Monthly Archives: December 2022

The Baseball Hall of Fame Asserts its Authority

December 26, 2022

Politics is the art of controlling your environment. Hunter S. Thompson

Institutional Override

The People that run the Baseball Hall of Fame (basically the Clark Foundation and Major League Baseball) have a difficult problem. The voters primarily in charge of electing former baseball players into their shrine are not under their direct control. Does the Nobel Committee let someone else tell them who to give their prizes and money to? But the Baseball Hall of Fame [BHOF] allows the members of the Baseball Writers Association of America [BBWAA] to have the first crack at electing any player to their shrine. The advantages of doing this are obvious. The BBWAA generates a ton of free publicity for the BHOF as it debates the merits and demerits of potential BHOF inductees. Since the BBWAA is a separate organization, the BHOF also gets the added illusion of impartiality. The modern rule of publicity (all publicity is good publicity, only lack of publicity is bad) reigns. The disadvantage of this arrangement is that the BBWAA has a habit of doing one thing that the BHOF simply cannot allow. The BBWAA occasionally gets on its moral high horse and refuses to elect any player. This has happened 3 times in the last 25 years [1996, 2013, and 2021]. The high point of the BHOF’s year is when the crowds come to celebrate the annual induction ceremony. The Hall literally needs to induct someone each year. Does a hotel owner in Florida or the Caribbean close his establishment when the winter tourists flock to town? The BHOF has a simple and elegant solution to this problem. In addition to the annual elections of the BBWAA, the BHOF itself also annually elects some other players through the BHOF’s Veterans Committee. Like any institution, the BHOF needs to be able to put its fat thumb on the scale.

Settling for Second Best

This dichotomy, that baseball players are being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by 1) the BBWAA and 2) the BHOF itself, has existed since the very first election. In that initial 1936 election, the Writers voted to elect players from the 20th Century. The Hall of Fame appointed a Veterans Committee to elect players from the 19th Century. Eventually, the BBWAA elections focused upon the players that became eligible each year. These players were given 15 years at first to be elected by the BBWAA (eventually shortened to 10 years in 2014). There was also a five-year waiting period to make sure they did not unretire. The Veterans Committee also adapted. It was eventually limited to voting on the leftovers from the BBWAA elections. As the years rolled by, this process eventually ensured that the Veterans Committee would always elect the lesser qualified, those players ignored by the BBWAA. As the Veterans Committee evolved, it selections were filled with lowlights (the election of virtually all of the unqualified players in the Baseball Hall of Fame, especially in the 1960s & 1970s) and highlights (the belated elections of the very over-qualified Negro League superstars). Beginning in 2022, the Veterans Committee was tasked with electing three different groups of candidates who have not been elected by the BBWAA. The first is Players active primarily since 1980. The second is non-players (executives, managers. and umpires) active primarily since 1980. The third is players and/or non-players active primarily before 1980. These 3 groups will be considered annually on a rotating basis. In other words, Group One gets considered for induction in 2023, Group Two for 2024, and Group Three for 2025; before this sequence begins all over again.* Which brings us to the recent election of Fred McGriff by the BHOF Veterans Committee.

*Because the Baseball Hall of Fame has once again set an exact year rather than a moving time frame [i.e. exactly 1980 rather than 40 years ago], these 3 groups will inevitably need to be, eventually, changed once again.

The Hall of Fame Elects Fred McGriff

On December 4th, 2022, the BHOF Veterans Committee selected Fred McGriff from the group of players active primarily after 1980 who had been retired for five years and were no longer eligible for BBWAA election He will be inducted on July 23, 2023 into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The procedure used to elect him was straight forward. A BHOF Screening Committee of 10 to 12 members (primarily from the BBWAA) selected 8 players that fit their post-1980 criteria for the ballot. The Veterans Committee [VC], consisting of 16 members also appointed by the BHOF, considered whether any of these eight former players were worthy of induction. Each of these 16 VC members was allowed to vote for 3 candidates. A player receiving 12 votes (75%) was elected to the BHOF. Both Committees reportedly have the Baseball Commissioner and the Head of the Clark Foundation present (though non-voting). Although this procedure is transparent, the process itself is so cloudy that its almost opaque. Who was selecting these Committee members? Why were these 8 players on the ballot selected? It is obvious that the BHOF (i.e. Major League Baseball) was in total control of the process. The only question was: Would they act appropriately? It was quickly apparent that the answer was: Not at all. The 8 players selected by Screening Committee were an odd group, to say the least.* There were 3 players who had already been rejected by the BBWAA because of accusations of steroid use; and yet another player rejected because of the possibility that he would embarrass the Hall of Fame. Three of these 4 players had fallen off the BBWAA ballot just the previous year [2021] when their 10-year eligibility expired. The remaining four players consisted of 2 men whose careers were cut short by injuries [Mattingly & Belle], one man whose career burned out early as he was also injured [Murphy], and one player who had a full career and seemed well qualified: Fred McGriff.

* The 8 players were: Albert Belle, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy, Rafael Palmeiro and Curt Schilling.

The Fix Was In

The results of the 2023 Baseball Hall of Fame election certainly seemed to be a foregone conclusion. Sportswriters Jay Jaffe and Joe Posnanski both pretty much predicted that McGriff’s election was inevitable before the vote. It was. McGriff received all 16 votes. Every member of the Committee voted for him. If someone was suspicious that the election was rigged, they would not have to do much to construct a plausible conspiracy theory. The reasoning behind McGriff’s election was as old school as possible. If not for the games canceled during the 1994-1995 strike, McGriff would have hit over 500 home runs. For many years, 500 career HRs and 3000 hits had equaled automatic election to the BHOF (pro-rating for those lost games, McGriff would have finished with 510 HRs). This was very similar to the last Veterans Committee election from this group of players in 2019. In that election, the Veterans Committee had elected Harold Baines, using the argument that the strike years of 1981 and 1994-95 had denied Baines the chance to amass 3000 hits and guaranteed his automatic election (however pro-rating Baines for those three years does not get him to 3000 hits, just 2965). So just exactly what did the BHOF Veterans Committee accomplish with their 2022 election for the 2023 inductions? First, they once again got to thumb their nose at modern mathematical analysis by using the traditional measurements of 500 HRs and 3000 hits. Second, they broadcast that, going forward, steroid-tainted players would find no comfort in their selections. Bonds, Clemens, and Palmeiro will almost certainly not be on the next ballot as these three players did not even receive enough votes for their totals to be announced (Albert Belle, who had such breath-taking anger management problems that he might as well have been on steroids, is probably also included in this group). Third, the Committee also got to elect a man that it felt the BBWAA had given short shrift: Fred McGriff.

* Belle’s Anger Management problems have continued since his Baseball career ended. All things considered, his inclusion on the 2022 VC ballot may be even odder than the inclusion of the steroid-tainted players.

The Worthiness of Fred McGriff

In 2025, the BHOF Veterans Committee will once again vote on the pool of post-1980 players. It is very likely that the three other players who had their vote totals announced [Don Mattingly 8, Curt Schilling 7, Dale Murphy 6] will be on that ballot. In fact, the elections of Mattingly and Murphy are probably inevitable now. Schilling, if he can convince the BHOF that he will not cause a controversy with his induction speech, will also possibly be elected. But there is always the possibility that the BHOF will wait for Schilling to shuffle off this mortal coil before posthumously electing him. He may be the one man alive whose Baseball Hall of Fame chances would geometrically increase if he died. However, none of these assumptions answer the interesting questions of: 1) Was Fred McGriff actually worthy of election to the BHOF; and 2) Who should have been on the eight man ballot that resulted in his election? In a previous post, the Lowest Common Denominator system for membership in the BHOF was proposed. This system used the most widely accepted modern statistic for measuring whether a baseball player’s career was BHOF worthy [website Baseball Reference’s Wins Above Replacement formula, aka bWAR]. Currently, with the election of McGriff, there are 341 people in the BHOF [269 as players, 40 as executives or pioneers, 22 as managers, and 10 umpires]. Of these 269 players, 28 played primarily in the Negro Leagues and (unfortunately) cannot be compared directly with the 241 players from the traditional Major Leagues. There are also three players among the top 241 players by bWAR who were not elected as players (Charles Griffith & Al Spaulding as executives/pioneers and Joe Torre as manager). In other words, by this system, the Baseball Hall of Fame should contain the top 244 eligible players by bWAR.* Fred McGriff is the 245th ranked eligible player by Baseball Reference’s WAR calculations. You cannot straddle the line any closer than that.

* In the previous post of this formula, any players still in their 10-year eligibility period for the BBWAA vote for the BHOF were excluded. This choice has been reconsidered. Now, all players are eligible as soon as the 5-year waiting period from the end of their career is over.

Who Should Have Been on the List?

By the bWAR formula, the 2022 Veterans Committee should have probably considered the following 8 post-1980 eligible players: 1. Curt Schilling [59]*, 2. Lou Whitaker [73], 3. Kenny Lofton [103], 4. Graig Nettles [107], 5. Kevin Brown [110], 6. Dwight Evans [112], 7. Willie Randolph [120], and 8. David Cone [145]. By bWAR, all of these 8 players were more highly qualified for the BHOF than Fred McGriff. There are several other players (Rick Reuschel, Bobby Grich and especially Buddy Bell) whose careers could have qualified as either pre-1980 or post-1980 players (depending on the whims of BHOF) who also could have been considered. McGriff, depending upon who is included in the post-1980 bucket, would have been about 20th on the bWAR list of post-1980 eligible players. In fact, Schilling is the highest ranking eligible non-Hall of Famer in the post-1980 period outside of the steroid accursed careers of Barry Bonds (4th) and Roger Clemens (8th). This certainly does not mean that McGriff was not a worthy Hall of Famer. The bWAR formula probably underrates big bats like McGriff in favor of players with golden gloves to sell. It also almost surely underrates relief pitchers, catchers, and those players with short careers but very high peaks. On the other hand, it definitely overrates any 19th Century pitchers primarily active before 1893 and all players with long careers but no high peaks. All that being true, there is still no reasonable explanation for the 8 players selected by the BHOF Screening Committee for the BHOF Veterans Committee to consider for 2023 election other than the scales were tilted. It will be interesting to see which players get picked from the same post-1980 player pool for the next induction from this group in 2026.

* Each player is followed by his number on the bWAR eligibility list.

Addendum #1

One of the very odd things about the post-1980 player Veterans Committee 2022 election was the fact that Alan Trammell was one of the 16 Committee members who voted for Fred McGriff. Trammell, of course, is linked forever in baseball history with his long-time Detroit Tiger teammate Lou Whitaker (in the old days, they would have been called keystone partners). Trammell and Whitaker are reportedly good friends. After Curt Schilling, Lou Whitaker was the highest rated post-1980 eligible player by bWAR who should have been under consideration by this Veterans Committee. Could Trammell not have put in a good word for his supposed dear friend? It’s just odd.

Addendum #2

In 2023, another Veterans Committee will consider post-1980 non-players for 2024 induction into the BHOF. This blog may comment on that election. Or perhaps just ignore it. In 2024, yet another Veterans Committee will consider pre-1980 players and non-players for 2025 induction into the BHOF. Once again, there will be 8 candidates under consideration. In a perfect world, this list of 8 men would probably be all or almost all Negro League players, led by Grant Johnson & Dick Redding. However that is quite unlikely. Hopefully, by that time, this blog will have developed its top 100 list of Negro League stars and be able to populate such a list in a well-thought-out order. But the BHOF will probably once again shift through the bargain box of already discarded candidates. By the bWAR formula, the top 8 would be: 1. James McCormick [68], 2. Bill Dahlen [72], 3. Bobby Grich [84], 4. Tony Mullane [116], 5. Buddy Bell [118], 6. Luis Tiant [119], 7. Reggie Smith [127], and 8. Ken Boyer [141]. Removing the 19th Century guys, you get: 1. Bobby Grich [84], 2. Buddy Bell [118], 3. Luis Tiant [119], 4. Reggie Smith [127], 5. Ken Boyer [141], 6. Tommy John [150], 7. Sal Bando [152], and 8. Willie Davis [157]; Honorable mention: 9. Wes Ferrell [167], 10. Sherry Magee [173].

Wrapping up the 2022 Season, Part Two

November 30, 2022

Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them. Abraham Lincoln

Dusty Baker reaches the Mountaintop

One of the interesting things about being a long time fan of any sport is how you eventually get to know quite a bit about individual players, who you have not and never will actually meet. They become like some distant cousin who you routinely hear snippets of gossip about as you go through life. Of course, the flipside of this is that they do not and never will know you from a pothole in the street. The name ‘Dusty’ Baker immediately brings two things to mind. First, his three-year-old son Darren, serving as a batboy for the San Francisco Giants, was saved by J. T. Snow from possibly getting run over at home plate during game Five of the 2002 World Series.* Secondly, the claim that Glenn Burke, his teammate, supposedly invented the “High Five” by forcing Baker to slap his upraised hand on October 2nd, 1977, to celebrate Baker’s 30th home run of the season. For a lifelong Baseball fan, these might be the highlights of a thousand pieces (or more) of facts in their memory bank about the man. And they would be jumbled in with everything from the fact that Dusty Baker always seems to have a toothpick in his mouth to the fact that Baker has been married twice to the fact that many Chicago Cubs’ fans will always blame him for ruining Kerry Wood and Mark Pryor’s arms. Taking the good with the bad and knowing all that I know about Dusty Baker, I must admit that I am happy that Baker, in his 25th year as a Major League manager, finally led his team to victory in the 2022 World Series.

*Time Flies Department: Darren Baker, the three year old batboy, now plays in the minor Leagues.

The Playing Career of Dusty Baker

Born in 1949, Johnnie “Dusty” Baker’s birthplace was Riverside, California, and he spent his formative years in the Golden State. He has always seemed to be a combination of competitive drive and Californian cool (not exactly a hippie but laidback). He made his 1968 Major League debut with the Atlanta Braves, where his mentor was Henry Aaron. After the 1975 season, the Braves traded him back home to the Los Angeles Dodgers. From 1976 to 1983, he patrolled the outfield for Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda. His career faded out from 1984 to 1986 in upstate California with the San Francisco area teams (Giants and Oakland Athletics). His career path was somewhat odd. Dusty Baker had both an early [1972-73] and late peak [1980-82] but a long slough of lesser seasons from 1974 to 1979 [except perhaps 1977]. If his career had a more normal trajectory, Dusty Baker would have had, just as a player, a border line Hall of Fame career. Using Baseball Reference’s “Wins Above Replacement” [WAR] formula, Baker ended his career with a respectable 37.0 WAR. Usually a career total of 50.0 WAR or so is where any Baseball Hall of Fame discussion really begins in the initial Baseball Writer’s vote (the Veterans Committees, or back door to the Hall, has much looser standards). All in all, Dusty Baker had a very fine career as a player.

*Dusty Baker had 5.1 WAR in 1972 and 4.6 WAR in 1980. If he had averaged just 4.0 WAR from 1973 to 1980, he would have finished with 47.1 WAR, right on the Hall of Fame margins.

The Managerial Career of Dusty Baker

After his playing career ended, Dusty Baker reportedly briefly worked as a stock broker. Having a soul, Baker quickly returned to Baseball, working as the first base and/or hitting coach for the San Francisco Giants from 1988 to 1992. In 1993, Dusty Baker replaced Roger Craig as the Giants’ manager (the same year that Barry Bonds joined the team). In Baseball writer Bill James’ book about Major League managers, James assigned managers to various families. In other words, if you played for John McGraw and later became a Major League manager, you would be in the McGraw family. Of course, this is an over-simplification. James was actually trying to track who influenced who. But, by this logic and in actual reality, Dusty Baker is very much in the Tommy Lasorda managerial family. Lasorda was famous for his: “we are family” style of managing. In other words, Lasorda wanted to bond his teams together as a unit. In many ways, this is now an out-of-style managerial method. Modern managerial strategy is usually all about analytics (calculating what is the best strategy at any time using mathematical formulas). A pure analytical manager will change out players, regardless of their feelings, to gain the slightest edge. A family style manager is more interested in letting his players know that he believes in them and asking his players to rise to the occasion. Dusty Baker, like Tommy Lasorda, has always tried to manage his players as a family unit.

Dusty Baker spent ten seasons (1993-2002) as the San Francisco Giants’ field manager. He was able to manage the prickly Barry Bonds, but was also there when Bonds decided to turn himself into a steroid monster. It does not seem like any bad karma attached to Baker from that fact. In his first season there, Baker led the Giants to a 103-59 record and also won his first ‘Manager of the Year’ award. But the Giants finished second to the 104-58 Atlanta Braves. The Giants had three losing seasons from 1994 to 1996 before being consistently good from 1997 to 2002. Baker won two more ‘Manager of the Year’ awards and, in 2002, led his 95-67 Giants into the World Series against the Anaheim Angels. On the verge of winning the World Series in Game Six, Baker made some questionable pitching moves that may have cost the Giants the World Championship. But that is hindsight. The Angels eventually won the World Series in seven games. Let go by the Giants, Dusty Baker signed to manage the Chicago Cubs. He led the Cubs into the National League Championship Series in 2003. Up three games to two in the best of seven series and with a 3 to 0 lead in the eighth inning of the sixth game,* the Cubs totally unraveled in that fateful eighth inning due to a controversial non-call of fan interference, an unfortunate error, and some poor pitching that resulted in an 8-3 loss for the Cubbies. Their opponents, the eventual 2003 World Champion Florida Marlins, then eliminated the Cubs with a 9-6 victory in game seven.

*The Cubs were just five outs away from advancing to the 2003 World Series, with a 3-0 lead, when it all went to hell.

Losing two consecutive seemingly very winnable series to the eventual World Champion teams in 2002 and 2003 plus the fact that his best team finished second in 1993 despite winning 103 games, the narrative about Dusty Baker as a Manager became one of: “close but no cigar.” Baker managed the Cubs for three more years [2003-2006] but the team regressed after injuries took out the Cubs ace pitchers, Pryor and Wood. He next managed the Cincinnati Reds for six years [2008-2013]. Taking over a team that had finished 72-90 in 2007, the Reds improved under Baker and finished first in 2010 [91-71] and in 2012 [97-65]. The 2010 Reds were simply blown out in three straight games (best of 5) by the Philadelphia Phillies in the Divisional Series. But the 2012 Reds added to the narrative that Baker could not win in the post season. Up by two games in a best of 5 series, the Reds lost game 3 in ten innings by a score of 2-1 and then dropped both the 4th and 5th games to the eventual World Champion San Francisco Giants. Let go by the Reds after a third place 90-72 finish in 2013, it seemed like Baker might be out of chances to manage. But, in 2016 and 2017, Baker managed two more seasons for the Washington Nationals. His teams finished 95-67 and then 97-65 but lost in the Divisional Series to the Dodgers and Cubs respectively. Let go after the 2nd consecutive Divisional Series loss, Baker was seemingly retired in 2019 when the Nationals won the World Series and Baker celebrated his 70th birthday. Once again, his days as a Major League manager seemed to be over.

But fate was not finished with Dusty Baker yet. The Houston Astros franchise had been rocked by a sign-stealing scandal that tarnished their 2017 World Championship. Looking for a well-regarded manager to deflect some of the bad publicity, the Astros settled on Baker. In the 2020 shortened Covid year, the Astros finished 29-31 under Baker, but still got into the expanded play-offs. The Astros got all the way to the American League Championship Series for the right to go to the 2020 World Series before falling to the Tampa Bay Rays. Notably, the Astros went down 3 games to none before winning three straight to force a seventh and final game, which they lost. In 2021, Baker’s Astros finished 95-67 and then fought all the way to the World Series, which they lost in six games without much of a fight. Dusty Baker would graciously accept his defeat by his mentor’s team in the year that Henry Aaron passed away. In 2022, the Astros finished the season with a 106-56 record, the best ever by a Baker led team. They rampaged through the post-season, ending their year by defeating the over-matched Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. In six sweet games, the Astros ended Baker’s “Always a Groomsman, never a Groom” jinx. Now all that remains is to find out whether the World Champion manager Dusty Baker can pull an Elway.*

* John Elway, the 37-year-old quarterback of the Denver Broncos, won his very first Superbowl in 1997 (after losing his first three). In 1998, he won his second in a row at the age of 38.

Despite the vague feeling that the Houston Astros should have their 2022 World Championship trophy shoved where the sun doesn’t shine because of the 2017 scandal, it is still impossible not to be happy for Dusty Baker. With the 2022 World Championship feather in his cap, the election of Dusty Baker to the Baseball Hall of Fame became unavoidable. Where there was once just possibility, there is now inevitability. Rather than the story revolving around how Baker never won his ring, the narrative can now focus on just how good a manager that he has been. In 25 years as a Baseball Field Manager, Dusty Baker has sixteen seasons of 86 or more wins, twelve of these seasons with more than 90 wins, and two of over 100. It is often said that a good manager simply establishes an atmosphere conducive to winning; and then does not do anything that would knock the team off course. Dusty Baker has proven himself capable of establishing a winning clubhouse with multiple teams. His managerial resume is really quite impressive, even before his team won the 2022 World Series. His eventual election to the Baseball Hall of Fame will be well deserved.

The Historical Context of Dusty Baker

One thing that certainly separates Baseball from the other major sports is the depth of its history. In an earlier post, I speculated that Baseball has entered its Third Age. The First Age was the Age of Segregation (1871 to 1945). The Second Age was the Age of Integration (1946 to 2020). I tentatively named the Third Age (currently just 2021 to 2022): the International Age. But another possible name for the current Age would be: the Age of Analytics. Of course, historical divisions are simply a historian’s concepts. But real life does actually have turning points. Each Age of Baseball originated with a major turning point in the sport. In 1871, the First Age of Baseball commenced with the formation of the first professional League. In 1946, the Second Age began with the signing of African-American player Jackie Robinson to an Organized Baseball contract, beginning the integration of the Black and White Baseball worlds. The dividing lines between the Second and Third Ages are not quite so distinct. But the International CoVid pandemic wiped out the 2020 season. Los Angeles Angels Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani replaced his teammate Mike Trout as the best player in Baseball in 2021 (and looks to maintain that title for some time). On January 22nd of 2021, Henry Aaron, the last Negro Leaguer to play regularly in the Major Leagues, passed away. Then Aaron’s long time team, the Atlanta Braves won the 2021 World Series playing before suburban fans in a stadium built expressly to escape the multi-cultural urban center of Atlanta. It certainly feels like a dividing line between the Age of Integration and the next Age had been crossed.

The career of Dusty Baker is deeply tied to the Age of Integration. Although it has not been mentioned before now in this post, Baker is an African-American man. He grew up during the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s. Baker signed with the Atlanta Braves only after Henry Aaron, the best player on the Braves and probably the most respected Black player in the game, promised Baker’s mother that Aaron would look after Dusty like his own son.* Henry Aaron, not Tommy Lasorda, was Dusty Baker’s true mentor. Baker was famously the on-deck hitter when Henry Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s lifetime home run record on April 8th of 1974. Baker saw the extent of the racist abuse that Aaron had to take first hand. Dusty Baker’s career can even be traced back through Henry Aaron to Jackie Robinson’s initial integration of the Major Leagues. In 1987, Al Campanis, Robinson’s former white teammate and an executive of the Los Angeles Dodgers, embarrassed and humiliated himself on live television by asserting that African-Americans did not have the mental capacity to manage a Major League baseball team. The Major Leagues hired an African-American civil rights activist and well-known sociologist, Harry Edwards to devise a plan to promote diversity in their managerial and executive positions. The more cynically inclined would say that they actually hired Edwards for the publicity that the problem was being addressed. One of the first Baseball people to contact Edwards and offer to help was Al Campanis himself. When Edwards asked Campanis who he would recommend as a African-American managerial or executive prospect, Al Campanis reportedly immediately brought up Dusty Baker’s name.

*Henry Aaron’s children, who were a little younger than Dusty Baker, apparently called him: “Uncle Dusty.”

In one of the odd twists of history, the Houston Astros did not have a Black American on their active roster as they captured the 2022 World Series (their one player of African-American heritage, Michael Brantley, spent the World Series on the disabled list). Of course, the Astros did have multiple players on the team with African heritage. But they were all from Latin America. Is there a better coda to the Age of Integration than a Black man managing a team to the title despite having no African-American players on the roster? There is also the fact that, in the Age of Analytics, Dusty Baker was an unabashedly old school manager.* In fact, Baker was more than just an old fashioned manager. Unlike Tommy Lasorda, whose “we are family” philosophy had a good deal of shtick (a comic theme or gimmick) in it, Dusty Baker was far more like mentor Henry Aaron. He took an actual and personal interest in his players, all of his players, whether they were Black, White, Latin, or whatever. What better coda for the Age of Integration than a manager who treated his very diverse roster as a family? In many ways, the 2022 World Series victory of Dusty Banker and his Houston Astros serves as a fitting conclusion to the Age of Integration. All that being said, Willie Mays still lives.

* Dusty Baker reportedly said to his Astro players at one point: “(Expletive) exit velocity? (Double expletive) exit velocity? How about (expletive) hits!

Addendum 1:

One of my favorite Baseball stories has always been: Henry Aaron’s advice to Dusty Baker about batting against Bob Gibson (perhaps the most intimidating pitcher that ever lived). It went something like this: “Don’t look at him, don’t talk to him, don’t dig in at the plate, and don’t react when he throws at you. And, for God’s sake, don’t charge the mound after you get decked. He was a Gold Gloves boxer and he’ll kick your ass.”

Addendum 2:

No one ever seems to talk about how cool Johnnie (Dusty) Baker’s nickname is. It always reminded me of an old nursery rhyme (Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker or Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Sailor, Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief). Dusty Baker is more subtle than the obvious Dusty Rhodes and better than a made up equivalent (condition & occupation) such as: Batty Carpenter, Tubby Pope, Bloody Farmer, Sunny Painter, Salty Singer, or Dirty Gardener. The story goes that Baker got his ‘Dusty’ nickname from his parents because he always played in only part of their lawn not covered by grass.

Addendum 3:

Johnnie ‘Dusty’ Baker apparently had another Baseball nickname at one time. While playing in the Puerto Rican Winter League in the early 1970s, Baker got drunk one night. Suffering from his booze binge the next day, his teammates gave him some fish soup, a local hangover remedy. Then the team went on a long bus trip to play that day’s away game. Feeling nauseous, Baker wanted the bus to pull over so he could throw up. Apparently on a tight schedule or just lacking in empathy, the bus driver refused and told Baker to stick his head out the window to throw up. Dusty Baker did and vomited all over the side of the bus. From that day on, Baker’s nickname in Puerto Rico was “Mondongo” which was the name of the soup he upchucked.* Hopefully the bus driver had to clean it up himself; but Dusty Baker is still better than Mondongo Baker.

*Mondongo soup is apparently a Puerto Rican dish made from the fish Tripe.