In October, bakers are expected to require twice as many toothpicks as they currently do.
The series is now 2-2. We missed the first two games at home. Decisive mistakes. In Game 1, it was a fielding error (Jose Altuve) and in Game 2, it was a bad throw (Framber Valdes). It’s time for the postgame interview. He’s aggressive from the first question. Four runs in the first inning. (Game 16, Texas-Houston, AL Championship Game)
Manager: “You mean he fumbled the ball at first base? No. I don’t think so….. He just kept putting pitches in play. There were maybe two real hard-hit pitches, but a lot of bad things happened in a short period of time. I don’t think there was anything wrong with him.”
It’s always the same. He doesn’t blame his players. He glosses over the mistakes and highlights the good. The same goes for his competitors. He only says good things. It was the same in this series. After losing Game 1. Inadvertently, I’m salivating at the praise of the opposing pitching coach.
“Mike (Maddux) is probably the best guy in the game, he knows how to play the game the best, and when you’re in a crunch, he’ll go up to the mound and give you a few words of advice and do a great job.” Behind the strong performance of Toronto starter Jordan Montgomery (6.1 scoreless innings), Maddux was said to be a big part of the equation.
The same can be said for the bullpen. His matchup with Bruce Bochy (Texas) was of interest. It was a meeting of managers with over 1500 wins. However, Baker has no sense of competition. Rather, he emphasizes friendship.
“I remember talking to him when I retired (in 2019) and he congratulated me, saying, ‘Now you can watch baseball from the comfort of your rocking chair.’ He said he was motivated to come back because he saw me win last year, lol. I would have preferred to go somewhere else though, but we ended up in the same district…. giggles.”
There are a few things that come to mind when I think of Dusty Baker, and one of them is toothpicks. I always have one in my mouth during a game.
MLB.com did a story on him once. It was a year after he was hired as Houston’s manager. The article was titled “How many toothpicks has Baker ever used? It was a very serious, detailed look at what could have been gossip.
According to the article, he has one favorite. It’s a mint-flavored import. It’s organic, made from tea trees grown in New South Wales, Australia. When the story broke, the manufacturer offered to sponsor him, but he politely declined. It’s like, “Oh, how much do you have to do to sponsor….”.
This is where MLB.com comes in. They go into a deep data analysis and come up with the perfect numbers. 바카라사이트 The product is designed to last the average person 15 to 20 minutes. But Baker is a craftsman. He can get an hour and a half out of one. That’s about two per game.
That’s 162 games a year. He did it for 22 years (as of the end of 2021). The result was 7128. I also converted this to length. One is 3.3 inches, and all together they’re about 0.4 miles. That’s about 650 meters. I also made a nice infographic. That’s 3,233 pencils, 577 baseball bats, seven football fields, and 1.3 times the length of the Empire State Building.
It all started with chewing tobacco. “I was the hitting coach for the Giants, and we were losing a game, and someone suggested a rally dip (chewing to help turn the game around), and then I scored five runs, and then the next day it happened again, and then I got hooked on chewing tobacco, and then my teeth and mouth got bad, and then my dentist suggested toothpicks.”
It’s a kind of jinx. On the one hand, it’s the stress of competition. It’s a fate that even the oldest active manager (74) can’t avoid.
In fact, there’s a hidden number in MLB.com’s data. It’s the postseason. In the regular season, two per game is enough. But in October, that’s not enough. You need at least four. That means twice as many nerves and tension.
He failed all 11 fall baseball tournaments until 2021. He tasted the pain of elimination time and time again. Then, last year, he got his wish. He won his first World Series title.
He’s a winning manager, but his job security is precarious. He only has one year left on his contract. This could be his last season, but he’s not letting that stop him from competing. “One ring is a little lonely. I’d like to have another one.” For that, he’ll have to win eight more. He’ll need 20 to 30 toothpicks.