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All The Smoke

Dusty Baker's 50-year Baseball Odyssey

5/13/20261 hr 10 min

Matt sits down with one of baseball's most remarkable figures — Dusty Baker. A 19-year career as a player, one of the greatest managerial runs in the sport's history, and a front-row seat to some of the most defining moments in baseball history.

Dusty opens up about breaking into professional baseball in the Deep South in 1968, navigating sundown laws as a young Black man in the minor leagues, and what it was really like to come of age during one of the most turbulent eras in American history. He shares what it meant to be taken under the wing of legends, like Hank Aaron and Satchel Paige, and how those early experiences shaped the way he led clubhouses for decades.

He also gets into managing Barry Bonds through one of the greatest offensive seasons in baseball history,, the infamous Bartman game in Chicago, inheriting the Houston Astros in the middle of a scandal, and finally winning it all at 73 years old — becoming the oldest manager in history to win a World Series.

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Clips

“We can’t get off”
Sundown law stops Gunsmoke
A death threat in red
World Series with a busted hand
Hank’s lesson on dignity
Asking forgiveness for Astros
Bones on the field
“Lord, you didn’t hear me”
After 715, nobody stayed
Read the book, Dusty

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Speaker 10:00

    This is an iHeart podcast. [upbeat jingle] Guaranteed Human.

  2. Speaker 20:03

    The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection.

  3. Speaker 30:12

    [upbeat music] This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast Deeply Well with Devi Brown. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you. To hear more, listen to Deeply Well with Devi Brown from the Black Effects Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

  4. Isaiah Thomas0:34

    What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas.

  5. C.J. Toledano0:37

    And I'm C.J. Toledano, and it's our favorite time of the year on our podcast Point Game, the playoffs.

  6. Isaiah Thomas0:42

    We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season, and I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was fine with it.

  7. C.J. Toledano0:49

    [laughs] You just understood.

  8. Isaiah Thomas0:50

    That's how personal it got.

  9. C.J. Toledano0:52

    Wow.

  10. Isaiah Thomas0:52

    Then after that game seven, Markieff coming to me, he's like, "You know I love you, dog. You know it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball."

  11. C.J. Toledano0:59

    So listen to Point Game on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

  12. Tom Bogert1:05

    [crowd cheering] American soccer is about to explode.

  13. Tab Ramos1:08

    The World Cup is coming.

  14. Will Friedle1:10

    [crowd cheering] Ramos sending on early. Stewart, the chip. Score!

  15. Tab Ramos1:15

    I'm Tab Ramos.

  16. Tom Bogert1:16

    [crowd cheering] I'm Tom Bogert. On our podcast, Inside American Soccer, you'll get the real story lines, the biggest decisions, and the truth about the US national team.

  17. Tab Ramos1:26

    It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals

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