Dusty Baker and Jeff Kent posed earlier this season at San Francisco’s Oracle Park. Kent is in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Baker is hopeful. (Photo by Suzanna Mitchell/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images)
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Dusty Baker may be the most famous former Major League player and manager in America these days, judging by his reception in Cooperstown, N.Y., this summer. As he meandered down Main Street from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum he and his wife, Melissa, were mobbed.
Baker was in town for the induction of Jeff Kent, the former Giants second baseman – among other teams – who played for Baker in San Francisco.
“He’s the first player I managed to make it to the Hall of Fame,” Baker said proudly.
That’s saying something considering the scores of players Baker managed through 26 years, for five teams, 4,046 games, 2,138 wins, a .540 winning percentage and finally a World Series title with the Astros in 2022, his 25th season on the job.
It could be Baker’s turn for the Hall in a couple of months if and when he’s a member of the eight-person ballot to be decided by the 16 voters on the Contemporary Era Non-Players Committee. Fellow Giants manager Bruce Bochy is also expected to be on that ballot. Bochy, who won the World Series with the Giants in 2010, 2012 and 2014, is considered to be a no-brainer. He also won a fourth World Series in 2023 as Rangers skipper.
How about Baker, who along with Bochy is now an advisor with the Giants?
“I haven’t really thought about it yet,” Baker said outside the Hall of Fame this summer. “I hope I’m still alive next year, then we’ll see. You know what I mean? I’m just telling you. The older you get, man, the less you start living in the future. You just live in the present.”
Giants Could Dominate The Next Hall Induction
Next year’s Hall induction ceremony could have a distinct Giants flavor to it. On the Baseball Writers’ Association of American ballot for the first time is Buster Posey, the All-Star catcher and current Giants president of baseball operations who was a star on all three teams Bochy managed to those World Series championships.
Imagine Baker, Bochy, and Posey all giving acceptance speeches at the podium on the covered stage behind the Clark Sports Center. Kent, who was inducted this past July along with Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones, was in the center of attention that weekend.
“I’m not here to solicit me,” Baker told the San Francisco Standard. “I’m not like that. I’m here for Jeff. It just so happens that Jeff’s [induction was] this year and I may be next year. Now, is that a coincidence? And if I do get in next year, this is preparing me because I wouldn’t have any idea. The time involved. All these parties. Housing. I mean, the last time I was here was 1991, and I don’t even remember it.”
Baker went to the World Series with Kent and Barry Bonds in 2002 when the Giants blew a 3-2 lead to the Angels and lost in seven games. He didn’t return with any club until 2021 when he was 72 and hired to salvage the sign-cheating Astros. He knew it was his last chance. They dropped that series to manager Brian Snitker and the Braves in six games. He finally defeated the Phillies in another six-game series a year later.
At that moment it was widely determined the long-sought after title punched Baker’s ticket to Cooperstown. But it’s a lot more complicated than that.
His managing career was littered with questionable pitching decisions in playoff games: Mark Gardner, Russ Ortiz, Mark Prior, Max Scherzer. It’s all there in his autobiography – Crossroads: A Memoir in Baseball and Life – which was released earlier this year.
Things didn’t seem to work out in the end with some of the teams he managed.
Did he have a falling out with the Giants after that World Series loss?
“No, I left because it was time to go. Bill Walsh told me you can overstay your welcome sometimes,” Baker said, referring to the late 49ers Super Bowl-winning coach. “No, no, no, it wasn’t even about [the money]. I left the Giants because I had to make a decision.”
But the Giants never offered him a contract, he said, and confirmed in the book. Later, the Cubs and Nationals declined to renew his contract, and the Reds fired him despite his teams ascending to playoff berths everywhere. He just never made it to the promised land.
And then he finally won in Houston.
“It was an unbelievable feeling,” he said in the book. “Would it have felt that sweet if I hadn’t waited so long before winning as a manager? I guess I’ll never know.”
The Committee Voting Process Is Pretty Tough
But know this: Hall voters are capricious and the Committee process is a tough one to weather. It’s an eight-person ballot that consists of non-players and will certainly include as many as four former managers.
The last time this Committee voted was 2024 and Jim Leyland was the only person elected. Lou Pinella, Cito Gaston and Davey Johnson were also on the ballot, the rest of which was made up of umpires and executives.
There are 16 members who can each only vote for a maximum three candidates. That means there are just 48 votes to go around. Like any Hall ballot a candidate needs 75% to be elected, in this case that’s at least 12 of the 16 votes. Leyland received 15, Pinella narrowly missed for the second time. The remaining votes were dispersed among the other six candidates, who didn’t come close.
On this upcoming ballot, Bochy could be unanimous. Pinella is expected back on it and if he receives 12 votes this time, that should leave enough votes to elect Baker. But it all depends on who else is on the ballot.
As Dusty documents, nothing has gone easily in his life. Come December it’s going to be another hold your breath moment, for Baker and his legion of fans everywhere.
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