2022 World Series: Dusty Baker ready for another shot at elusive ring

HOUSTON – Freddie Freeman caught the final out of the 2021 Fall Classic, raised both of his arms and smiled in uncontrollable jubilation. The Braves swarmed the field at Truist Park and celebrated their first championship in 26 years. Yuli Gurriel wouldn't even look at the field. With his back turned to the carnival going on behind him, Gurriel packed his belongings in the visitors' dugout before disappearing through the tunnel. Jose Altuve, wearing a sullen expression, followed Gurriel. Alex Bregman, visibly frustrated, shuffled into Houston's clubhouse behind Altuve.

The Astros were not even five minutes past the final out of their World Series elimination last year when Dusty Baker said three words that reignited the fire in their clubhouse. 

"We'll be back," Baker told Astros players when the wound was still fresh and raw. 

That quiet confidence in his team is something Baker has carried since 2020, when he took over for then-suspended Astros manager A.J. Hinch during the peak of Houston's stunning sign-stealing scandal. Naming Baker the Astros skipper immediately returned some of the legitimacy that was taken away from Houston when players decided to illegally steal signs by using unauthorized video feeds and banging on garbage cans. The extreme and irresponsible measure led in part to the Astros' only championship to date.

Ever since the news of their illegal sign stealing was revealed in the winter of 2019, Baker and the Astros have been working to move past the scandal and bring another championship back to Houston. Despite key players who have left the organization since that 2017 championship, including Gerrit Cole, Carlos Correa, George Springer, Charlie Morton and Dallas Keuchel, Baker has led the Astros to back-to-back American League pennants.

"He's very calm, poised all the time," Phillies manager Rob Thompson said of Baker on Thursday. "I don't know what's going on inside of him, but outwardly he's very calm, very poised, and I like that about him."

But for Baker, this chase for a ring goes beyond the Astros trying to prove that they can win without cheating. Winning a World Series as manager is the only feat left on Baker's baseball bucket list. Baker enters Friday's World Series between the Phillies and Astros as the winningest manager (2,093 victories) in MLB without a championship. Mets skipper Buck Showalter, who owns 1,652 managerial wins, is second on that list. 

All October, Baker has addressed several questions about his third shot at managing a World Series team in the same tone, with the same attitude. He loves to win, and for that, he's hungry for a ring. But it's not as if his reputation or success relies on winning another Fall Classic. He's bound for the Hall of Fame either way.

The missing piece of hardware, though, is the elephant in the room. Baker became a World Series champion as a player for the 1981 Dodgers and, after three Manager of the Year awards, he's still searching for that elusive title as skipper. This 2022 Astros squad, headlined by Justin Verlander, Bregman, Altuve and others, talks often about how badly they want to win for Baker.

"We would love to win for him," Bregman said Thursday. "He's been unbelievable since he's been here — unbelievable man, human being, manager. He's connected with every single one of us so well, and we really would love nothing more than to win for him."

Baker deserves much of the credit for getting to this point and guiding not just returning players from that ‘17 team, but also for managing rookies with big shoes to fill, like Jeremy Peña. The Astros rookie shortstop was tasked with replacing Correa, the two-time All-Star who signed with the Minnesota Twins after the 2021 season. Peña said, since day one of spring training this year, Baker has inspired him to show up to work with his best attitude and his best play while placing no additional weight on the Correa-related narrative. 

In telling Peña to mute the outside noise, Baker led by example. The Astros named Baker their skipper during a particularly tumultuous time, the scrutiny of which took place before he arrived on the scene. Baker fielded questions about Houston's sign-stealing scandal with ease, dignity and even humor. His two decades as a major-league manager and his beloved personality throughout the industry immediately lent respect to the Astros organization. 

"The boos are fading a little bit," said Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr., who added that Baker has a little something to do with the organization's outside image shifting these past three years.

It's easy to forget Baker is 73 years old. The way Baker's players describe the 25-year manager, it's somewhat surprising that they're characterizing a person who was born in the same year that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established.

"Dusty's a cool cat," Peña said. 

Baker's "swag," as Peña puts it, begins with the toothpick he chews on in the dugout and ends with his signature wrist bands and black gloves. But his distinguishing style also includes leaving meaningful, lifelong impacts on the players he's managed through the years. 

Baker has seen firsthand the ascension of Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper since his days managing the slugger with the Nationals in 2016 and ‘17, and the two still keep in close contact.

In early October, the last time the Phillies played the Astros in the regular season, Baker heard someone knocking on his office door and told them to come in. The person behind the door wound up being Harper, who walked into his old skipper's room to deliver a simple, warm message.

"I told him, I said, ‘I'll be rooting for you if you guys are there in the World Series, and we're not. But I hope to see you guys.' And he said the same thing," Harper recalled Thursday.

Baker has already left his mark on the sport and the stars who headline it. Now, he is only four wins away from adding the missing piece. But don't think that if Baker finally wins it all this year and checks "managed World Series team" off his résumé that he will suddenly clear off the belongings on his desk and shut the door in the skipper's office on his way out. Baker isn't in this adventure for just one championship ring. 

"I love to win," Baker said Thursday. "I've always said, if I win one, I want to win two, So you got to win one first, and then we'll work on No. 2 at that time."

And after that? Cooperstown awaits.

Deesha Thosar is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets for the New York Daily News. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.