The unmistakable figure of Dusty Baker stands out in any Giants’ family photo. His commanding presence and wide, welcoming smile make him instantly recognizable to Giants’ fans of all ages. His record-breaking 10-year term as Giants manager is so well-documented, you feel like there’s nothing about him that you don’t already know.
But if you’re looking to find some of the missing deets, picture yourself sitting with Baker in a boat on a lake, your fishing lines dangling into the water. Ask a few questions, sit back and listen. Let him tell it.
To start with, how did a guy born Johnnie B. Baker, Jr. come to be known as Dusty? “There’s a longstanding debate in my family about whether it was my mother Catherine or my aunt Loreena who first called me that. It came about because as a boy, I liked playing around in the dirt all the time,” he said. “At first it was only my name at home. The neighbors, my classmates, the guys I played sports with all called me Johnnie B. But eventually, everyone picked up on Dusty, and the name stuck.”
If the female members of the Baker clan were responsible for his renaming, it was the male side who introduced him to his all-time favorite pastime. “I grew up fishing with my dad. It’s what we did on Saturdays. We fished for the meat, as well as the sport. With so many lakes and rivers around us, in Riverside and in Sacramento, we were never at a loss for places to fish,” he said. “I always feel a great sense of peace when I’m out on the water. Oftentimes during my managing days, I’d find a place to sit and cast my line, and work out the next day’s lineup while I waited for a bite.”
Baker was always sports-minded, but unlike many of his contemporaries, he didn’t harbor fantasies about playing Major League baseball. “My favorites list as a teenager was basketball, football, track, and then baseball. Where I grew up in Riverside, you played everything. Baseball was the sport you played in the summertime, nothing more,” said Baker. “The only difference about it was my dad was my Little League coach, so there was maybe a bit more incentive to play well in baseball because of that. He had also been Bobby Bonds’ coach, and I used to follow them around as a kid. I fell in love with baseball when I hurt my knee playing basketball. I‘ve loved it more than I ever thought I could.”
A Southern California native, Baker naturally was a Dodgers fan at first. “Tommie Davis was my baseball hero growing up. That’s why I always wore number 12, to honor him,” he said. “I picked up on the Giants when they signed Bobby Bonds. In fact, we were working out together on the day he signed with them. So then I started rooting for both teams, which isn’t easy to do. When our family moved up to Sacramento, that’s Giants’ country, and I couldn’t help being drawn into it, while still keeping a certain rooting interest in the Dodgers.”
When the teenaged Baker himself inked his first pro contract with the Atlanta Braves in 1967, it was at the height of the Vietnam War, when popular opinion about it was fading fast while any able-bodied male who wasn’t in school was subject to the military draft. “When I signed with the Braves, they asked me to see one of their executives, an Army veteran, who encouraged me to join the National Guard, so I could be in and out of active duty in six months,” Baker recalled. “But those were the days when there was a lot of civic unrest and rallies against the war. And the National Guardsmen were the ones assigned to confront the people with whom I identified. So instead, I joined the Marines and served six years as a mechanic in the reserves.”
Juggling his baseball and military schedules was often demanding, but Baker found a way to work things out. “When you join the military, you’re on their schedule, so when your unit is called, you go, baseball or no baseball,” he related. “Sometimes when I came back from my service duty, my baseball skills would be a bit rusty, but fortunately there were players like my roommate Ralph Garr, who helped me get back in the swing of things, so to speak.”
Long before his military obligation ended, Baker was well on his way to a magnificent 17-year Major League playing career that stands proudly alongside anyone of his era. Along with his .278 lifetime batting average, he slugged 242 homers, with 1,013 RBI and 137 stolen bases. His prime years were spent with the Braves and Dodgers, including the World Series ring he earned in 1981 with LA.
Toward the tail end, Baker spent the 1984 season in the Giants outfield, batting .292 in 100 games. “It was a fortunate thing for me to play a season back home, where my family, especially my dad, could drive to the game and watch me play,” he said. “Plus, it was great to get to play for Frank Robinson as our manager. We didn’t win as many games as we wanted to, but it was still a very worthwhile experience. Plus, getting to know (owner) Bob Lurie was a special part of it all.”
The hook-up with Lurie would prove to be the most beneficial for Baker in ensuing years. Though he had no way of knowing at the time, his ties to the Giants were just beginning.
Stay tuned for part 2 in the July issue. Comments: [email protected]
