Dusty Baker
First NLCS MVP as a Dodgers outfielder, Astros manager from 2020 to 2023 and 2022 World Series champion.
Johnnie B "Dusty" Baker Jr. was born on June 15, 1949, in Riverside, California. Over a 19-season MLB playing career, he spent his most notable years with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he earned two All-Star selections, two Silver Slugger Awards, and a Gold Glove. He became the first NLCS MVP in 1977, appeared in three World Series, and won a championship ring with the Dodgers in 1981. He also played for the Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, and Oakland Athletics.
After his playing days, Baker managed five MLB teams: the Giants (1993–2002), Cubs (2003–2006), Reds (2008–2013), Nationals (2016–2017), and Astros (2020–2023). He won three NL Manager of the Year awards with San Francisco and captured the 2022 World Series with Houston. Baker was the first manager in MLB history to reach the playoffs and win a division title with five different clubs, achieving both feats with each team he led. He ranks seventh all-time in managerial wins and holds the record for most wins among African-American managers. After retiring from the dugout, he joined the Giants' front office and was later named manager of Team Nicaragua for the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
Quick Facts
- Position
- Outfielder; Manager
- Bats
- Right
- Born
- 15 June 1949
- Birthplace
- Riverside, California, U.S.
- Debut league
- MLB
- Debut date
- September 7
- Debut year
- 1968
- Debut team
- Atlanta Braves
Facts from the source article.
Background
Johnnie B "Dusty" Baker Jr. was born on June 15, 1949, in Riverside, California, as the oldest of seven children. He earned the nickname "Dusty" from his mother because of his propensity for playing in a dirt spot in the backyard. His father worked as an Air Force sheet metal technician at Norton Air Force Base. Baker played a variety of sports growing up, describing basketball as his very first love while also playing sports such as baseball, with his father being his coach for Little League, although this did not stop the elder Baker from kicking his son off of teams because of his tantrums.
When the younger Baker wanted to quit baseball and have a paper route, his father told him that he did not raise a son who was a quitter as a way to try to encourage him to spin his attitude in a positive direction. In 1963, when Dusty was 14 years old, the Baker family moved to Carmichael, California, where his father worked at McClellan Air Force Base. Baker grew up as a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers and described Tommy Davis as his hero, but the signing of Bobby Bonds in 1968 made him a fan of the San Francisco Giants.
Baker excelled in baseball, basketball, football, and track at Del Campo High School in Carmichael, California; and he was inducted into the Sac-Joaquin Section's Hall of Fame class in 2010 for his play at Del Campo. He was offered a basketball scholarship by Santa Clara University. His father was so committed to his son going to college that he told scouts that his son would go to college and play either football or basketball, so they wouldn't waste a draft pick on Baker.
The one baseball scout who saw something in Baker was Bill Wight, who knew that Baker's father and mother had gone through a divorce that worried Baker about being a potential burden to his parents. Baker was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 1967 amateur draft. On June 19 of that year, the Braves tasked Hank Aaron to try to influence Baker to sign with the team, with Aaron promising to both Baker and his mother Christine that he would take care of Baker as if he was his own son while guaranteeing that Baker would be in the majors before his college class graduated.
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