Ping your beisbol peeps.
I’m torn between hating Dusty Baker and wanting him to win one anyway for some reason.
Didn’t Baker win a WS as a player?
1981 Dodgers….
So far this year in the MLB Playoffs, I’m 75%.
I have the Astros as the 4th best team in the MLB and Atlanta as the 7th best. Both are tied for #7 pitching strength but the Astros are the #1 scoring team and Atlanta #8, so the Astros are favored.
But this is the playoffs where things happen quickly. Right now, it looks like Atlanta is on a roll. We’ll see.
Say what do you guys think about no Red-White-and-Blue draperies around the ballpark like they do every World Series and of course with Jack Buck & Media Co., mum’s the word. Dang, man, it’s kind of a big deal isn’t it?
What gives?...I’m afraid to ask.
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When I was a teenager, I loved to listen to the home team (Atlanta AAA team) local baseball games. I can remember summer nights, working on homework, window open (we had no AC), smelling the fresh cut grass, hearing the sounds of birds, crickets, kids playing out in the yards .... and Braves baseball.
Baker played for the Atlanta AAA team in our town for two seasons. For some reason, his name 'Dusty' fascinated me ... not John, Tom, Mike or whatever. Of course, he was a really good player as well and did the team a lot of good.
Baker continued to move up through the Braves system in 1969. In between his time in the Marine reserves, he played in Class AA Shreveport and Class AAA Richmond. Baker hit .285 with 11 home runs and 61 RBIs that year. He also made an appearance with the Braves in three games near the end of the season.
The Braves were so confident in Baker that they promoted him to their Class AAA team, the Richmond Braves, in 1970. He played in 118 games for Richmond, played outfield, and batted .325. Baker also spent the 1971 season in Richmond. He continued to provide a solid bat for the team, hitting .311 that year. The Braves called him up again in September and he started in 20 games.
For sentimental reasons, I'm rooting for Dusty. My cousin used to live in Houston, so I sort of like the Astros as well. Watched the Braves win their place in the World Series ... like them, too. Astros have the edge with me, but I won't be disappointed if Atlanta wins.
Earlier today, I was talking about 'Chief Noc-A-Homa'.
“I’m torn between hating Dusty Baker and wanting him to win one anyway for some reason.”
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I feel the same way. I think that Dusty Baker is the dumbest manager since Bobby Cox, and blame him for the Cubs inability to during the years in which he managed the team (and for years thereafter, since he destroyed the right arms of Mark Prior and Kerry Wood and got rid of several promising young players). But I also think that he’s a nice guy, someone with deep love and appreciation for the game, and a tragic figure for whom a World Series victory in his 70s would be joyful beyond words.
While part of me wishes that he didn’t win the World Series because it likely would lead to his election to the Hall of Fame despite being unworthy of induction, my brain tells me that it wouldn’t make a difference in the long run, because he’s going to get inducted into the “Harold Baines Wing” of the HOF anyhow. (Impy, that dig at the White Sox was only partly gratuitous. : )
BTW, I actually met Dusty when I was a ten-year-old kid. I went to a baseball (day) summer camp, and Dusty was a guest instructor for a day (he was near the end of his very successful run as the Dodgers’ left fielder). The one thing that he taught us that I still remember was to fold up my glove as if it was a triptych instead of folding it as it was a taco. What we should avoid, Dusty explained, was having a glove that was flat (and thus harder to open and close), and he took the glove from one of the kids and mocked it for looking and feeling like a pancake. That definitely changed the way that I worked in, and stored, gloves from then onwards.
Some trivia: Dusty Baker, who won his only Gold Glove in 1981, was the only primary left fielder to win an NL Gold Glove Award between 1961 and 1989. (Wally Moon won a Gold Glove as the Dodgers’ LF in 1960, and Barry Bonds won the first of his eight Gold Gloves in 1990.)