He is coming home to a place he never should have left.
He is a former Dodger who should have been a forever Dodger.
Now, finally, he will be.
Dusty Baker will at long last be properly and singularly honored at Dodger Stadium on Friday night, 41 years after he was unceremoniously booted from the organization amid a dark cloud of unsubstantiated rumors involving drugs.
He loved the Dodgers dearly. The Dodgers hurt him deeply. Ties were broken. Distance was created. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. It needed to be fixed.
And so it has been, Baker returning to become the eighth member of “Legends of Dodger Baseball,” the club’s unofficial Hall of Fame for those who have not been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The ceremony will be awash in relief and respect, as even the mere title of the honor fits him perfectly.
Dusty Baker is a legend. And Dusty Baker is Dodgers baseball.
“I loved the Dodgers, I loved the fans, it was home,” said the Riverside native this week in a phone interview from his Sacramento home. “I never wanted to leave.”
His premature departure from Chavez Ravine after the 1983 season was a blessing in disguise, eventually leading the outfielder into a future Hall of Fame managing career that spanned five teams, 2,183 wins and a World Series championship with the Houston Astros in 2022.
In a span of 26 years, he became known to the rest of the baseball world as an eccentric dugout presence with a toothpick dangling from his lips, heavy wristbands adorning his arms, and a quirky use of the bullpen.
“Dusty was the perfect fuel for the start of the Tom Lasorda era,” said Mark Langill, Dodgers historian. “He was the kind of energetic veteran that a rookie manager really needed. He became a clubhouse leader as the Dodgers overcame the Big Red Machine and restored their place atop the National League West.”
The charismatic outfielder was traded here in a blockbuster deal with the Atlanta Braves after the 1975 season. He was the last of the four slugging Dodgers to hit 30 home runs in 1977, completing the historic feat in his final at-bat of the season.
He was the co-inventor of the high-five after he slapped hands with teammate Glenn Burke after that historic homer. He was the first National League Championship Series MVP later that fall when he had two homers and eight RBIs against the Philadelphia Phillies.
