Three hours before a game 25 years and a thousand heartaches in the making, and with fresh news that his first baseman is out with a knee injury, Astros manager Dusty Baker relaxes in his office to the plaintive wails of the Texas blues, courtesy of Big Mama Thornton. Like Baker, Big Mama came to Houston to find unprecedented success.
This was to be the third time Baker sat in his managerial office with a chance to win the World Series that night. The other two, both in 2002, ended in disaster. In Game 6, his Giants blew a 5–0 lead to the Angels seven outs away from the title, making for the worst-ever collapse in a potential clincher. The next night, in Game 7, his team took a 1–0 lead and lost, 4–1. In all, Baker had 24 previous seasons as a manager, and all of them ended out of contention or with a playoff loss.
Big Mama wailing from his Bluetooth speaker, however, has nothing to do with his baseball blues and everything to do with the breadth of interest from baseball’s preeminent polymath. The scorecard of Baker’s musical choices before each game of the World Series looked like this, in order: Muddy Waters, Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, Migos, Tupac and Big Mama Thornton.
