{"id":546569,"date":"2026-03-17T17:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T17:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/546569\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T17:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T17:00:20","slug":"for-dusty-baker-and-nicaragua-the-world-baseball-classic-was-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/546569\/","title":{"rendered":"For Dusty Baker and Nicaragua, the World Baseball Classic was worth it"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 It\u2019s 90 minutes before first pitch, and Dusty Baker<\/a> is rummaging through a plastic Hefty bag of colorful wristbands, looking for the ones he wants. Grey, burgundy, blue, yellow, teal, white, the iconic Mimsbandz are sitting on his desk in bulk. After settling on his choice, he realizes his socks have not been placed in his locker before he got dressed. As someone who\u2019s been putting on uniforms in MLB clubhouses for the better part of five decades, he knows when something is missing.<\/p>\n

Before handing $100 bills to each of the clubhouse attendants and team workers, he\u2019s in a bit of a rush, since the game before went longer than expected, condensing his team\u2019s entire usual pregame routine. Batting practice and stretching were now combined, infield\/outfield was scrapped entirely, and the usual trappings of field planning are not what Baker wants to be dealing with while putting his pants on.<\/p>\n

Unless something changes, this will likely be the last time this routine happens, ever, for the World Series winning manager. Team Nicaragua\u2019s game against Venezuela is its last of pool play in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, and the Nicaraguans have already have been eliminated from advancing to the knockout round. They finished the tournament winless, but for Baker and the people of the largest country in Central America, it was definitely worth the time and the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea it was going to be this fun. It\u2019d have been more fun had we won, and it brought back all these feelings I\u2019d suppressed since I\u2019d been out,\u201d he said while putting his No. 12 white jersey on. \u201cLike that tough loss the other day. S\u2011\u2011\u2011, I hadn\u2019t had that feeling, like somebody tore your guts out, in a long while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two days before, the Kingdom of the Netherlands\u2019 Ozzie Albies hit a walk-off three-run homer that tore through the interior sky at LoanDepot Park, absolutely stunning the crowd of nearly 17,000 Nicaraguan supporters in Miami. The silence was deafening for the faithful who\u2019d shown up in great numbers all tournament, thinking they would see their country\u2019s first ever win in the World Baseball Classic. Alas, no dice, and it felt like the Fightin\u2019 Dusty Bakers\u2019 chances to advance died right there, even though technically they still had a chance.<\/p>\n

Arguably, it was the manager\u2019s decision that did them in. First base was open when Albies came to the plate in the ninth inning with the Netherlands trailing by two runs. It was the best game Nicaragua played all tournament, in which advancing runners and driving in runs was more than just at a premium, it was a disaster. The number of missed opportunities was visibly frustrating, but in this case, it looked like they had a chance.<\/p>\n

They left 33 total runners on base in four games. Heading into their last game with the bases loaded? 0-for-7 with a walk. With runners in scoring position? 4-for-18, with 27 runners stranded, specifically. At that point, they stranded at least one baserunner in 17 of 27 innings.<\/p>\n

Jeter Downs, a guy who bounced around the Major Leagues since being drafted in the first round in 2017 and now plays in Japan, hit a two-run shot in the eighth inning that had the place going nuts. In 2023, Nicaragua\u2019s inaugural year in the WBC, not only did it lose all four games, the team scored a total of four runs in that affair. <\/p>\n

Now, they were one out away. Literally the biggest moment in this history of the baseball nation was waiting to happen, in the hands of Angel Obando.<\/p>\n

\"Nicaragua A little-known fact about Dusty Baker is that he can speak some Spanish.<\/p>\n

Sam Navarro-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

With Didi Gregorious on deck \u2014 a man who hasn\u2019t played Major League Baseball in four calendar years \u2014 Dusty didn\u2019t walk Albies, a three-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger and World Series champion. On the first pitch, the 29-year-old deposited a ball in right field with the kind of ease that made it look like child\u2019s play. Just like that, the team managed by Andruw Jones \u2014 yes that one \u2014 was out of the dugout, celebrating an improbable win for the European powerhouses.<\/p>\n

After the game, the first question was obvious: Why didn\u2019t you walk the switch hitter Albies, or make a pitching change to force him to bat right-handed? Gregarious doesn\u2019t exactly instill fear in pitchers. At least not last time that I looked in **checks notes** Dubai and Mexico. In all seriousness though, what was Dusty thinking? <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think about walking Ozzie because you don\u2019t put the winning run on base. The ball just caught too much of the plate. Obando, he did a heck of a job for us. Big play is when that ball hit the bag. And started with a flare with two strikes, two outs, and then the ball hit the bag,\u201d he said, referring to the play that kept the Netherlands in it, just a tough break that otherwise would have been an out. \u201cSo no, I wasn\u2019t thinking about it \u2014 I thought about possibly turning him around, but Ozzie, I think he\u2019s a better hitter right-handed than he is left-handed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fair enough, and these are the kinds of decisions managers get paid to make based on interpretation. If you want to know the stats, you can make the call yourself<\/a>. In his career, as a left-handed batter facing a right-handed pitcher, he\u2019s had more at-bats than any other combination combined. He\u2019s also hit more homers than all other combos combined. But his average is putrid, compared to all other matchups combined. Gambled, lost. That\u2019s why you play the games.<\/p>\n

Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker retires with many gifts left to give MLB \u2013 AndscapeRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a crushing defeat, not only for us but for the whole country of Nicaragua,\u201d Baker lamented after the 4-3 loss. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to lick your wounds and then come back tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next day, there was exactly one English outlet reporter there to talk before the game. And one other person, total. So I asked him about dinner, since it was basically just us. Baker\u2019s food knowledge around the globe is legendary, so it seemed like a good place to start.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had lobster and pasta at Kiki. I went to Kiki On The River,\u201d Baker said with encouraging smile, referring to the luxury Greek spot. \u201cWe had a good time. I needed to see my friends and wife after that game last night. That helped a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those friends was the man standing off stage, who\u2019s been behind Baker the whole time, and is the reason why he\u2019s there at all \u2014 a friend he met not recently, but a half century ago, in the very same state we\u2019re sitting in, just about 150 miles away.<\/p>\n

\"DustyGeorge Santiago, general manager of Nicaragua baseball, on Dusty Baker: \u201cHe\u2019s got that ability to bring people together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rich Storry\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Four months ago at the MLB winter meetings, Dusty Baker was sitting on a stool next to a small table in a booth. Except, he wasn\u2019t alone. Unlike the usual trappings of baseball\u2019s annual national conference, the World Baseball Classic media availability is not a highly staged, centralized event. It\u2019s a full-blown free-for-all, the likes of an international bazaar, understandably. <\/p>\n

Imagine a reasonably small conference room with 40 guys, two to a booth, surrounding the outside walls. In the middle: 150 reporters from every stretch of the globe, with all sorts of camera equipment and lights, buzzing around the room with differing standards of what we consider courtesy when it comes to personal space, with at least eight different languages going in the room. It is hands down the most chaotic event of the winter meetings (if you don\u2019t count the lobby as an official event).<\/p>\n

There sitting next to Baker is a man literally no one has said a word to for half an hour. Unbothered, he looks on as Baker answers questions about any and all things. With their blue sign reading \u201cNICARAGUA\u201d behind them, the questions were about anything but: new San Francisco Giants manager Tony Vitello, Aaron Judge (people kept trying to compare him to Barry Bonds, a laughable framework that Baker literally laughed at), the Sacramento A\u2019s, the Cincinnati Reds (another team he managed), what it was like facing Shohei Ohtani, all sorts of stuff.<\/p>\n

By the time the convo got around to the team Baker\u2019s actually managing, even when he mentions the man\u2019s name, no one knows whom he\u2019s talking about even though he\u2019s sitting right there. George Santiago, general manager of Nicaragua baseball, has known Dusty for 50 years. They met at Vero Beach, the old Dodgertown, where for 60 years the Dodgers held spring training. A legendary facility that\u2019s a nationally historic site and is now run by MLB as the Jackie Robinson Training Complex, where various youth and college tournaments are held year-round.<\/p>\n

But obviously, for a long time, it was the place where dreams were sold to players who wanted to wear the Dodger blue. Santiago was one of those guys when he crossed paths with Baker for the first time.<\/p>\n

At Andre Dawson Classic, opportunity grows in an unlikely place \u2013 AndscapeRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI was invited to spring training as a minor leaguer and after we got done working out, I stuck around to watch a game,\u201d Santiago said with the kind of enthusiasm that screamed, \u2018I thought you would never ask.\u2019 \u201cA little incident happened on the field among the players, and afterwards I said to him, \u2018Hey, that was pretty cool what you did.\u2019 He goes, \u2018What are you talking about? You noticed that?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yeah that was pretty cool.\u2019 Ever since then, we\u2019ve been friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

What kind of thing could have possibly happened in a spring training game that to the naked eye was no big deal, but to a ball-knower would be all the difference in determining a guy\u2019s skill set?<\/p>\n

Easy: Solving a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know when those popups fall in the triangle, that right fielder doesn\u2019t get it, the center fielder doesn\u2019t get it, the second baseman doesn\u2019t get it and the ball falls in between? I remember [second baseman] Steve Sax and [center fielder] Rudy Law, the ball fell [between them]. They picked it up, threw it in, and kind of started arguing,\u201d Santiago said with the recall of someone who remembers it like it happened yesterday. \u201c[Baker] came in and pushed them away, said \u2018Get out of here. Don\u2019t do that.\u2019 And it went into the dugout. He chewed them out. And he said, \u2018Hey, you don\u2019t do that on the field. You wait till you get into the dugout and you say what you got to say, but out there, you move on.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

It was subtle but, as the elder statesman on that team at the point, the kind of thing that a leader does. Santiago eventually got released and went home to New York; when Baker would come to town, they\u2019d hang out. That \u201cincident\u201d happened in 1981. Fun fact: The Dodgers won the World Series that year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told to go home, but I came home with a friendship of 50 years. And you know, we just stayed close,\u201d Santiago said, satisfied, while reporters continued to shove various lights, cameras and action in Baker\u2019s face from 5 feet away. \u201cI would say that Dusty is probably the only person that I know that can walk into a redneck bar or whatever and walk out being friends with everybody and connecting people. He\u2019s got that ability to bring people together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AlbertAlbert Pujols (right) on Dusty Baker (left): \u201cI really admire the way that he went about it, not just as a player but as a manager, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Rassol-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

None of this is as random as it looks. Not only has Baker played in the winter leagues, but to a certain workable degree, he speaks Spanish. Sure, maybe not well enough to not use the translator headsets in crowded press conferences, but let\u2019s not act like the man hasn\u2019t been around long enough to know what he\u2019s talking about. <\/p>\n

People forget Black ballplayers have been playing south of the border for some time. Ask any brotha who was around baseball back then, and a lot of them have great memories from those days of their careers. I\u2019ll never forget the first time I heard Reggie Jackson answer a reporter\u2019s question on the field in Spanish without even blinking. But, more colloquially, there were a couple extra reasons beyond the obvious (communication with your teammates) to learning a language in a foreign land you\u2019re spending a good amount of time in: getting girls and staying out of jail (Nevermind, Baker grew up in Southern California. Let\u2019s be real).<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, my mother made me take three years Spanish before I graduated from high school, OK? And then she taught Spanish. And then my uncle married a Mexican lady, mi tia. Our neighborhood was in Riverside; [it] was probably 50% Mexican, right?\u201d Dusty said at the winter meetings in December 2025. \u201cI really didn\u2019t like taking Spanish, because all I wanted to do was play ball. But then, I went to Mexico, and I was the only [American] guy could speak Spanish. And I went to Venezuela. Then I went to Puerto Rico, and then I was thanking my mom for making me take Spanish. And then once I got into pro ball and started coaching and managing, I was even more thankful because barriers are broken down through language, food and music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the clubhouse, though, real life is real life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got out of trouble in Mexico. The guy was gonna throw me in jail,\u201d Dusty recalled of getting out of a sticky situation. \u201cI was going the wrong way down a one-way street, and he took my license, and the Comandante was out of town, Then, another time when I was playing in Mexico, there was a pretty girl over there. Nobody knew how to speak, and they asked me to go over and talk to her. They knew I could speak. I went and talked to her. And then I came back and they said, \u2018What\u2019s she saying?\u2019 I said, \u2018She likes me. Yeah, that\u2019s right.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

In all seriousness though, cultural connectivity is what this game, and specifically this tournament, is all about. So, when a manager like Team USA\u2019s Mark DeRosa mocks one of his own players \u2014 Alex Bregman, who did his best to answer a reporter\u2019s question<\/a> in Spanish, a skill he\u2019s publicly been working on for the better part of decade \u2014 it comes across as so boorish and benighted that it makes you cringe.<\/p>\n

Why Dusty Baker’s World Series win means more \u2013 AndscapeRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

Obviously, Dusty doesn\u2019t operate that way, so when his old friend called him up to see if he could improve the team\u2019s lot this year, the answer was yes. This wasn\u2019t a reach as far as melting pots go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Major League organizations are losing that part of it,\u201d Santiago said. \u201cWith Dusty, it goes back to when he was a minor leaguer playing with the Latin guys, and he has told me many times, between the Latin players and African American players, they united because they were both in the same boat, but one spoke English, one didn\u2019t, so there was that connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a full-circle moment, before the tournament began, the team held training camp in Vero Beach at the JRTC. Baker hadn\u2019t been back since 1990. He talked to the team about the importance of the history of the location and was extremely impressed with the job MLB has done with that facility, mentioning specifically Tony Reagins \u2014 MLB\u2019s chief baseball development officer, who happened to be the general manager of Team USA at the previous World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n

How does Baker remember exactly when it was that he was there last? Because he was working a fantasy camp that year for the Dodgers. At that fantasy camp he met Marvin Bittinger, the math textbook author with whom he wrote the book \u201cYou Can Teach Hitting\u201d that published in 1993. <\/p>\n

So, Baker got the band back together: Gary Pettis, his third base coach from the Astros and Randall Simon (yes, that one<\/a>) who played for Baker when he was with the Chicago Cubs. It all added up to him becoming the skipper for the 2026 WBC.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with Nicaragua\u2019s history, many Black folks are involved. Without taking you too far down history\u2019s lane, Nicaragua is one the places Marcus Garvey was trying to repatriate Afro-Latinos from to move back to the continent of Africa. If you want to go down a rabbit hole, check out Theodore G. Vincent\u2019s book \u201cBlack Power and the Garvey Movement,\u201d of which Nicaragua is certainly a part.<\/p>\n

For the basics: Nicaragua is home to actual Black Panthers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Dusty, the people of the nation have shown nothing but love. On his actual visit to Nicaragua it was obviously there, but in Miami, the love from Nicaraguans was palpable. Though they were expected to have the smallest Latin crowd, Nicaragua was sort of the darlings of the group despite not winning a game \u2014 a group that also hosted semifinalists Venezuela and Dominican Republic, who both have crowds the likes of which makes grown American men cry because they will never have that kind of swag.<\/p>\n

Nicaragua might have been shut out in their final two games, but the tone opposing managers took when addressing the fact that they got to see Baker in the opposing dugout was always a tone of reverence and immense respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been looking across the diamond and seeing Dusty Baker for a few decades, so it\u2019ll be a familiar sight. Played a number of teams he managed, managed against him, know Dusty, super human being,\u201d said Brad Ausmus, the former Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Angels manager. He\u2019s now the bench coach for the Yankees and is managing Team Israel. \u201cObviously extremely accomplished Hall of Fame manager, accomplished player in his own right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fun fact: Dusty is not actually in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. We should get on that. An actual Hall of Famer \u2014 Andruw Jones, manager of the Kingdom of the Netherlands \u2014 feels the same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Dusty very well. He\u2019s a great friend. I played against him a lot, him being a manager. He always gave me a lot of crap about, every time when he comes to town, \u2018Where is the great soul food?\u2019 And I always told him I don\u2019t eat that. He always gave me trash about that. He was like, \u2018What do you eat? Couple Big Macs? That\u2019s why you don\u2019t hit homers,\u2019 \u201d Jones joked before that emotional game. \u201cBut it\u2019s a great honor to see him on the side as a future Hall of Famer manager. He\u2019s a great friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GaryTeam Nicaragua\u2019s third base coach Gary Pettis (left) talks with manager Dusty Baker (right) in Miami. <\/p>\n

Kelly Gavin\/WBCI\/MLB Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t just about Baker walking in and gracing everyone with his presence. There\u2019s an actual job to do, and for someone like Jones who played 17 seasons in the Majors for five different teams, he knows as well as anyone. <\/p>\n

\u201cManager is a tough job, to be honest with you, because now you have 30 guys, but normally you have 28, 25. You have to know how to handle 25 characters. You interact with 25 players, and it\u2019s a tough job because you don\u2019t know which one you\u2019ve got to kick in the butt or maybe this one you have to push or maybe this one you have to kiss,\u201d said Jones, whose son Druw is on his team. \u201cI saw Bobby [Cox] do it. I admired Ozzie Guillen when I played with him, Ron Washington, Joe Girardi, Joe Torre, guys that I admire and see from the other side \u2014 like Dusty Baker, how he handled the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the man with the most intense feeling about facing Baker was Albert Pujols, arguably the most famous baseball individual at the tournament. As manager of the Dominican Republic, he\u2019s been at the helm of a squad that found its form and hit the most homers in WBC history. His team\u2019s clubhouse and dugout antics are the stuff that dreams are made of, but when it comes to talk about Baker, he had to adjust his glasses and gather himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me think about this because I\u2019m really humbled, obviously, to have an opportunity to go against a legend. I went against him a lot as a player, with Chicago, San Francisco, Cincinnati. I really admire him from the other side. I really admire the way that he went about it, not just as a player but as a manager, as well,\u201d Pujols said solemnly. \u201cAll I hear is just great things about him, how great a manager he was and he is still, and I think that will show you a lot. For a guy with that stat, to be able to come and represent and be the head of Nicaragua and help those guys out and help prepare them for this tournament, that means a lot. He loves the game. He loves to help. I\u2019m really thankful to have a really good relationship with him. I spent a little time last night [with him] over the rules and where we were, and it was fun just to catch up with him. He\u2019s somebody that I admire, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for whether this is Baker\u2019s last ride, there\u2019s only one possibility lurking. Judging how the military onslaught that is Team USA is doing in the court of public opinion, it might be time to reconsider who\u2019s at the helm for LA28. While Olympic baseball certainly doesn\u2019t have the cache of the World Baseball Classic, mouthbreather opinions aside, even if the Americans win this tournament, leadership could use a refresh from a talk show host.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the only thing Baker\u2019s even thought of.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have the the desire or the energy to do it every day. Maybe on the Olympic team, as a coach or something,\u201d Baker said, strapping on sneakers before taking the field. \u201cThat would be exciting. That would be about the only learning thing that that I could really think about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before any of the games started, Baker said, \u201cThis is kind of my last opening day. \u2026 I\u2019ve seen this on TV, but I\u2019ve never been a part of it.\u201d But perhaps similar to Team USA pitcher Tarik Skubal, who was caught off guard by the energy of the tournament and nearly left spring training, did the excitement reignite Baker\u2019s fire to manage an MLB team again?<\/p>\n

As Baker tucked his shirt in to head out, the answer was simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clinton Yates is a tastemaker at Andscape. He likes rap, rock, reggae, R&B and remixes \u2014 in that order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 It\u2019s 90 minutes before first pitch, and Dusty Baker is rummaging through a plastic Hefty bag…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-546569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}