Whicker: Without Don Baylor, the game slips out of its groove

Don Baylor hits against Baltimore in the 1979 ALCS. (Photo by Getty Images)
FILE – In this Oct. 5, 1979, file photo, California Angels’ Don Baylor, left, gets a handshake from teammate Rod Carew (29) after hitting a home run in the fourth inning of Game 3 of the American League playoffs against the Baltimore Orioles, in Anaheim, Calif. Baltimore catcher Dave Skaggs is at center. Don Baylor, the 1979 AL MVP with the California Angels who went on to become manager of the year with the Colorado Rockies in 1995, has died. He was 68. Baylor died Monday, Aug. 7, 2017, at a hospital in Austin, Texas, his son, Don Baylor Jr., told the Austin American-Statesman. (AP Photo/File)
File – Los Angeles Angels batting coach Don Baylor smiles prior to a baseball game at Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., on Wednesday, June 24, 2014. Baylor, the 1979 AL MVP with the California Angels who went on to become manager of the year with the Colorado Rockies in 1995, has died. He was 68. Baylor died Monday, Aug. 7, 2017, at a hospital in Austin, Texas, his son, Don Baylor Jr., told the Austin American-Statesman. (Keith Birmingham Pasadena Star-News)
File – Angels’ hitting coach Don Baylor sits in the dugout before the Halos’ 9-2 loss to the Oakland Athletics Wednesday night at Angel Stadium. Baylor, the 1979 AL MVP with the California Angels who went on to become manager of the year with the Colorado Rockies in 1995, has died. He was 68. Baylor died Monday, Aug. 7, 2017, at a hospital in Austin, Texas, his son, Don Baylor Jr., told the Austin American-Statesman. 4/22/15 (Photo by KEVIN SULLIVAN / Orange County Register)
Los Angeles Angels hitting coach Don Baylor during batting practice prior to a Major League Baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, July 31, 2015 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Keith Birmingham/ Pasadena Star-News)
Los Angeles Angels hitting coach Don Baylor (25) high fives teammates prior to a Major League baseball game against the Kansas City Royals on Opening night at Angel Stadium of Anaheim in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, April 10, 2015. (Photo by Keith Birmingham/ Pasadena Star-News)
The Los Angeles Angels hitting coach Don Baylor comes off the field after batting practice before they play the Los Angeles Dodgers in their Freeway Series pre-season game ant Angels Stadium in Anaheim on Saturday March 29, 2014. (Staff Photo by Keith Durflinger/San Gabriel Valley Tribune)
The Los Angeles Angels hitting coach Don Baylor watches batting practice before they play the Los Angeles Dodgers in their Freeway Series pre-season game ant Angels Stadium in Anaheim on Saturday March 29, 2014. (Staff Photo by Keith Durflinger/San Gabriel Valley Tribune)
The Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout (#27) listens to batting coach Don Baylor as they play against the Dodgers in their Freeway Series pre-season game ant Angels Stadium in Anaheim on Saturday March 29, 2014. (Staff Photo by Keith Durflinger/San Gabriel Valley Tribune)
File – Los Angeles Angels batting coach Don Baylor (25) is helped off the field after injuring his leg during a ceremonial pitch by former Angel Vladimir Guerrero (not pictured) prior to a Major League baseball game against the Seattle Mariners on Opening Night at Angel Stadium of Anaheim in Anaheim, Calif., on Monday, March 31, 2014. (Keith Birmingham Pasadena Star-News)
Colorado Rockies batting instructor and former California Angel Don Baylor (25) during a major league baseball game at Angel Stadium on Saturday, June 26, 2010, in Anaheim. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Keith Birmingham/SPORTS)
Oakland A’s Don Baylor, left, and Mark McGwire, limber up in the outfield at Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 1988 prior to the the start of the third game of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The A’s trail the best-of-seven series 2-0. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
American League starting pitcher Nolan Ryan of the California Angels, goes through warn-up exercises before the start of the 50th All Star game in Seattle’s Kingdome, Tuesday, July 17, 1979. At right is teammates Don Baylor of the Angels, also a member of the starting lineup. (AP Photo)
FILE – In this Aug. 13, 1977, file photo, New York Yankees’ Willie Randolph falls on top of the California Angels’ Don Baylor after throwing to first base to complete a double play, at Yankee Stadium in New York. Don Baylor, the 1979 AL MVP with the California Angels who went on to become manager of the year with the Colorado Rockies in 1995, has died. He was 68. Baylor died Monday, Aug. 7, 2017, at a hospital in Austin, Texas, his son, Don Baylor Jr., told the Austin American-Statesman. (AP Photo/Ray Stubblebine, File)

Expand

Don Baylor and Bobby Grich grew up as Baltimore Orioles, playing on a legendary Rochester Triple-A team.

“We had a mantra throughout that organization that I never heard anywhere else,” Grich said Monday. “We said, ‘If we win, everybody had a good year.’’’

If you played with Don Baylor, you had a good year.

You generally won, too. From 1986-88, Baylor went to three World Series on three different teams. Bruce Hurst told him, “Tell me where you’re playing next year so I know who is going to win.”

The Angels played their first game in 1961 and saw their first postseason in 1979. That was the “Yes, We Can” year, when Baylor drove in 138 runs, and Grich noticed how his shoulder and legs ached before games, and Baylor played all 162 of them and led the American League in runs as a cleanup hitter. He was the Angels’ first Most Valuable Player.

He was the centerpiece of the table, weighty and thick, impossible to move. He showed how easily one could live if one divested oneself of the artifice and held onto the grace. A tough trick, but Baylor did it until Monday, when he died at 68, from myeloma that had advanced further than nearly anybody knew.

“He was a great teammate,” Grich said. “Even in the minor leagues he was a leader.

“When he and I and Joe Rudi came to the Angels (as free agents), I was out with a bad disk and Joe was after he was hit by a pitch. The team struggled and Don was the only new guy out there, and he bore the brunt of all the frustration. He could have called the fans front-runners and written them off. Instead he never complained and he just kept playing, and eventually we won.”

The Hall of Fame has become the Hall of Numbers and, as such, has a problem with a guy with the immeasurables of Baylor.

He had one 100-RBI season, 2,135 hits and a .260 average, and he hit 338 home runs. Those are disqualifiers. He was on the ballot for two years and got 2.6 percent of the votes both times.

Never mind the number of 3,000-hit men who do their thing, walk out and leave nothing behind but their stats. They deserve Cooperstown, too, but Baylor’s name brought a smile to nearly every teammate. On Monday it brought tears, as well.

How many guys were MVPs and All-Stars and yet managed an expansion team to the playoffs in its third year? Baylor took over the Colorado Rockies in 1993. The Blake Street Bombers were the first National League wild-card club

First there was the strife of the 1995 spring, and the replacement-player scheme. Baylor wanted no part of anything that defiled baseball or mocked the men who had earned their way to the majors.

“”He’d sit in his office and figure out the lineup, and if the game started at 1:05 he was out there at 1:03,” said Mike Swanson, then the Rockies’ director of communications. “We had cast members from ‘Major League 2’ on that team. Every day he would ask me, ‘Heard anything yet?’ When it (the lockout) was settled, he was the happiest man you ever saw.”

One of Baylor’s few impudent moments came when he got to Baltimore and faced an outfield logjam. “Once I get in the groove, it won’t matter who’s out there,” he said offhandedly.

For weeks on end, Frank Robinson and Mark Belanger pounded him with comments. Baylor’s lifelong nickname became Groove. It became his license plate.

His first mentor was Robinson, who conducted kangaroo court hearings in the clubhouse and fined players for various misdeeds. Baylor took up the gavel in Boston.

But Grich says Baylor’s true legacy was the Sixty-Five Roses campaign, for victims of cystic fibrosis. Prompted by Dr. Gene Moses in 1979, Baylor organized the annual golf tournament that has been replicated in every pro sports league.

“He’s raised $10 million,” Grich said. “The life expectancy is now 37 years old.”

Few CF children saw their first birthday in the 30s, but in 1989 doctors discovered the gene that caused it. Baylor only said he wanted to hear one thing: “Yes, we did.” He wanted the bottom-line cure.

Baylor was a strong union supporter, and he clashed with George Steinbrenner and Buzzie Bavasi. He was prideful and opinionated in a sport that prefers submissiveness.

But he was the axis of every clubhouse, and his friends didn’t just grieve Monday. They felt unbalanced. They were accustomed to good years, because to know Don Baylor was to borrow winning.

Whicker: Without Don Baylor, the game slips out of its groove

Leave a Reply