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General  | General | 2/2/2005

PG Supervisor and former Big Leaguer Doug Baker

David Rawnsley


Doug Baker, Perfect Games' West Coast Scouting Supervisor, is a very familiar face to veterans of the California baseball scene, especially Southern California.

Baker played his high school baseball at Granite Hills High School and attended Las Angeles Valley JC for 3 years before moving on to Arizona State and a 10 year professional career, including a spot on the 1984 World Champion Detroit Tigers team. He returned to his baseball roots after one year as a minor league coach as a scout, first with the Atlanta Braves (3 years), then with the Cleveland Indians (8 years) before joining Perfect Game in 2003.

We had a chance to catch up with Baker between the numerous PG/WWBA events             Doug Baker presents 3rd place tophy to a coach from the
this winter in California and his new duties with his 5 month old son.                                   Bayside Yankees at the 2004 WWBA World Championship
                                                                                                                                                                                 
One thing that always stands out in talking with Baker about his baseball career is his sense of thankfulness and perspective for the opportunities that baseball has given him. For those that personally know ex-Major League players, there is almost always a buzz and confidence about them that comes with the label "Big Leaguer". Baker has that, no doubt. But it's always tempered by a smugness about admitting that he was a 5-8 reserve infielder who didn't exactly tear it up in the batter's box, either.

"You have to remember," says Baker, "that I was so good when I was a kid that I red-shirted my first year at Los Angeles Valley. A JC redshirt. How many kids today are going to be happy with that.....hearing the coach say 'we'd love for you to come to our school, but by the way, you're not good enough to play yet'. I was just happy to be playing baseball."

"Let's put it another way. I went to Granite Hills with a famous athlete, some baseball player who also played a bit of football named John Elway. They aren't going to put a sign in the high school parking lot saying "Famous Alumni: Doug Baker, class of '78"

A recurrent theme when Baker talks about his baseball experiences is the quality of coaches he's played under.

"When I was at Los Angeles Valley, our two coaches were Dave Snow and George Horton, both young guys working themselves up the baseball ladder and starting to earn themselves the respect they have today. What a great opportunity for a young player to play for those two. Then I was fortunate enough to move on to Arizona State for a year and played for College Hall of Famer Jim Brock. Now coach Brock wasn't always the easiest coach to play for, and if any of his former players read this they will know what I mean, but his record speaks for itself and I was able to get drafted after playing for him for a year."

Baker was a 9th round draft pick of the Tigers in 1982 and was immediately assigned to the AA level, a rare starting point even for a polished college player. He made his Major League debut on July 2, 1984 and ended up playing parts of every season from 1984 to 1990 in the Majors. He retired after leading the Astros AAA affiliate, Tucson, to the 1991 AAA World Series title.

"My two big league managers were Sparky Anderson and Tom Kelley," says Baker. "Sparky has more rings than Kelley does but both are two of the most accomplished managers in history. For a player like me, Kelley was by far the best manager I could have. You've often heard about how a manager "Gets the most out of his players." Well, that was Kelley. He cared about the 25th player on the team (usually me) as much as the stars and made sure that you felt you were contributing. If you got some at bats one day and had a hit or two, he'd make sure that you were out there again the next day just to get your confidence up."

Baker's best year was in 1989, when he hit a career high .295 with 9 Rbi's in 78 at bats while playing for Kelley. "Sparky, on the other hand, knew who his studs were and with guys like Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Lance Parrish, Kirk Gibson and Jack Morris, the Tigers obviously had some good ones. He took care of them and the bench guys knew our role was to take care of them, too. Whitaker (a left handed hitter) tended to have a sore back or flu like symptoms only when we were facing some nasty left handed pitcher, so I'd be out there not having seen a live pitch in 2 weeks and trying to hit off of Ron Guidry or Mark Langston or Frank Viola. So hitting .185 (his batting average in 1984) doesn't seem so bad in retrospect."

"Playing behind Trammell and Whitaker was a treat because they were such talented players, and very different personalities. Trammell is from Southern California and was one of the best teammates I ever had. Super guy who was nice to a fault with everyone. I haven't talked with anyone about how he is in the dugout as a manager with the Tigers now but I'm sure he's great.

"Whitaker was an immensely talented player who could do just about anything he wanted on the field. He'd go on these streaks with no explanation where he's say 'I'm going to pull the ball in the air for a few days', or "I'm going to hit line drives over the shortstop for a few days' and just do it. Heck, I couldn't do that in BP. But he was a very different personality, that's for sure.

When asked about what it was like to be a member of a World Series Champion team, even as a .185 hitting reserve, Baker's answer was immediate. "It's exactly what you think it would be. There's nothing better. You're on top of the world."

Baker's connection to Perfect Game goes back to his roots, and Perfect Game's. Baker's family are Iowa natives and Baker's brother Dave (who also reached the Big Leagues with Toronto in 1983 and played for UCLA for 4 years) is the head baseball coach at Knoxville (IA) High School. Perfect Game, of course, is headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

"Working and scouting for Perfect Game is much different than scouting for a Major League organization," says Baker. "We're working with kids and helping them develop their games at a much more basic level. We're peeling back the layers of talent and not just thinking about the top prospects like the pro scouts are. That's not a critique of the pro scouts at all, that's their job. But Perfect Game is looking to be involved with players today that are like Doug Baker was back in the late 1970's; the kids who have some undeveloped talent but who love the game and want to play it as long as they can. Sure, I love watching the best players perform as much as anyone and will try and get a chance to at every opportunity. But it's been a great experience looking beyond those top, top talents down into the huge core of talented California prospects.

Baker also cautions that it just isn't California talent anymore, either.

"We see players from all over the Western Region of the country. The talent in California is as good if not better than it's ever been, but there are areas such as Las Vegas, Utah and Arizona that are really picking it up as more people move there and good coaches and good youth programs get established. We had an underclass event here in November and some of the best sophomores there had flown in from Utah. These were just excellent young talents."

Baker's advice for young players is simple. "Play like it's fun to play. I know it's trite but they still call this a 'Game' and that's what it should be. I know I grew up like every kid with a glove and cleats thinking that I wanted to be a big leaguer. I was very lucky. But when I went on the field I was just thinking how great it was that I was playing baseball with my friends."
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