Watch Former Washington Nationals Manager’s Son Get First Career MLB Hit
Darren Baker wasn’t supposed to play on Sunday. The Washington Nationals had called him up as they expanded their roster to 28 players and didn’t put him in the starting lineup.
That didn’t matter to his father, Dusty Baker, who used to manage the Nationals while his son was growing up. He and his wife, Melissa, made the trip all the way from San Francisco so they could be there.
Well, the game got out of hand.
The Chicago Cubs — which just happened to be another former employer of Baker — had the game well in hand in the ninth inning. So, Nationals manager Dave Martinez put Darren Baker into the game as a pinch-hitter.
For the record, Dusty Baker had 1,981 career hits in a 19-year career that spanned from 1968-86.
Darren Baker gave the family Major League hit No. 1,982 in his first at-bat.
Darren Baker gets his first MLB hit on the first pitch he sees in the Bigs!
— MLB (@MLB) September 1, 2024
Proud father moment for Dusty Baker 🥹 pic.twitter.com/O0KrIHny3g
The younger Baker singled and, as he rounded first, the camera panned to the Bakers. Melissa was standing up and applauding her son, and then turned to Dusty and exchanged a high-five.
“I had run it through my head as a kid [as to] what it would be like, and it’s pretty close,” Darren, 25, said to MLB.com. “I was kind of shocked. It kind of settled in, and I feel like I belong. I’m happy.”
It was exactly the kind of father-and-son moment that baseball is built for. And, now the pair can move up the list of career hits between fathers and sons.
Dusty Baker compared it to actors whose sons go into the family business.
“The kids of ballplayers, I like to think like the kids of actors — all the Estevezes, all the Sutherlands — these guys are on the set with their dads when they were this big,” he said. “And the same thing with Darren. That third deck, I don’t think is going to awe him.”
The younger Baker is just the latest prospect to join the Nationals, as the franchise is in the midst of a youth movement at the Major League level that includes two of the game’s top prospects in outfielders James Wood and Dylan Crews.
In fact, on Saturday, Washington started seven rookies for the first time in franchise history.
In his fourth professional season he has put together a great campaign, as he’s slashed .285/.348/.340/.688 with 20 doubles, two triples and 49 RBI.
The second baseman isn’t the power hitter his father was — Dusty Baker slammed 242 home runs for his career — but Darren Baker was red-hot in August, as he batted .337 and had a 16-game hitting streak.
This is part of the reason why Dusty Baker retired after last season. He said he wanted to spend more time watching his son play baseball.
Darren was a 10th round pick in 2021 out of California.
Now, he’ll have all the time to watch his son continue his Major League career.
MATTHEW POSTINS