Dusty Baker retires: How many World Series did he win as a player and a coach?

As a player Baker won a World Series in 1981 with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He started his career with the Atlanta Braves, where he played with homerun legend Hank Aaron. His best years were with the Dodgers and he ended his professional career with the San Francisco Giants and Oakland As.

After his playing days he worked as a stockbroker until 1987 when he got a phone call from Hank Aaron, Joe Morgan and Frank Robinson, who asked him to help players find jobs after their playing days were over. One thing lead to another and he started coaching in 1988 in the minor leagues.

Major league coaching highlights

In 1992 he got his first head coaching job for the San Francisco Giants and in 2002 he took them to the World Series where they lost in Game 7 to the Anaheim Angels. In 2003 he led the Chicago Cubs to the National League Championship Series, but lost in Game 7 to the Miami Marlins in the infamous Game where Cubs fan Steve Bartman got in the way of a fly ball that cost the Cubs dearly.

In 2012 his Cincinnati Reds won 97 games, but lost in the National League Division Series to the San Francisco Giants. 2016 was another successful year for Baker as a coach, but it ended in Game 5 of the NLDS to the Los Angeles Dodgers. 2013 brought more success for the Reds until losing the Wild Card game to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Astros postseason frustration

In 2020 while coaching the Houston Astros he took the team to the ALCS, but lost in Game 7 to the Tampa Bay Rays. 2021 was another great season for the Houston Astros, the second season for Baker after taking over for A..J. Hinch in the wake of their cheating scandal and Baker took them all the way to the World Series, where they ended up losing to the Atlanta Braves in Game 6. In 2022 he became the oldest coach to ever win a World Series. Although he was close, he didn’t quite reach the World Series this year with the Astros.

2022 was a great year for Dusty Baker and his impressive Houston Astros who beat the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 to win the World Series. They did it in front of their home crowd in Houston and won the last three consecutive games after being down 2-1 in the series.