Dusty Baker Takes Job Managing Houston Astros in Midst of the Electronic Sign Stealing Scandal

Home » Dusty Baker Takes Job Managing Houston Astros in Midst of the Electronic Sign Stealing Scandal

4 years ago 0 512

Dusty Baker Takes Job Managing Houston Astros in Midst of the Electronic Sign Stealing Scandal

Dusty Baker and the Houston Astros have agreed to terms making him the next manager of the Texas team. This is his fifth manager position within Major League Baseball, but first time managing in the American League. Baker previously managed the San Francisco Giants, the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Washington Nationals all in the National League of the MLB.

While managing in the big leagues, Baker was named the National League Manager of the Year three times. The first in 1993 with the San Francisco Giants, the second time in 1997 with the Giants, and again for the third time in San Francisco for the 2000 MLB regular season. He and Barry Bonds led the Giants to the World Series in 2002, but his team did not win that series as the Anaheim Angels had a magical year winning the 2002 World Series in 7 crazy games.

While with the Chicago Cubs Dusty Baker took them to the brink of winning the National League pennant in 2003, before that historic meltdown took place in Chicago where the team was up 3 games to one game before losing the last three consecutive contests to the Florida Marlins at that time. His stints with the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals were both fairly unsuccessful.

Now the Astros are asking Baker to step in and manage their team who just fired their previous manager, AJ Hinch, after Major League Baseball suspended him for the 2020 MLB season due to the Astros involvement in electronic sign stealing scandal during the 2017 season in which Houston won the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven dramatic games.

Baker has a great core of solid baseball players, but let’s see how they play without cheating anymore. It will be interesting to see if these young mostly Hispanic ball players of the Houston Astros respond to the old managerial style of Dusty Baker as a long time African American baseball manager in the MLB.

Baseball Playing Career:

Dusty Baker graced Major League Baseball as a player from his start in 1968 with the Atlanta Braves (1968 – 1975) up until 1986 with the Oakland Athletics (1985 – 1986). He also played the outfield for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1976 to 1983 and the San Francisco Giants in 1984. Baker carried a career batting average of .278, with 242 career home runs, as well as 1,013 career runs batted in. Dusty was named to the MLB All Star team twice (1981, 1982). He was a World Series Champion in 1981 with the LA Dodgers. In 1977, he was voted the NLCS MVP. Baker won the Gold Glove Award in 1981, and the Silver Slugger Award in 1980 and 1981.

More about: Betting and Gaming Council warns 10pm COVID-19 curfew will negatively impact casino employees

Big League Managerial Record:

San Francisco Giants (1993 – 2002) 840 Wins – 715 Loses

Chicago Cubs (2003 – 2006) 322 Wins – 326 Loses

Cincinnati Reds (2008 – 2013) 509 Wins – 463 Loses

Washington Nationals (2016 – 2017) 192 Wins – 132 Loses

Houston Astros (2020 – ?) N/A

Managerial Statistics:

Managerial Tendencies:

						Stealing 2nd				Stealing 3rd				Sac Bunts				Intentional Walks				Substitutions
Rk	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	Ch	Att	Rate	Rate+	Ch	Att	Rate	Rate+	Ch	Att	Rate	Rate+	PA	IBB	Rate	Rate+	PH/G	PH/G+	PR/G	PR/G+	P/G	P/G+
1	1993	44	SFG	NL	162	1414	130	9.2%	88	995	21	2.1%	88	1355	46	3.4%	138	6077	46	0.8%	89	1.36	92	0.14	84	3.6	106
2	1994	45	SFG	NL	115	1017	122	12.0%	114	658	18	2.7%	143	928	29	3.1%	150	4369	40	0.9%	102	1.44	96	0.18	106	3.5	103
3	1995	46	SFG	NL	144	1213	134	11.0%	108	945	21	2.2%	74	1216	44	3.6%	152	5672	51	0.9%	114	1.51	98	0.17	115	3.6	102
4	1996	47	SFG	NL	162	1387	133	9.6%	94	1033	22	2.1%	82	1369	36	2.6%	129	6330	60	0.9%	113	1.39	89	0.10	59	3.6	103
5	1997	48	SFG	NL	162	1438	161	11.2%	104	996	22	2.2%	87	1418	33	2.3%	100	6284	57	0.9%	128	1.48	96	0.12	62	4.0	112
6	1998	49	SFG	NL	163	1417	136	9.6%	109	1051	14	1.3%	70	1455	31	2.1%	87	6362	68	1.1%	167	1.39	92	0.12	78	3.7	107
7	1999	50	SFG	NL	162	1484	153	10.3%	102	1099	18	1.6%	69	1452	32	2.2%	106	6430	41	0.6%	95	1.69	110	0.13	80	3.8	105
8	2000	51	SFG	NL	162	1412	104	7.4%	86	984	14	1.4%	87	1378	29	2.1%	113	6270	26	0.4%	57	1.50	100	0.17	85	3.4	95
9	2001	52	SFG	NL	162	1382	96	6.9%	79	1006	13	1.3%	79	1372	24	1.7%	77	6294	49	0.8%	91	1.51	101	0.20	105	3.7	100
10	2002	53	SFG	NL	162	1372	94	6.9%	78	968	8	0.8%	49	1338	24	1.8%	73	6056	44	0.7%	76	1.43	94	0.19	109	3.6	94

11	2003	54	CHC	NL	162	1369	99	7.2%	100	993	8	0.8%	59	1378	36	2.6%	123	6227	36	0.6%	73	1.54	104	0.12	80	3.6	94
12	2004	55	CHC	NL	162	1317	105	8.0%	102	964	11	1.1%	76	1240	46	3.7%	147	6262	33	0.5%	61	1.51	101	0.16	90	3.8	99
13	2005	56	CHC	NL	162	1365	107	7.8%	102	959	13	1.4%	98	1281	38	3.0%	117	6185	48	0.8%	101	1.40	93	0.13	78	3.8	101
14	2006	57	CHC	NL	162	1309	137	10.5%	122	952	15	1.6%	109	1272	39	3.1%	130	6366	44	0.7%	79	1.49	98	0.09	51	4.3	109

15	2008	59	CIN	NL	162	1355	108	8.0%	109	1010	18	1.8%	98	1346	28	2.1%	111	6352	40	0.6%	80	1.59	99	0.13	83	4.1	102
16	2009	60	CIN	NL	162	1296	116	9.0%	118	980	16	1.6%	102	1337	37	2.8%	139	6253	36	0.6%	74	1.48	97	0.09	82	4.0	98
17	2010	61	CIN	NL	162	1402	109	7.8%	91	994	13	1.3%	93	1350	27	2.0%	102	6182	32	0.5%	67	1.53	100	0.09	71	4.1	102
18	2011	62	CIN	NL	162	1378	112	8.1%	87	1028	16	1.6%	87	1357	29	2.1%	95	6259	47	0.8%	96	1.44	96	0.17	96	4.1	102
19	2012	63	CIN	NL	162	1313	111	8.5%	91	912	17	1.9%	92	1192	19	1.6%	91	6056	33	0.5%	88	1.38	91	0.14	99	3.6	89
20	2013	64	CIN	NL	162	1316	75	5.7%	79	954	12	1.3%	82	1270	31	2.4%	128	6077	28	0.5%	76	1.49	102	0.11	95	3.8	96

21	2016	67	WSN	NL	162	1330	90	6.8%	86	906	27	3.0%	141	1267	17	1.3%	103	6036	43	0.7%	110	1.35	89	0.12	96	4.1	96
22	2017	68	WSN	NL	162	1280	100	7.8%	111	868	25	2.9%	180	1180	7	0.6%	51	6068	39	0.6%	102	1.38	88	0.13	124	4.0	94
	SFG (10 years)				1556	13536	1263	9.3%	96	9735	171	1.8%	81	13281	328	2.5%	110	60144	482	0.8%	101	1.47	97	0.15	87	3.6	103
	CHC (4 years)				648	5360	448	8.4%	107	3868	47	1.2%	85	5171	159	3.1%	129	25040	161	0.6%	78	1.48	99	0.13	75	3.9	101
	CIN (6 years)				972	8060	631	7.8%	95	5878	92	1.6%	93	7852	171	2.2%	111	37179	216	0.6%	80	1.48	98	0.12	88	4.0	98
	WSN (2 years)				324	2610	190	7.3%	97	1774	52	2.9%	157	2447	24	1.0%	80	12104	82	0.7%	106	1.36	88	0.12	108	4.1	95
	22 years				3500	29566	2532	8.6%	98	21255	362	1.7%	91	28751	682	2.4%	113	134467	941	0.7%	91	1.47	97	0.13	86	3.8	100

More about: Financial Report Finds Marina Bay Sands the Leading Gaming Brand Worth $6.16 Billion

Media Statements:

“You got to go forward and make sure that it doesn’t happen again,” Baker goes on to say, “It certainly is not going to happen on my watch here, and I don’t foresee it happening ever again because this has been an embarrassment for a lot of people.”

“I was happy, but I wasn’t satisfied, where I was and what I was doing because something’s missing,” Dusty explained. “And I think the Lord gave me the best chance to accomplish what I need as a person, as a father, and as a man.”

“Dusty’s a person of high integrity and he’s a respected leader,” says owner of the Houston Astros Jim Crane. “He has great baseball experience, and he will earn the players’ trust.”

“Hiring Dusty Baker is one big step for us to move forward,” Crane proclaimed. “And I believe Dusty is the right person at the right time.”

“This is my last hurrah,” says Baker. “And I thought my last hurrah was in Washington, actually, because I gave all my stuff away. I went to find my shoes, went up to the attic and I found the empty bag. … So this is a new beginning for me.”

“We’re going to go with what we have because it’s pretty good,” Dusty responded.

“But I’m hoping that what we do will motivate other coaches and players to try to strive to get to where I am,” says Baker. “And also hopefully this will incite other owners to say, ‘Hey man, these guys are pretty good at what they do, these guys are the best.”’