Dusty Baker gives bizarre reason for retiring, believes he could have managed another 'five years' if things were different

Dusty Baker's Hall of Fame career came to an end after the Texas Rangers defeated the Houston Astros in an ALCS showdown that lasted seven games. Soon after, the 74-year-old announced his retirement and recently opened up about it on a podcast.

On “The Steam Room” podcast hosted by Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley, the then-Astros manager revealed that he was tired of keeping up with questions and could have managed in MLB for another five years:

“We had a lot of success here, Ernie and Charles, and then the last couple of months here weren’t very pleasant, because we weren’t 10 games ahead,” said Baker.

“Every year’s different. There was a whole bunch of criticism from 30-year-olds, bloggers and tweeters that I’m not doing this and I don’t know that and I told my wife, ‘You know, I’m kind of tired of this and tired of the scrutiny and if I could go manage and show up at say 6:30 for a 7 o’clock game and leave 30 minutes after the game, don’t do the pregame and postgame interviews, I could manage for another four or five years.’ You know what I mean?

“After a while, you just get tired of answering questions.” [via New York Post]

Under his leadership, the Astros won the 2022 World Series, and surprisingly, it was Dusty Baker's first as a manager despite coaching in the league since 1993. In an attempt to dial it back, the Astros won the AL West division over the Rangers and came up short in the ALCS.

Questions on Dusty Baker's managerial decisions

The future Hall of Famer's stay with the Astros wasn't squeaky clean and had conflicts throughout the season.

As reported by the New York Post, there were conflicts between Dusty Baker and the organization on their catcher. While Baker preferred 13-year veteran Martin Maldonado, the organization was more invested in rookie Yainer Diaz.

The rookie hit .282 with 100 hits, 23 homers, 60 RBIs and 51 runs scored in 104 games in 2023. On the other hand, the veteran catcher had a .191 batting average with 69 hits, 15 home runs, 36 RBIs and 33 runs scored in 116 games in 2023.

He was also questioned for benching Chas McCormick (.289 with 20 home runs in 95 games during the season). Baker said:

“It’s not all about OPS. It’s not all about hitting, And I’m a hitter, but this is a total game if you’re going to win, you know what I mean? You want to give yourself as many options and categories to win the game. Now, hitting wins the game, usually. But other areas of the games is what loses you one-run games or don’t-do-this or don’t-do-that. I know everybody wants Chas to play.” [via The Athletic]

We might have seen the last of Baker on the baseball field, but it remains to be seen if he is still associated with any MLB organization in an administrative role.