in January, and my brother and all my boys,” he said afterwards, breaking off to hug his wife and high-five those rushing to congratulate him.
I had 2,000 wins, but they only talk about me not winning the World Series yet. he said before the game, according to MLB.com. Yeah, it matters. It matters to the people. It matters to us.”
“My mom, she told me a number of times, to be African-American, you’ve got to be twice as good to achieve the same thing,” he said afterwards. I heard it many times.
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For almost 30 years since he took charge of his first team – the Giants – in 1993, Baker had pursued this goal that fluttered out of his reach whenever it came within touching distance.
He was the crowd’s favorite, beloved across baseball for his empathy and thoughtfulness, the one who everyone rooted for but always seemed to finish second.
Some players on the team like banana pudding, Mancini said, and so Baker would buy it for them on the road and leave it in their lockers, while he visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral and brought back a rosary for Mancini.
I knew it was going to happen soon and I knew I had good teams. He said after he won that they might as well go for two because he wanted to win two.
“Maybe, it wasn’t supposed to happen, so that I could hopefully influence a few young mens’ lives and families, and a number of people in the country, showing what perseverance and character can do for you.”