Dusty Baker with the media; Photo by Steve Mears
If you want a manager to get you into the playoffs, Dusty Baker is your man. He has done it with all five franchises he has managed, unfortunately the previous four franchises all parted ways with Baker when the main objectives were not achieved.
As the current Houston Astros manager, Baker has been a baseball lifer, but his own stubbornness might be his ultimate downfall. Everyone loves Dusty until he wears out his welcome which he has done in every prior managerial spot. There are plenty of great stories about Dusty in San Francisco, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Washington, D.C., and he can share stories of Jimmy Hendrix, Hollywood celebrities, U.S. Presidents, and some of the greatest players of the game. The media loves him, and they have his back every time he loses. But each time he is fired from a job, he is mystified at what happened — as it is never his fault. Maybe he is right since he is not batting, fielding or throwing pitches, but he does hold the power of the lineup card and makes the pitching substitutions, and sends in the signals to put on plays. Sometimes managers are simply the “fall guy” and scapegoat for the general manager or even owners.
The 71-year-old has had good teams, and he has had great teams although he said after he departed from the Nationals that he was never handed a great time. That is debatable. Nats’ manager Dave Martinez took a lesser version of Baker’s 2017 team and won the World Series two years later.
The media rarely will get negative with Dusty, rather they play along even after a loss to ask fun questions or throw him creampuffs about the losses which it always seems to get attributed to bad luck. There is an old saying, “Sometimes you have to make your own luck.” Continue reading
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