Dusty Baker’s Boys Are Going Hard To Complete the Houston Astros Redemption Song | The Ring Is The Thing

Dusty Baker’s Boys Are Going Hard To Complete the Houston Astros Redemption Song | The Ring Is The Thing

by | Oct 22, 2022 | THE LEAD OFF

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – There is only one thing that Dusty Baker needs to do in order to statistically cement his legacy as one of the greatest managers the game has ever seen: win a World Series. He’s already established his value among the greatest skippers, and he’s said time and again that a World Series win would be sweet, but it doesn’t make or break his legacy or his feelings about an illustrious career that has lasted decades. 

After pulling off a 3-2 win against the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series, the Astros have a commanding 2-0 series lead heading to the Bronx. Now they are only two wins from returning to the Fall Classic, which would be their fourth time in six years. 

If the Astros hold on and win this series, it will be Baker’s third World Series appearance in his managerial career, with this season being the second straight crack at a ring. Baker has done everything you can ask a manager to do. He has led five different teams to division titles, he is only one of nine managers to win pennants in both leagues, one of 12 to have at least 2,000 managerial wins, and has won the manager of the year in the NL three times. 

 

 

His influence on the culture and spot in Cooperstown is secured when he decides to call it quits, but the ring is still vital to his resumé so that his career can be kept in proper historical perspective moving forward. 

When people argue who the greatest of all-time is, not just for best MLB manager, but for participants in any pro sport, the ones who are always in that conversation all have rings, because at the end of the day, championships are the number one thing anyone looks at over any statistic. 

Of course, there are plenty of all-time greats that have never won it all, but they are never considered to be the greatest since they were never able to help bring a team to the promised land. So that is the historical conundrum that Dusty Baker finds himself in right now. 

Baker definitely will be considered an all-time great, but he will not be a contender for greatest of all time. 

If there was any team that could finally help Baker get over that edge, it would be the 2022 Houston Astros. They are playing a Yankees team that had a very underachieving second half of the season, and the Astros are in command of the series. If the Stros do advance, then they would face a sub-90-win NL pennant winner and would be huge favorites in that series.

But all of what happened in the regular season does not matter. The teams that are successful in October are the ones who are hot at the right time. But the best part for Baker is, he’s not leading a team that’s just hot, he’s leading a team that is absolutely scorching, as they have not lost in this postseason yet.

 

 

If he just wins one championship, just one, whether it is with the Astros, or another team in the future, then he will get his seat at that exclusive table of the greatest managers of all time. If he doesn’t, he’ll have to settle for being a living legend whose contributions to the game and baseball culture are equaled by few, if any.  

“I Call Him Grande. He Comes Up Big”| Dusty Baker’s Boys Making Quick Work Of Seattle Mariners Behind Their OG Manager’s Savvy & Power Bat Of Yordan Alvarez

“I Call Him Grande. He Comes Up Big”| Dusty Baker’s Boys Making Quick Work Of Seattle Mariners Behind Their OG Manager’s Savvy & Power Bat Of Yordan Alvarez

by | Oct 14, 2022 | THE LEAD OFF

The Astros are running through the Seattle Mariners like a knife through butter thanks to the Hall of Fame managerial prowess of Dusty Baker and the emergence of a certain 25-year-old Cuban missile launcher.

Baker’s Boys look ready to put this series to bed early, rest up and wait for the Yankees and Cleveland to slug it out. The Astros lead the best-of-5 American League Division Series 2-0 over Seattle after Thursday’s 4-2 win at Minute Maid Park.

Game 3 is set for Saturday afternoon in Seattle, the first playoff game the Emerald City has hosted since 2001.

The Astros won Game 2 despite collecting just six hits in a pitchers’ duel, where Baker continues to make all of the right moves while Seattle’s novice manager Scott Servais, in his seventh season at the helm and managing in his first playoffs, has failed to be as shrewd as the living legend manning the Astros bench.

It also helps for Dusty to have a superstar slugger like Yordan Alvarez to blast balls into orbit at the most clutch times.  Alvarez — fresh off his wild walkoff homer in Game 1 — provided another huge hit, a two-run homer to the Crawford Boxes in left field. That opposite-field blast with two outs in the sixth inning off Mariners starter Luis Castillo put the Astros ahead for good, 3-2.

 

 

The 2019 American League Rookie of the Year finished the season third in the AL in homers behind Mike Trout (40) and Aaron Judge (62). Baker has coached a trailer load of Hall of Famers and All-Stars and clutch performers in his 30 years as a manager. The 73-year-old MLBbro icon has 2,093 career wins to show for it. Baker’s had the pleasure of managing Barry Bonds, when MLB’s home run king was posting video game numbers, so he’s not going to give a player a nickname or be impressed unless that player made an impact that is rare and historically noteworthy.

“I call him Grande,” Baker said, referring to Alvarez “He comes up big. We love having him at the plate. He likes to be in the big moment. His concentration and discipline is way ahead of his years.”

 

 

Houston is desperately trying to get back to the World Series after the Atlanta Braves upset them and thwarted Dusty’s World Series dreams in 2021. This Houston team has better pitching led by a Hall of Fame arm in Justin Verlander, and a secret weapon who is choosing the perfect stage to establish his booming presence as a rising superstar in the game. Dusty hasn’t had a power threat of this caliber at his disposal since Bonds and he hasn’t had a team this potent (106 regular season wins) maybe ever. This is just the second time that Dusty has navigated a squad to more than 100 wins. He had 103 in 1993, his rookie season in San Francisco.