{"id":353278,"date":"2026-06-09T16:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/353278\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T16:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:07:16","slug":"dusty-baker-memoir-crossroads-5-sacramento-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/353278\/","title":{"rendered":"Dusty Baker memoir ‘Crossroads’: 5 Sacramento takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dusty Baker\u2019s memoir \u201cCrossroads\u201d hits bookshelves Tuesday \u2014 and for Sacramento baseball boosters tracking the region\u2019s Major League ambitions, the book arrives at a pivotal moment.<\/p>\n

The Del Campo High School graduate, whose 2,183 managerial victories rank eighth in MLB history, recently joined local officials in unveiling a Sacramento-area expansion bid. A likely Hall of Fame selection this fall, Baker has become one of the region\u2019s most recognizable ambassadors in baseball.<\/p>\n

The memoir, co-written with Steve Kettmann, traces Baker\u2019s journey from Sacramento baseball prospect to World Series-winning manager. It also underscores the deep ties that continue to connect him to the capital region.<\/p>\n

For Sacramento baseball fans, the memoir is more than a personal story. It arrives as the region pursues a Major League franchise and one of its most famous baseball products prepares for what could be a Hall of Fame induction.<\/p>\n

Here are five takeaways from The Bee\u2019s reporting<\/a> on Baker\u2019s memoir and his deep Sacramento roots that help explain why his voice carries weight in Sacramento\u2019s baseball future.<\/p>\n

\"Dusty Dusty Baker wears the baseball glove he used during his playing career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics at his Granite Bay home on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Baker’s his new memoir, “Crossroads,” comes out later this month. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. pkitagaki@sacbee.com Baker is Sacramento\u2019s best ambassador<\/p>\n

Baker, 76, last managed in the major leagues in 2023, but he hasn\u2019t slowed down. He managed Team Nicaragua in the recent World Baseball Classic qualifiers after agreeing to a request initially made in jest. In recent weeks, he appeared at the news conference where local officials announced the Sacramento-area MLB expansion bid.<\/p>\n

That role \u2014 elder statesman and goodwill ambassador for the sport \u2014 gives the region a powerful voice as it pursues big-league legitimacy. Few figures in baseball carry Baker\u2019s combination of credibility, warmth and Sacramento bona fides. He moved to Carmichael as a teenager in 1965, graduated from Del Campo and now lives on roughly four acres in Granite Bay with his wife, Melissa.<\/p>\n

On June 15, his 77th birthday, Baker will appear with former Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson at Underground Books in Oak Park to promote \u201cCrossroads\u201d \u2014 an event that doubles as a celebration of one of Sacramento\u2019s most accomplished baseball figures.<\/p>\n

\"Former Former major leaguer and Sacramento Baseball Hall of Fame member Dusty Baker greets former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg before Sacramento regional leaders announced the region\u2019s bid for a Major League Baseball expansion team during a news conference at The Barn in West Sacramento on Thursday, May 28, 2026. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. pkitagaki@sacbee.com The region\u2019s baseball pipeline<\/p>\n

Baker\u2019s memoir reinforces something local boosters have long understood: the Sacramento area produced a remarkable cluster of major leaguers in the 1960s and \u201970s, and Baker knew most of them.<\/p>\n

Jerry Royster, three years younger than Baker, watched him as a kid and went on to play 16 seasons in the majors himself. \u201cI just remember Dusty always being the best,\u201d Royster said. \u201cA lot of us, we tried to pattern ourselves after Dusty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The list also includes Leron Lee, a Grant High star and 1966 first-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals; Rowland Office, another Sacramento prep product who replaced Hank Aaron in the Atlanta Braves\u2019 lineup the night Aaron hit his 715th home run in 1974; and 1964 Johnson High graduate Ken Forsch, who pitched for the Houston Astros.<\/p>\n

\u201cDusty knows every single guy from Sacramento and he remembers them and he knows where they\u2019re from, where they went to school,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

That history matters for a region pitching itself as MLB-ready. Sacramento isn\u2019t a baseball newcomer \u2014 it\u2019s a baseball town with a deep talent pipeline.<\/p>\n

\"Local Local baseball great Dusty Baker, the manager for the Houston Astros \u2013 and former manager of the San Francisco Giants \u2013 who started his baseball career at Del Campo High School, sits with winemaker Chil Brenneman inside of the tasting room at the Baker Wine Family in West Sacramento on Friday, Dec. 10, 2021. Paul Kitagaki Jr. pkitagaki@sacbee.com More than a hometown hero<\/p>\n

For boosters tracking Baker\u2019s stake in the area\u2019s future, the memoir era also spotlights his local ventures. Baker runs a solar business, Baker Energy Team, and a winemaking company, Baker Family Wines, which has a tasting room in West Sacramento. Behind his Granite Bay home, he keeps a private vineyard, a batting cage with seats salvaged from different MLB ballparks and a tree his daughter got married under.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got businesses, he\u2019s got his family, he\u2019s got his friends,\u201d said Dennis Kludt, Baker\u2019s longtime friend who served as contractor when Baker built his Granite Bay home around 20 years ago. \u201cI think he\u2019s really enjoying life right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those ventures plant Baker as a fixture in the regional economy \u2014 not just a returning native son, but a working businessman whose name carries weight in West Sacramento and beyond.<\/p>\n

\"Former Former MLB manager Dusty Baker meets with Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell before Wednesday\u2019s game against the Sacramento Kings on March 19, 2025 at Golden 1 Center. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com Hall of Fame moment looms<\/p>\n

Baker has the eighth-most wins of any manager in Major League Baseball history and is a likely Hall of Fame selection this fall, according to The Bee<\/a>. His managerial r\u00e9sum\u00e9 spans 26 seasons with the San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, where he won the 2022 World Series \u2014 the championship that had been the lone missing piece of his managerial resume.<\/p>\n

A Hall of Fame plaque would elevate Sacramento\u2019s profile at exactly the moment the region is making its MLB pitch. Baker\u2019s playing career alone \u2014 19 years, two All-Star appearances, a Gold Glove, fourth in National League MVP voting in 1980, on-deck for Aaron\u2019s 715th, co-inventor of the high-five with Dodgers teammate Glenn Burke \u2014 is the stuff of baseball lore. Cooperstown would make the Sacramento connection unmistakable.<\/p>\n

\"The The San Francisco Giants’ Marvin Benard, left, looks into the stands as he stands with the Houston Astros’ Craig Biggio, Giants manager Dusty Baker and Astros manager Larry Dierker, right, before a game on Sept. 18, 2001. JOHN G. MABANGLO AFP via Getty Images The quiet legacy of generosity<\/p>\n

\u201cCrossroads\u201d reportedly leaves out some of the most striking stories about Baker \u2014 and that\u2019s by design. Those close to him describe a pattern of quiet generosity that he has never sought credit for.<\/p>\n

At Kyles Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church in Oak Park, Baker donated a significant sum to build a kitchen named in honor of Royster\u2019s mother, who had been kind to Baker\u2019s own mother. \u201cI didn\u2019t know that he was even doing it until the church told me,\u201d Royster said.<\/p>\n

When Kludt\u2019s first wife, Yvonne, died in 1982 at age 32, Baker made it to Stockton for her funeral on a Dodgers off-day, then played the next day, going 1 for 4 with a double. When Kludt\u2019s son and Baker\u2019s godson, Jon Kludt, was diagnosed with leukemia in the early 1990s, Baker \u2014 then in his first managerial gig with the Giants \u2014 arranged for Jon to come to spring training in Scottsdale in March 1994, where he met then-Giants catcher Kirt Manwaring. Jon died months later, just past his 18th birthday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a week that he\u2019d never forget,\u201d Kludt said.<\/p>\n

Baker has also done extensive charitable work with homeless populations in both Sacramento and Houston, motivated in part by his late brother Victor, who experienced homelessness. He takes \u201call my clothes\u201d to Loaves & Fishes, he told The Bee in 2022<\/a>, and has partnered with the Astros Foundation on outreach in Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never wanted attention for any of that stuff,\u201d said Manwaring, who is now 60 and lives in Florida. \u201cThat\u2019s just the type of man he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Former Former Major League Baseball players Dusty Baker, left, and Derrek Lee show their support as Sacramento regional leaders announce the region\u2019s bid for a Major League Baseball expansion team during a news conference at The Barn in West Sacramento on Thursday, May 28, 2026. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. pkitagaki@sacbee.com What to watch for next<\/p>\n

For Sacramento baseball boosters, the next few months matter. Baker\u2019s appearance next week with Johnson at Underground Books is the local launch moment for \u201cCrossroads.\u201d A Hall of Fame announcement could come this fall. And the MLB expansion bid Baker helped publicly endorse will continue to develop in the months ahead.<\/p>\n

Royster plans to attend the Underground Books event. \u201cI\u2019m going up to Dusty, and we\u2019re getting hugs because of what he\u2019s done … for so many people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As Baker himself put it, reflecting on why he wrote the memoir: \u201cThe Lord, he could have taken me like a dozen times. Maybe I was supposed to tell my story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Former Former Giants manager Dusty Baker shares a moment with Jordyn Gant of Vacaville at the San Francisco Giants Fanfest, at Sutter Health Park on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in West Sacramento. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence based on our own originally reported, written and published content. Before publishing, journalists reviewed this content in compliance with McClatchy Media\u2019s AI policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 8:00 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dusty Baker\u2019s memoir \u201cCrossroads\u201d hits bookshelves Tuesday \u2014 and for Sacramento baseball boosters tracking the region\u2019s Major League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-353278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}