Baker, Dusty 1949–

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Dusty Baker 1949–

Professional baseball manager

Dusty Baker, who directed the San Francisco Giants to 103 victories in his first season as manager, was named 1993 Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America. The prestigious award was bestowed in recognition of Baker’s accomplishments in rebuilding and restoring a floundering Giants franchise—no mean feat for a first-time manager. His recognition was well-deserved.

Baker, who himself played in the major leagues from 1972 until 1986, is perceived as a disciplinarian with an extensive knowledge of baseball and the ability to communicate his knowledge to both players and coaches. He is one of the most popular athletes in the history of Northern California, having spent most of his life in the Golden State. In a Knight-Ridder wire story, columnist Amy Niedzielka commented that Baker helped reverse the Giants’ fortunes because his personality “is like a spider’s web, simultaneously soft and sturdy…. He puts everyone at ease.”

Life has not always run smoothly for Baker, however. A top player for a Los Angeles Dodgers franchise that made three trips to the World Series, he was stigmatized by unproven drug abuse allegations that shortened his playing career. After more than a decade in the major leagues, he “retired” from baseball in 1986, embittered and disappointed by the treatment he had received.

When offered an opportunity to coach with the Giants in 1988, he decided to lay the bitterness behind him and begin anew, quietly planning to become a major league manager at some point. Baker told the Los Angeles Times that his experience with the Dodgers marked a real turning point in his personal development. “It can either eat you up, or you can get on with your life,” he said. “It hurt then. It doesn’t hurt any more.” In fact, he added, being given the opportunity to manage a team like the Giants “is like getting [an energizing] Vitamin B shot. We know we have a chance to create something special.”

Father a Disciplinarian

Baker was born Johnnie B. Baker, Jr. in Riverside, California. The nickname “Dusty” was earned in infancy, when he showed a penchant for eating dirt from the family’s backyard. The oldest of five children in a household where both parents worked, Baker was often called upon to manage his unruly siblings. When things went wrong—as they often did—Dusty would be punished. His father, a

At a Glance…

Born Johnnie B. Baker, Jr., June 15, 1949, in Riverside, CA; son of Johnnie B. (a defense industry worker) and Christine (a professor) Baker; divorced, former wife’s name Harriet; children: Natosha. Education: Attended American River College, Sacramento, CA.

Professional baseball player, 1967-86; drafted by Atlanta Braves, 1967. Atlanta Braves, outfielder, 1972-75; Los Angeles Dodgers, outfielder, 1976-84; San Francisco Giants, outfielder, 1984-85, first-base coach, 1988-89, hitting coach, 1989-93, manager, 1993—; Oakland A’s, outfielder and designated hitter, 1985-86. Investment broker, Conli, Michaels, Inc., 1987.

Selected Awards: Named to National League All-Star team, 1981, 1982; named to Silver Slugger team, 1980, 1981 ; Cold Glove winner, 1981 ; inducted to Sacramento Sports Hall of Fame; voted a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers all-time team by fans, 1990; manager of the year, Baseball Writers Association of America, 1993.

Addresses: Office —San Francisco Giants, Candlestick Park, San Francisco, CA 94124.

veteran of World War II, believed in rigid punishment when warranted, including whippings with a switch. For his part, Johnnie B. Baker, Sr. felt that by being strict he might save his son from bad influences in the neighborhood. “They say I was quite hard on [Dusty],” the elder Baker told the San Jose Mercury News. “But a lot of these [neighborhood) kids, if they’re not dead, they’re in jail. Dusty had discipline in his life.”

Dusty’s father encouraged the children to participate in sports and was the neighborhood’s Little League coach. Their Little League team featured the two highly-motivated Baker sons and another talented local youngster, Bobby Bonds. In comparison to Bonds, Dusty’s talents did not seem particularly outstanding. He had to work harder, but with his father’s prodding, Dusty mastered the skills of baseball.

When Baker was a high school junior, his father took a job at McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento. The family moved into an all-white neighborhood in Carmichael, where the residents actually “voted” on whether or not to admit them. Baker and his siblings became the only black students at Del Campo High School. There Dusty immediately excelled at football, baseball, and track, but he still faced racism at every turn.

“Being the only black dude in high school the last two years, me and my little brother, my temper came out,” he told Niedzielka. “We’d play black schools and they’d be on me because I was playing with white guys. Playing the white schools, they’d get on me for being a black dude. I was fighting at the drop of a dime.” Baker’s sports prowess brought him some popularity at Del Campo High, but he still had few close friends and was painfully aware that some of the white children in his new neighborhood were forbidden to play with him and his siblings.

Baker’s parents divorced, when he was a senior in high school. He stayed with his mother and planned to attend college on an athletic scholarship. Then in June of 1967, he was drafted by the Atlanta Braves as their 26th pick and offered a contract and a signing bonus. The prospect of ready money, as opposed to a scholarship, was too tempting. Baker signed with the Braves and reported to a minor league team in Austin, Texas—without telling his father what he had done. When the elder Baker discovered what had happened, he took the Braves to court and tried to have the contract voided. He did not win, but he was able to secure Dusty’s signing bonus and place it in a trust fund until Dusty turned 21. Father and son did not speak for three years.

They have since reconciled, and Johnnie Baker, Sr. told the San Jose Mercury News that his son has come to see the wisdom of his decision. “I saw kids come out [of the minor leagues] just like they went in—broke,” he said. “They’d borrow on next year’s salary. I wanted to make sure he was taken care of. I don’t regret it. I guess everything worked out pretty well.”

Tutored by a Superstar

Dusty Baker began his professional playing career on minor league teams in the Deep South. He soon learned that his hair-trigger temper would not serve him well in situations of blatant discrimination. Although legally sanctioned racism, or “Jim Crow” laws had long ago been repealed, he discovered that he was not able to rent apartments where the rest of his white teammates stayed. Nor was he always able to frequent the bars and restaurants where they ate and drank. Having grown up in the relatively tolerant environment of California, he was stunned by the racism he faced in the South.

Help came in the form of advice from the Braves’ biggest star, Henry Aaron. Aaron, who faced more than his share of racism as he broke Babe Ruth’s record for home runs, saw to it that Baker kept his head without sacrificing his pride. At a time when Baker’s relationship with his father was strained, Aaron became a valued parental figure. “He talked to me all the time about everything,” Baker told the San Jose Mercury News. “He told me about the Negro League. About how to be a man. About how to play in pain. About how to play the game in your head.”

Baker advanced quickly through the minor leagues and was called to Atlanta for two prolonged visits before finally making the club permanently in 1972. He performed well with the Braves, batting .321 in 1972 and .288 with 99 runs batted in during 1973, but he still was not happy in the South. Therefore, Baker was overjoyed when he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the autumn of 1975. Playing for a California team meant going home to his family and friends. It would mean even more as he found himself situated on a championship squad.

High Times and Hard Times

Baker’s years with the Dodgers neatly coincided with that team’s surge into multiple playoff and World Series appearances. He appeared in four league championship series—1977, 1978, 1981, and 1983—and was named National League championship series Most Valuable Player in 1977, after hitting .357 with two home runs and eight RBI, including a grand slam. He went on that same year to hit .292 in the World Series with four runs on seven hits, with one home run.

In Los Angeles, Baker came to be known as “Dr. Scald” for his ability to burn pitchers with clean hits in clutch situations. He was also admired for his defensive play, earning a Gold Glove in 1981. Perhaps most important, in the wake of nagging injuries that never completely sidelined him, Baker began transforming himself from a physical to a mental player. Taking Aaron’s advice, he played the game in his head and learned tactical skills that would serve him well in his secondary career as coach and manager.

Twice Baker was named to the National League All-Star team, in 1981 and 1982. He batted .316 in the 1981 National League championship series and appeared in all six games as the Dodgers won the World Series that same year. In 1982 he batted .300 for the season and compiled 88 RBI. The next year, however, his stay in Los Angeles began to turn sour.

His batting average dropped 40 points and by the end of the season, rumors of his drug use began circulating. Baker hotly denied the allegations: “L.A. is the rumor capital of the world,” he told the San Jose Mercury News. “All I know is the rumors didn’t come out until I refused a trade.” Baker has said that he thinks the rumors of drug abuse, which were never proven, substantially shortened his playing career. “It affected me,” he added. “It affected my family, it probably cost me a couple of million dollars. I learned who my friends were.” Baker also explained in the Los Angeles Times that he felt he was being “edged out” of baseball before he was ready to go.

Before the 1984 season commenced, Los Angeles freed Baker from his contract, and he signed with the San Francisco Giants as a free agent. He spent one season there and finished his career by playing with the Oakland Athletics for two seasons. Baker retired in 1986. Upon retirement Baker admitted, “I was a little disgruntled. I didn’t really know if I wanted to stay in baseball. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.” He worked for one year with his brother in an investment brokerage, and he spent time indulging his passions for hunting and fishing. Eventually baseball beckoned again, and Baker put his bitterness aside to return.

Five-Year Plan

The first offer came to Baker in 1987, from Al Rosen, the president of the Giants. However, the offer was made at a time when Baker was undergoing a divorce, and he did not follow up on it. Soon thereafter, Baker ran into the owner of the Giants at a lodge in Lake Arrowhead, who urged him to come aboard with San Francisco. This time Baker accepted. He began his second career in 1988, as the first base coach with the Giants. At the time he quietly resolved to become a manager somewhere in the big leagues within five years. Time passed, and he became the hitting coach for the Giants, but the team was thriving under manager Roger Craig.

At the start of the 1990s, turmoil enveloped the Giants franchise. A group of investors tried to purchase the team and move it to St. Petersburg, Florida. Simultaneously, concerned citizens in San Francisco mounted a campaign to keep the team in town under new ownership. The uncertainty affected everyone in the organization, from the front office personnel down to the players. The Giants, who had appeared in the 1989 World Series, finished their 1992 campaign with more losses than wins. Local entrepreneurs bought the franchise and kept it in San Francisco, but manager Craig was fired. Baker was chosen to replace him in December of 1992. Baker’s five-year plan to become manager had been fulfilled.

At the time, the selection of Baker was somewhat controversial. His hands-on experience as a manager consisted of one short season with a newly founded autumn league in Arizona, where his team finished 25-28 for fifth place in a six-team division. When asked by a San Francisco Chronicle reporter if he felt he had enough preparation to be a big-league manager, Baker responded: “Is there an aptitude test to be a manager? Are there defined qualities you have to have? Or do people have to trust in your ability to lead, direct, and fight for a common cause—which is to win? No man’s perfect. No man knows what to do until he gets there. I’m not afraid of the unknown. I welcome it.”

The 1993 Giants, employing the services of superstar Barry Bonds as a player and his father Bobby Bonds as a coach, won 103 games during the regular season. Ordinarily this would be more than enough for a team to advance to the league championship series. Unfortunately for the Giants, they shared a division with the surging Atlanta Braves, who edged them out of playoff hopes on the last day of the season. It was one of the closest pennant races in recent history.

Baker’s disappointment was only mildly soothed by his choice as 1993 Manager of the Year, just days after the World Series ended. Although his team failed to make the playoffs, it had undergone a significant transformation, one that was not lost on the voters for Manager of the Year. In effect, Baker had taken the nucleus of a sub-.500 team, with the important addition of Barry Bonds, and had enticed the team to win more victories than any Giants franchise since 1905. The San Francisco front office expressed supreme confidence in the rookie manager, who signed a two-year contract in 1993. As for Baker himself, the Manager of the Year revealed his new plan for the future in the San Jose Mercury News. “I’m changing my goals,” he said. “I would like to get into the Hall of Fame as a player [and] manager. This is the first step.”