A Good Man Gets His Due

Dusty Baker shows us what justice looks like

Today, the guy gets the girl and nice guys finish first. Everyone who deserves a break gets one. Today, life is fair. Dusty Baker just won his World Series.

Twenty-five seasons, 2,093 wins, 12 postseasons, nine division titles, three pennants and now, one ring. It doesn’t mean everything to Baker. He’s far too diverse for that, in his tastes and his priorities. Nor will a championship define him. He won’t allow it. But certainly, the elephant has been removed from the room.

I won’t pretend to know Dusty. We had a business relationship. Sometimes it was good. Sometimes, after I wrote something he didn’t like, it wasn’t. He liked that I wrote his mom bought him tickets to the Monterey Pop Festival for his 18th birthday. He wasn’t thrilled when I suggested he was misusing Aroldis Chapman.

Throughout, Dusty was never less than thoughtful. I still have a set of note cards he gave me on the last day of one of his six seasons as Reds manager. The cards had a photo of a spot on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, a place of “healing and hope,’’ where visitors walked “in gratitude and peace,’’ according to the words on the card.

“The Pilgrimmage of Compassion has been held every year since September 11, 2001,’’ the card reads.

Baker explained to me he walked the trail there when he was suffering from prostate cancer. He asked that I take the cards in a spirit of mindful gratitude. That’s what he said. “Mindful gratitude.’’

I’m fairly certain he doesn’t remember giving me the cards. But I do. He has no doubt given similar gifts to all kinds of folks. I bet they remember, too, same as I have. We were all rooting for Dusty Baker Saturday night.

From the NY Times:

Rob Butcher, the media relations director for the Reds, flew to Houston just so he could be in the stands to see Baker win a championship. He did not tell Baker he was coming, Butcher said, but he felt compelled to be there and cried after the final out.

“He’s got a lot of friends, but I really don’t think he knows how many people wanted him to win this,” Butcher said. “It’s beautiful. He’s the person that you want your father and grandfather to be, just a genuine, wonderful human being — in addition to being the coolest person you’ll ever meet.”

It is possible, even now, to be a good human being. To simply do right by folks. After the game, Baker said this:

“One thing I hear my dad always telling me: ‘Try to do the right thing.’ And sometimes that’s tough, because sometimes you want to do the selfish thing. But the right thing, whatever that is in your mind, that’s what I try to do.”

The Astros hired the perfect man to deliver them from their heinous, recent past. Dusty calms waters. It’s one of his best skills. As Series MVP Jeremy Pena put it, “He gives you the confidence to just go out and play hard and let the game take care of itself.’’

Baker has no time for yesterday, no interest in passing harsh judgment. You’re OK with him until you make him think otherwise. He understands what some managers never understand: The numbers don’t matter as much as the people who make them. The best skippers are those who develop relationships and through those relationships, create a culture in which every player comes to the park every day wanting to do his best. As pitcher Lance McCullers said, “When he was hired after the scandal, he gave us a sense of self and a sense of stability.’’

And so there he was at 11:17 Saturday night, being mobbed by his coaches in the dugout, living a moment he’ll remember always, and has chased just as long. Dusty is 73. He’s the only manager in baseball history to lead five different teams to the postseason. He is older than every head coach who has ever won a Super Bowl, an N.B.A. championship or a Stanley Cup. He has 2,093 victories in the regular season, ninth on the career list.

Until Saturday he was the only manager on that winners list never to have won a ring.

Well, forget that.

Nice guy finishes first. “There’s a bunch of people, all over the world that I think are happy, too,’’ Dusty decided late on Saturday night. He’s right about that.