Nearly three decades after collecting the first victory of his managerial career with the Giants, Dusty Baker became the 12th manager in major league history to reach 2,000 wins.
Baker, who spent 10 seasons with the Giants and led San Francisco to 103 wins in a remarkable debut season in 1993, earned win No. 2,000 on Tuesday evening in Houston as his Astros defeated the Seattle Mariners 4-0.
“I think about the people that made it possible for me to get in this position: my dad, Jackie Robinson, Frank Robinson, Cito Gaston – the guys who were minority managers ahead of me,” Baker told reporters following the milestone win. “You look at guys like Maury Wills and some of the guys that I know.”
Baker may still look up to those icons, but he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath.
Baker won 840 games with the Giants from 1993-2002, 322 more with the Cubs from 2003-2006, 509 with the Reds from 2008-2013 and then won 192 games over a two-year stint with the Nationals from 2016-2017.
His time as a major league manager appeared over after he was fired following back-to-back NLDS losses with Washington, but after a two-year gap, the Astros hired one of the most respected figures in the sport ahead of the 2020 season.
Baker’s task? Clean up the mess Houston created with a cheating scandal that led to the suspension and subsequent firing of manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow.
In 2021, Baker led the Astros to a 95-win season and an American League pennant, becoming the only manager in major league history to win division titles with five different clubs.
“I’ve been the luckiest person in the whole world to be amongst and in the presence of many greats on and off the field,” Baker said. “I’m probably one of the luckiest men to ever walk on this earth.”
Ten of the 11 managers who have reached the 2,000-win plateau are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, with Bruce Bochy being the exception. Bochy, who has not yet been eligible for enshrinement, has 2,003 career wins, but three World Series titles, an achievement that still eludes Baker despite taking two different teams to the Fall Classic nearly 20 years apart.
“I don’t want to stop now,” Baker said Tuesday. “I don’t know how long I’m going to manage, but I always said if I win one, I’ll win two. I hate to be a liar.”
Baker, a former Dodgers outfielder, initially joined the Giants as a first base coach in 1988 following a surprise encounter with a familiar face at a hotel at Lake Arrowhead, Calif.
“It was Bob Lurie, the owner of the Giants,” Baker told the Houston Chronicle. “He said, ‘Hey, you need to come join us.’ That was my first time there. He told me it was his first time there.”
At the time, Baker was pondering a career in coaching when Lurie invited him to San Francisco for an interview. Baker has said he desired a front-office job, but Lurie asked him to coach under then-manager Roger Craig. When Lurie sold the team to a group led by Peter Magowan in December, 1992, Craig was fired and Baker was picked to manage a Giants team that had won just 72 games in 1992 amid rumors the franchise was moving to Florida.
The Giants’ marquee acquisition of that offseason was Barry Bonds, but two weeks after the reigning NL MVP signed a record-setting contract, Baker was hired and immediately led one of the greatest turnarounds in major league history.
A 103-win season that ended with heartbreak on the final day of the regular season turned out to be just the beginning for Baker, who experienced more of it in his last days with the Giants too.
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The Giants didn’t win the 2002 World Series, but an ill-fated moment on the mound at Angel Stadium that could have defined Baker’s career is only a low point in a baseball lifetime marked by incredible highs. And for the ever-upbeat Baker, he believes better days are still ahead.
“I just think like Hank Aaron when he hit 715,” Baker said. “You just want to get it over with so we can go on about our business.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com