Dusty Baker said his life hasn’t changed much since his longtime quest to manage a World Series champion came to fruition last year.
“The only difference has been life in the world,” Baker said. “I’m noticing now more than ever that I’ve gotten smarter now, according to other people.”
After winning a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox on Sunday on the South Side, Baker‘s Astros return to Houston on Monday to begin a three-game series against the Cubs.
It might be the final time Baker faces his former team, which he managed for four memorable seasons from 2003-06.
Baker, 73, signed a one-year deal after last year’s title and doesn’t know what the future holds. The Astros could go in a different direction, or he might decide to hang it up and watch his son, Darren, play.
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Darren, a 24-year-old second baseman who was teammates with Andrew Vaughn at Cal, was hitting .346 entering Sunday with an .864 OPS at Triple-A Rochester, the top minor-league affiliate of the Washington Nationals.
Coincidentally, in Baker’s last game against the Cubs, he was managing the Nationals in a 2017 National League Division Series.
“Damn, that didn’t go our way,” he said. “That was a crazy game.”
Baker was fired after the Game 5 loss, and the Cubs haven’t won a postseason series since. He returned after two seasons of unemployment and got the Astros to the promised land, making up for all the tough times.
When Baker thinks back on his Cubs years, a flood of memories springs to mind.
Sammy Sosa’s up-and-down relationship with Cubs fans. The 2003 playoffs and the famous foul ball in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series. “In Dusty We Trusty.” The feud between the 2004 Cubs and TV announcers Steve Stone and Chip Caray. Managing the 2003 All-Star Game at U.S. Cellular Field. Derrek Lee’s wrist injury that ended their chances early in 2006. The heated battles with St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. And the hate mail he received that led to the FBI’s involvement.
“The Cubs was a good stop for me,” Baker said Sunday in the visiting manager’s office at Guaranteed Rate Field. “It wasn’t all bad. I was building a home and it was good financially. I was just getting out of some tax trouble. After I got fired, I got to see my son graduate from high school and my daughter get married in our backyard. Buried my father.”
When Cubs fans loved Baker in 2003, the year he helped turn a losing team into a division champ and brought the franchise its first postseason series win since the 1908 championship, he brought his family to games at Wrigley Field. By the end of his four-year contract, his wife, Melissa, wouldn’t bring Darren to the ballpark.
“They were booing me, and she told me to leave Darren at home because he wanted to fight everybody,” Baker said. “There were guys running around with signs to the park, ‘Fire Dusty,’ and booing every time I’d go out to the mound. People sent me threats, racial and hate mail. The FBI came to see me, and the story (in the media) was that I was trying to get some sympathy. It was crazy.
“But I blame (Tribune Co.) for that last year because they didn’t spend any money. (President) Crane Kenney said: ‘Dusty, you understand. We’re not going anywhere.’ But I didn’t know then there was an impending sale of the Tribune.
“That’s brought back memories of when I was traded from the Braves to the Dodgers. They traded us all before selling the team (to Ted Turner). Then I really understood the business of baseball, which I hadn’t thought about until I saw this Tribune move.
“You cut all the losses, sell the asset and make maximum profit. That’s what they did when I was with the Braves too. Then they sold the Cubs and got Lou (Piniella) and spent tons of money. It was like: ‘Wait a minute. Damn. OK.’
“It taught me a lot about life.”
Baker and Stone mended fences years ago, and though Baker said he has lost track of Sosa, he hopes the former slugger finds some peace with the Cubs organization.
“It’s the strangest thing because Sammy brought so much joy here for years,” he said. “He was what the Cubs had. For a while it was just Sammy.”
The Cubs were a brief but instrumental part of his long managerial career. Baker said a wall at his home in Sacramento, Calif., is devoted exclusively to Cubs memorabilia. A painting of Billy Williams, Ernie Banks and Lou Brock before Brock was traded to the Cardinals. A photo of Williams, Ron Santo, Fergie Jenkins and Ryne Sandberg. The scoresheet from Greg Maddux’s 300th win.
It didn’t end the way he envisioned. But Baker said the good times in 2003 and most of ‘04 were as good as it gets and outweighed the bad times.
Back in the summer of 2006, when Baker was on the hot seat and about to lose his job, I asked if his experience in Chicago had changed him.
“It just makes me stronger and more confident because of the trials that have been here,” he said. “You’re trying to mix and match every day. The tough part is when somebody gives up a homer and you get chastised, or if a guy doesn’t do this or that, you get chastised for him not doing this or that.
“But as a leader, hey, if the team doesn’t get the job done, then, hey, man, it falls on you. Whether it’s right or wrong, fair or unfair, it doesn’t matter.”
Those are words any manager can relate to.
The Cubs were a part of a long and winding journey that led to Baker finally fulfilling his dream in 2022. But there will be no time for looking back this week when his Astros face the Cubs at Minute Maid Field.
He already made his peace with Chicago.
Hopefully Cubs fans have made their peace with him.
In today’s 10 a.m. video, columnist Ben Hochman discusses the Cardinals new pitching coach and the World Series. Also, a happy birthday shoutout to former Cards reliever Mitch Harris! And, as always, Hochman picks a random St. Louis Cards card from the hat. Ten Hochman is presented by Window Nation!