A love for D.C.
Last October, when the hills were still brown, Baker had just gotten home following the playoff loss when he received the fateful phone call from Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo. There was no explanation given, Baker said, just a standard line about the team “going in another direction.”
“He sounded like it was one of the hardest things he had to do,” Baker said of Rizzo. “So I didn’t ask for an explanation. What good is an explanation at that time?”
The tone in Rizzo’s voice led Baker to suspect the move was not the GM’s call, but that the decision had been made by the Lerner family that owns the Nationals — a theory others have espoused. He said the only time he heard from ownership was when a note arrived in the mail from managing principal owner Ted Lerner thanking him for his two years of service to the franchise. Asked if the note said anything else, Baker says, “I don’t remember.”
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But Baker also recalled a conversation that occurred when he was interviewing for the job in the fall of 2015 that made his departure last fall seem less shocking. According to Baker, the Nationals presented him with a scenario in which he would groom a bench coach to be his successor after two seasons. The team offered some suggested candidates: Andy Green, Tim Wallach, Phil Nevin. Baker, he recalled hearing, “would teach [the coach] everything I know, and after two years they would take over.”
Baker instead fought for his longtime right-hand man Chris Speier to be his bench coach, but after Baker was let go as manager two years later, Speier didn’t even get an interview for the job. Following a thorough search, the managing job instead went to Dave Martinez, a longtime lieutenant to Joe Maddon in Tampa Bay and Chicago.
The transition from Baker to Martinez, 53, was part of an industry trend that saw five prominent teams — the Nationals, Phillies, Mets, Red Sox and Yankees — replace their veteran managers over the winter with men who are an average of 18 years younger and, in most cases, were more welcoming of the analytics wave that has taken over the game. It was a shift that did not escape Baker’s attention.
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“You realize in the world, especially this new world — there’s always been racist discrimination, but it seems like in this new world, there’s age and salary discrimination, which go hand in hand,” he said. “And also, there’s intellectual discrimination, because now you’re judged on your intellect based on which college you went to.”
As hard as it was to have the reins of a title contender taken away from him — the Nationals won 192 regular season games in his two years and are considered overwhelming favorites to win the NL East again this year — the further shame of it, Baker said, was that he had fallen in love with Washington during his time there, to the point where it became a close second to his beloved San Francisco on his list of favorite cities.
“The education level, the mind-set, the diversity,” he says. “That was the first time I found myself eavesdropping on other people’s conversations because I couldn’t believe how many different ethnic groups there were. They would look white and talk German, or look black and talk French. I liked that atmosphere. I liked the town — a lot.”
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Baker also took an immediate liking to Washington’s best player, right fielder Bryce Harper, calling him a “heavy young man” and recalling many “deep” conversations between the two of them. He said he has no idea what Harper, a pending free agent, will do at the end of this season, but praised him as “probably the most knowledgeable baseball guy I’ve been around.”
“I’d mention a name and he would know him. It wasn’t, ‘Who’s that?’ ” Baker said. “I’ve had a thousand of those conversations. ‘You remind me of so-and-so.’ ‘Who’s that?’ But not [Harper]. He’s got a lot going for him. Just stay healthy. That’s all.”
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