Cal Sports Report

Ex-Cal Star Darren Baker Plays in MLB All-Star Futures Game

Father Dusty Baker was busy with the Astros and could not attend the contest of top minor-league prospects at Dodger Stadium
Jake Curtis|
Ex-Cal Star Darren Baker Plays in MLB All-Star Futures Game
Ex-Cal Star Darren Baker Plays in MLB All-Star Futures Game

Former Cal standout Darren Baker participated in the MLB All-Star Futures game on Saturday night at Dodgers Stadium, and he performed well in the National League's 6-4 loss to the American League.

His father, Dusty Baker, typically attended his son's home games at Cal, but he could not be at Dodgers Stadium on Saturday because he was busy managing the Astros to a 5-0 victory over the A's in Oakland.

Darren Baker did not start for the National League Futures team, but he entered the game in the fifth inning as a defensive replacement at second base, the position he played at Cal.

In the bottom of the fifth, in his only plate appearance, he hit the ball hard off American League pitcher Ricky Tiedemann, but lined out to center field. Baker handled his only defensive chance in the top of the sixth, fielding a ground ball off the bat of Dillon Dingler and throwing him out.

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A brief pregame interview with Baker:

Darren Baker has been playing well in the minors after being an all-conference player at Cal.

After his junior season at Cal, Baker was bypassed in a 2020 draft that was shortened to five rounds due to the coronavirus, so he returned to Cal for his senior season, hitting a team-best .327 with 28 stole bases in 34 tries.

Washington, the team his father managed in 2016 and 2017, drafted him in the 10th round with the 293rd pick in 2020, signing him for slot value of $146,800.

Last summer, Baker played four games at the rookie level Florida Complex League Nationals, and 18 at Class A Fredericksburg, hitting a combined .333 and stealing two bases.

This year he is at Wilmington of the South Atlantic League, a higher Class A, and is batting .273 with two homers, 25 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. 

Early this season, he produced a walk-off RBI hit for Wilmington on the same day that Dusty Baker recorded his 2,000th managing victory.

And on Saturday, Darren played at Dodger Stadium, which was his father's home park for eight of his 19 major-league seasons as a player.

Now the 23-year-old Darren Baker is trying to make it to the same level. It's considerably different from college ball.

“It’s more just just the grind of playing every day," he said, according to an AP story by way of the Charlotte Observer. "It’s a lot of games.” 

But his relationship with his father has not changed.

"I feel like he’s more like a best friend, even though he is my dad," Darren Baker said. "Just a respectful man, and he treats everybody the way he'd want to be treated." 

And, of course, Darren Baker will be remembered when J.T. Snow scooped up a 3-year-old Darren Baker at home plate in the 2022 World Series, saving him from injury.Blow is a photo of Darren Baker at age 13, when his father managed the Cincinnati Reds.

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Cover photo by Jayne Oncea-Kamin, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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