Former SF Giants Dusty Baker and Mauricio Dubón win World Series with Astros
The Houston Astros defeated the Philadelphia Phillies to win the World Series, and Johnnie B. “Dusty” Baker Jr. finally won a title as a manager. He’d been to the Fall Classic twice before, with the Astros last year and as the SF Giants manager back in 2002. And now Dusty is the oldest manager to win the World Series for the first time, because he’s the oldest manager to ever win it at all.
Former SF Giants outfielder Mauricio Dubón celebrates in the dugout with the Astros. (2022)
Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
Former Giant Mauricio Dubón also won his first ring, helping Houston as the Astros designated late-innings outfield defensive replacement. Dubón appeared in two games but didn’t take a single at-bat. The only chance he handled was fielding Alec Bohm’s fly ball in the ninth inning of Houston’s Game 2 win. The Giants traded Dubón to the Astros for catcher Mike Papierski earlier this year.
The Giants got Dubon at the trade deadline in 2019. He played quality defense at shortstop, second base, and center field, though his hitting and base running were often lackluster. Still, he won a AAA championship with the Sacramento Rivercats last year and was a contributor on the Giants’ record-setting team in 2021.
Dusty Baker broke into baseball in 1968 as a 19-year-old center fielder with the Atlanta Braves and became a regular in 1972, playing alongside Hank Aaron and future Giants coach Sonny Jackson. He became a star after a trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he won three World Series. He also won a pair of Silver Sluggers, a Gold Glove, and made two All-Star Games. Baker hit really well for a bad Giants team in 1984 before finishing his career with the Oakland A’s in 1985-86.
Baker became a stockbroker after his retirement, but then SF Giants general manager Al Rosen persuaded him to take a job as the team’s first base coach, and later hitting coach. Those Giants reached the World Series in 1989, and when new ownership took over late in 1992, Baker became the new manager, a job he’d hold for ten years. His first season saw the Giants win 103 games and miss the playoffs in heart-breaking fashion.
Baker won Manager of the Year in his first season, won it again when the Giants surprisingly took the NL West in 1997, and won a third time when they won the division in 2000. They also lost a wild-card playoff game in 1998 - thanks Neifi Perez - and reached the World Series in his final season, 2002.
Dusty had a few trademarks - sunglasses, the ever-present toothpick in his mouth - but his real strength was using his whole roster. He maximized an aging Ellis Burks by using Armando Rios as his legs, leaned on super subs like Ramon Martinez, and extended J.T. Snow’s career by convincing him to stop switch-hitting. Baker also managed Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent for six years and they only had ONE fistfight, a master class in diplomacy.
But the Giants fell short in the playoffs. In 1997, there was nothing he could do about a one-year powerhouse of a Florida Marlins team. In 2000, Shawn Estes forgot to slide, Rios tried to go second-to-third on a grounder to short, and the Giants couldn’t solve pitcher Bobby Jones. Two of the three losses came in extra innings.
He made the World Series in 2002 as a wild-card team, defeating Bobby Cox’s Braves and Tony La Russa’s Cardinals along the way. (That NLCS led to La Russa having his pitchers throw at Kenny Lofton for years, because Lofton celebrated a home run too emphatically). In the World Series, Baker made two crucial mistakes: He handed Russ Ortiz the game ball in Game 6, when he pulled him with a 5-0 lead in the 7th inning. And then he started Livan Hernandez over Kirk Rueter in Game 7.
The Giants parted ways with Dusty after the season, and he led the Cubs to the NLCS - their first series win in the postseason in 95 years. But it fell apart in another Game Six when Steve Bartman possibly robbed an out from Moises Alou, Alex Gonzalez botched a ground ball, and the Marlins rallied to win the final two games.
He took other teams to the playoffs, too. The Cincinnati Reds won their division in 2010 and 2012, falling to Roy Halladay’s no-hitter and Buster Posey’s grand slam, respectively. Amazingly, Dusty has been on both sides of a playoff no-hitter now, after Cristian Javier & Company’s masterful performance in Game Four this year. The Reds lost the wild-card game in 2013, and Dusty’s Washington Nationals lost to the Cubs in 2017.
Houston hired Baker for the 2020 season after A.J. Hinch was fired in the wake of the Astros cheating schedule. They reached the ALCS in 2020, lost the World Series in 2021, and finally won it all this year.
Along the way, Baker beat cancer, started a solar energy company, overcame heart problems and a mini-stroke, founded his own winery, and won over 2,000 games. He made his young son (Darren Baker) a legendary bat boy after the cancer scare - where J.T. Snow saved his life scooping him up from home plate in the 2002 Series - and now Baker is playing in the Nationals organization.
Baker became a target for analytically-minded critics for his perceived “pitcher abuse” and seemingly not encouraging walks. But his teams walked a lot! And some of the pitchers he’s blamed for “ruining” either didn’t pitch for him long (Kerry Wood) or pitched a full decade after Dusty’s abuse (Livan Hernandez).
Perhaps at age 73, after finally winning a managerial ring, Baker will get proper credit for being a really good MLB manager for three decades. He didn’t have to validate his career with this championship - but it’s nice that he did.
