Future Hall of Fame manager Dusty Baker points to “bloggers and tweeters” as one of the reasons behind his retirement from the Astros following the team’s playoff run this year.
The 74-year-old opened up about his stepping down and his opinions on “The Steam Room” podcast hosted by TNT personalities Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley.
“We had a lot of success here, Ernie and Charles, and then the last couple of months here weren’t very pleasant, because we weren’t 10 games ahead,” said Baker on the podcast.
He followed that up by arguing that fans should not expect to win it all every season.
Houston won the World Series in 2022 but lost a 3-2 ALCS lead to the rival Rangers, who went on to win the World Series this year.
“Every year’s different,” Baker said on the show. “There was a whole bunch of criticism from 30-year-olds and bloggers and tweeters that I’m not doing this and I don’t know that and I told my wife, ‘You know, I’m kind of tired of this and tired of the scrutiny and if I could go manage and show up at say 6:30 for a 7 o’clock game and leave 30 minutes after the game, don’t do the (pregame and postgame interviews), I could manage for another four or five years.’ You know what I mean?
“After a while, you just get tired of answering questions.”
In 2023, Baker and the Astros won their third consecutive American League West division title, finishing with a record of 90-72.
This did not happen without a strong fight from the Rangers, who battled throughout the entire season and finished with the same record as Houston.
Through a tiebreaker, the Astros prevailed and won the division.
Baker opened up about tough decisions that he had to face throughout the season, including, “a couple instances, a couple articles, a couple of things that kind of made up my mind late summer.”
Throughout the season, some pointed out the possible squabbles between him and the front office over game-time decisions, particularly at the catcher position.
Baker’s preference behind the plate was 13-year veteran Martin Maldonado, compared to rookie Yainer Diaz, who posted a batting average 91 points higher than Maldonado (.282 vs. .191).
During the season, Baker was also questioned for not playing outfielder Chase McCormick more.
His .842 was fifth on the team, but he played in just 115 games.
“It’s not all about OPS. It’s not all about hitting,” Baker said at the time, per The Athletic. “And I’m a hitter, but this is a total game if you’re going to win, you know what I mean? You want to give yourself as many options and categories to win the game. Now, hitting wins the game, usually. But other areas of the games is what loses you one-run games or don’t-do-this or don’t-do-that. I know everybody wants Chas to play.”
With that being said, Baker posted a .586 winning percentage during his Astros tenure.
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