Leo High School played host to a special visitor on Wednesday, Sept. 7, when Dusty Baker came by to talk to the students at an assembly. Baker, manager of Major League Baseball’s Cincinnati Reds, was in Chicago for a series with the Cubs.
Baker, an All-Star outfielder, appeared in three World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers and also played for the Atlanta Braves, the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics during his career. He has been a major league manager since 1993, winning one pennant and three division titles with the Giants and one division title with the Cubs and the Reds. He is a three-time National League Manager of the Year. Baker and Texas’ Ron Washington are the only African Americans currently managing in the major leagues.
Baker talked baseball and answered the Leo students’ baseball questions, but he also discussed some of the challenges he faced growing up in Northern California at a time when racial tensions and the Vietnam war divided the country. Before Baker signed with the Braves, Hall of Famer Hank Aaron promised Mrs. Baker he would look after her son; he did, and the two men remain friends today.
“ I have never been afraid to pray on a decision, or to seek advice from older, wiser people like my dad,” Baker said.
Kaylon Rimpson, a junior first baseman on Leo’s baseball team, said the students enjoyed hearing from Baker. “He had a lot of good things to say, and he seemed like a real nice guy.”