Dusty Baker has retired as supervisor of the Houston Astros, he informed USA These days on Wednesday, finishing an illustrious 26-year occupation as a fat league skipper highlighted by way of a International Layout win utmost season.
“I’m very thankful and grateful to Jim Crane and the Houston Astros for giving me this chance, and to win a championship,” Baker, 74, told USA Today in an interview. “I felt like they’ve been just right for me, and I’ve been just right for them.
“What I really appreciate is that Jim has been totally honest and transparent with me on all things.”
Baker’s resolution comes two days next the Astros misplaced to the Texas Rangers in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
A news conference is scheduled for Thursday.
“Dusty Baker is a legend on this game,” Houston shortstop Jeremy Pena stated Monday night time. “I’ve cherished each and every unmarried occasion that I’ve gotten to proportion with him in this ballclub. He’s been stunning for me. He’s proven such a lot self assurance in me. He’s been a stunning supervisor.”
Baker was hired by Crane in the winter of 2020, after the sign-stealing scandal erupted and led to the firings of manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow.
Baker did exactly what Crane had hoped for, deflecting attention away from a group of players who were besieged by boos in all ballparks other than Houston’s Minute Maid Park, while fostering continued success. The Astros reached the ALCS in 2020, secured the league pennant in 2021 and won the World Series — Baker’s first as a manager — in 2022.
After signing a one-year extension, Baker guided the Astros to a 90-72 mark during the regular season — winning the AL West division title via tiebreaker on the final day of the season — before taking the club to its seventh consecutive ALCS.
Baker also won the World Series with the 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers during his 19 seasons as a player — just one of seven to have won a ring doing both, joining Alex Cora, Joe Girardi, Davey Johnson, Lou Piniella, Dave Roberts and Mike Scioscia.
The toothpick chewer and epic storyteller was a lifelong friend of Hank Aaron, who died in 2021. They were teammates on the Atlanta Braves.
“I really like profitable,” Baker said after last season’s World Series title. “I’m simply telling you, I really like profitable more than likely greater than the rest. I’m spoiled by way of profitable.”
He has done a lot of it during a lifetime in baseball.
Baker, who will be eligible for the Hall of Fame in three seasons, ranks seventh all time with 2,183 regular-season wins with the Astros, San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals.
He is the 12th manager in major league history to reach 2,000 wins and the first Black man to do it. Ten of the 11 other managers who have accumulated at least 2,000 wins are in the Hall of Fame; Rangers manager Bruce Bochy (2,093 wins), who isn’t yet eligible, is the only exception.
Baker’s 57 postseason wins — over 13 postseason appearances — rank fourth all time, just ahead of Bochy (53).
Baker’s team in San Francisco, with star Barry Bonds, entered Game 6 of the 2002 World Series against the Angels needing just one win for the title. As the road team for the last two games of that series, the Giants squandered a five-run lead in a 6-5 loss in the sixth game before the Angels won the title with a 4-1 victory in Game 7.
After being fired by the Nationals following a 97-win season in 2017, Baker wondered if he’d ever get another shot to manage, much less win that elusive title.
Back home in California, as he worked on his wine business and grew collard greens in his garden, he often felt perplexed he had been passed over for interviews so many times as managerial openings came and went, having made inquiries that he said were unanswered over the years.
Then the Astros came calling, and Baker would finally get his title as a manager — joining Roberts (Dodgers, 2020) and Cito Gaston (Toronto Blue Jays, 1992 and 1993) as the only Black managers to win the World Series.
Baker was 320-226 in his four regular seasons in Houston. He went 34-19 in the postseason with the Astros, surpassing Hinch (28-20) for most playoff wins in franchise history.
Baker told USA Today that he’d like to move into an advisory role in baseball, either with the Astros or a team closer to his Northern California home.
“I’ve nonetheless were given a bundle to deal; baseball has been my time,” Baker stated. “I have a lifetime of knowledge, much more than those who have never played the game.”
He added: “I’m long gone, however I will be able to be again.”
ESPN’s Buster Olney and The Related Press contributed to this document.
