Baker Commanding More Than Respect

If the San Francisco Giants stay healthy, Dusty Baker believes, they won’t need any of the manager’s usual mirrors and slight of hand--as some have described it--to remain in contention in the National League West.

A young and rebuilt rotation features five pitchers capable of winning 15 games each, Baker says.

A lineup anchored by Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent includes six players who hit 20 or more home runs last year.

A sold-out season in new Pacific Bell Park, Baker suggests, should provide a positive impact in the form of a “10th man” often missing at cold and wind-swept Candlestick Park.

“We can play with anybody if we avoid the injuries of the last couple years,” Baker said. “The [Arizona] Diamondbacks should be favored because they won last year, but they’re not a runaway favorite. It’s a tough division and I don’t see anybody being a shoo-in.”

Interestingly, it could be an exciting last hurrah for Baker with the Giants, although it is difficult to believe that the club and manager will let it come to that.

Baker is in the last year of a contract paying about $750,000 and has not acted on a two-year, $2.4-million extension offered last winter after General Manager Brian Sabean received a two-year extension through the 2003 season.

Arriving at the park on his custom motorcycle with the stenciling “Mon Baker” on the front fender, Baker is in the driver’s seat in more ways than one.

Since his 1993 hiring by a new ownership group headed by Peter Magowan, he has helped the mid-market Giants produce the third-best record in baseball--often accomplishing more with less.

He is immensely popular in the Bay Area, is aware--as his club is--that he could be the first choice of the Dodgers if the Dodgers make a managerial change, and he comes up for renewal at a time when the escalation in managerial salaries is finally catching up with that of player salaries.

As established by the recent signings of Joe Torre, Tony LaRussa and the since-retired Jim Leyland, the top managers can now demand salaries in the $2-million-a-year neighborhood--and the signings last winter of Phil Garner by the Detroit Tigers and Don Baylor by the Chicago Cubs set longevity standards. Garner received four years at $1.2 million per year, Baylor four at $1.3.

The Giants, by contrast, are low-balling their two-time manager of the year in money and years.

“We’re finally beginning to see an overdue appreciation for a job that’s become increasingly difficult,” Baker said, speaking generally.

“For a long time, managerial salaries have been way behind those of professional football and basketball coaches.

“In my case, I won’t deny that the money is important, but it’s not the only thing. There are a lot of variables. I want to see how the new park and everything connected with it plays out. I don’t want [the contract] to be a distraction to the team, but I also don’t see any need to rush into anything right now. The Giants made a reasonable offer. I’m just not at a point where I want to negotiate. I always pray over my major decisions, and I don’t have an answer yet.”

One of the questions Baker ultimately wants answered is how management plans to spend the increased revenue from the new park.

A year ago he said: “It’s definitely a compliment when people say I’ve won with less, but it’s a double-edged sword. At some point, I’d like to see if I could win with more. I’m not at that point yet.”

Neither is he now, but a year from now it could be different. Team revenue is expected to double in the new park, increasing to $120 million this year, according to Magowan. However, the privately financed park cost $319 million, and the Giants will owe $20 million per year on a $170-million bank loan.

The 2000 payroll is $56 million, up from $46 million last year and $37 million the year before, but the tentative plan calls for a $60 million limit in 2001, despite the added resources. Of course, Sabean always has been able to pull a shrewd move at the mid-summer trade deadline if the team is in contention, talking ownership into the needed funds.

“I admit we’re not the big spenders that the Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Yankees, Orioles and Braves are,” Magowan said. “We don’t have their revenue streams. But in the eight years since I hired Dusty we’ve had that third-best record in baseball despite all of the [financial] limitations of Candlestick Park, and I don’t think anyone would expect us not to remain a contender given the enhanced environment in the new park.”

At some point, as Baker suggested a year ago, he will want to know how that enhancement translates in terms of the team’s needs and his personal compensation.

At some point, the Dodgers could come calling if another staggering season resulted in the firing of Manager Davey Johnson, who is signed through 2001.

Baker spent eight years in Los Angeles as an outfield and clubhouse force.

He wouldn’t discuss a possible return other than to call it a rumor that won’t go away.

Sources familiar with the situation said Baker is wary of the Dodgers’ recent instability and clouded lines of authority given the presence of Tom Lasorda at the ear of close friend Bob Daly--and occasional presence in the clubhouse and manager’s office.

Furthermore, they say, as a fishing and motorcycling enthusiast who loves the recreational opportunities of the Bay Area, Baker seems unlikely to leave for the clogged Southland.

Said Magowan: “I’m confident Dusty wants to stay and am comfortable proceeding without a timetable.”

For Baker, at 50, the certainty is that he wants to continue managing, believes he is improving with experience and is hopeful of still wearing a uniform when his 1-year-old son, Darren, is old enough to enjoy visiting the clubhouse.

“I have a 20-year-old daughter [Natosha], but I’ve always been envious of guys exposing their sons to this experience while they were still in uniform rather than just showing some black-and-white photos or videos,” Baker said.

Whether he will still be wearing a Giants’ uniform--”I realize that the days of Walter Alston and Tom Lasorda spending their whole managerial career with one team are pretty much over,” he said--is uncertain, but “I have a job to do and will continue to do it to the best of my ability. I love challenges and I like this group of guys. We may not be great in any area, but we’ll be good in a lot of areas. And I think that being good in a lot of areas can take you further than if you’re great in a couple areas, unless you’re great in pitching like the Braves have always been.”

The Giants are not great in pitching, but last season’s development of Russ Ortiz (18-9) and Joe Nathan (7-4) parlayed to a reconditioned Livan Hernandez, reliable Kirk Reuter and former 20-win threat Shawn Estes (who has been troubled by a tender shoulder) gives Baker a 29-and-under rotation he believes capable of 75 wins.

The Giants finished second with an 86-76 record last year despite having 11 players on the disabled list, including Bonds and third baseman Bill Mueller, each sidelined for almost two months. The only significant lineup change stems from the signing of free agent Russ Davis as a platoon partner for Mueller. The critical concern involves closer Robb Nen, who blew nine of 46 save chances last year, had winter elbow surgery and is being brought back slowly this spring.

Nen has to regain his dominant form if the Giants are to be successful anywhere but at the gate in their first season at PacBell. The manager’s first and last?

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San Francisco Treat

Dusty Baker’s year-by-year record as manager of the San Francisco Giants:

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Year Record NL West finish 1993 103-59 2nd 1994 53-60 * 1995 66-77 4th 1996 68-94 4th 1997 90-72 1st 1998 89-74 2nd 1999 86-76 2nd Total 558-512

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* In second place at the time of the season-ending strike on Aug. 12