California Angels.

Date of birth: June 28, 1949 Austin, TX

Date of death: August 7, 2017 (68)

High School:  Stephen F. Austin HS (Austin, TX)

College: Blinn College

Nickname: Groove or The Sneak Thief. Groove I get. Sneak Thief?

First Impression; They asked Don to pose like its 10th grade school photo day. He has his collar on like a good kid would. The mountains in the background are probably Palm Springs, CA, as that is where they had their spring training site back in that era.

Career stats player: He was drafted by the Orioles and had two cup of coffee seasons before sticking in the majors in 1972. In 1976 Baylor was traded to the A’s with Paul Mitchell and Mike Torrez for a minor leaguer, Ken Holtzman and Reggie Jackson. In 1979 Baylor broke out and was an All-Star, hit .296, 36 homers and a league high 139 RBI on his way to MVP for the Angels.

All Time Stat: He was pretty much the first player to play DH regularly. There are 5 players who played 1200 games at DH and had 2100 hits. David Ortiz, Frank Thomas, Edgar Martinez, Harold Baines and Baylor.

Career stats manager: 627-689. Don was the first manager in Colorado Rockies history. And they had a winning record within 3 years (77–67) in 1995 and made the postseason as the wildcard team. As a result, Baylor won the National League Manager of the Year Award. Ding for not being a full season but all managers had that issue.

For modern expansion teams (1969 to 1998) here is how long it took them for a winning season and a postseason berth:

KC 1969 1971 (85 wins) 1976
MIL 1969 1978 (93 wins) 1981
EXPOS 1969 1979 (95 wins) 1981
PADRES 1969 1978 (84 wins) 1984
FLA 1993 1997 (92 wins) 1997 World Series Winner.
AZ 1998 1999 (100 wins) 1999
TB 1998 2008 (97 wins) 2008

So overall very good for an expansion team but my recollection is that they had some hired guns on the early teams and nobody behind them. They were never able to get a stable rotation together and the team was pretty poor and finished 4th or 5th every year after they fired Baylor, 1998. That is until they made the World Series in 2007 and were swept by the Red Sox.

Don hung around and after one year on staff in Atlanta, he was hired to manage the Cubs in 2000, replacing Jim Riggleman. This was the summer that I worked at the Chicago Tribune, the owners of the Cubs. I drew a paycheck from the same employer of Sammy Sosa. I got to go to one function at Wrigley that I can recall and I still have my “keepsake bat” which is very cool. But my Tribune experience was very Rick Renteria like, one and done. I was laid off essentially after the season.

The sneaky thief didn’t get one over on anyone as far as I can tell. The Cubs were the Cubs and Sammy was the only attraction. Nobody was coming to see Damon Buford, no offense to him. Or if you were fans of another team you would go when Kevin Tapani and John Lieber pitched as they surrendered 35 and 36 homers that year.

2001 was an improvement. Todd Hundley was rounding out of form… just kidding. Sosa was the show again, 60 homers. Lieber and Tapani kept more balls in the park, about 10 less each than the prior year and their ERAs were better as well. They added Jason Bere and Kerry Wood was in the rotation the full year.

They fired Baylor after a 34-49 start, and he was replaced by Bruce Kimm.

Fun Fact: All I remember about Don Baylor the player, aside from his stature and DH, etc, was that he was always mentioned as being hit by the most pitches. Those other guys I mentioned earlier, Papi, Big Hurt, Baines and Edgar? For their careers they were hit 228 times total as a group. Big Don, was Grooved 267 times. Alas his career record was broken by Craig Biggio.

He had no issues getting hit at home (132) or the road (135). Also big dude stole 285 bases. Final stat, cmon Don was the man, of the players who his more than his 338 homers, only Alfonso Soriano 289, Andre Dawson 314, Carlos Beltran 312, Modern AROD 329, Willie May 339 and Barry Bonds 514 had more steals.

Ever a Future Star?  Great rookie card: 1971 Topps #709 Outfielders 1971 Rookie Stars (Dusty Baker / Tom Paciorek / Don Baylor) 

Rookie or final card? No, he would also get manager cards in 1993 and 2001-2002.

Hall of Fame? Number retired? No but he did win a ring with the Twins in 1987 and is in the Angels Hall of Fame.

Links to stories including Don Baylor.