Astros have vested interest in this year's Hall of Fame's Contemporary Era Ballot

This year’s Contemporary Baseball Era Hall of Fame ballot has a bit of a Houston Astros flair, though nobody will go in with a star on their cap. Nobody spent the bulk of their career in Houston, but the Astros are all over two names, both of whom seem like they have a real good chance to get elected.

Those two are Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy. One was the manager for the 2022 World Series champs. The other got his first big league at bats as a backup catcher in the Astrodome. As a tidy little footnote, Bochy beat Baker in Baker’s final games as a manager. If the 16-person committee gets it right, both men will be making speeches in Cooperstown in July, and Houston will have its fingers on both.

Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy give the Astros two rooting interests in Cooperstown

The committee is scheduled to meet on December 6 at the Winter Meetings in San Diego (though the lockout might affect that), and a candidate needs 12 of the 16 votes to get in. The same 75 percent threshold required for the traditional voting applies here. Anyone who gets those 16 votes will be included on July 25 alongside whoever is selected by the BBWAA voting in January. 

Baker and Bochy aren’t the only two managers on the ballot. They’re also up against Joe Maddon and Lou Piniella. There are also four executives - Sandy Alderson, Brian Sabean, Ted Turner, and Bill White - a group that the Hall’s Historical Overview Committee narrowed down from every eligible non-player whose biggest impact was deemed to have come after 1980.

It feels like Bochy is the easiest of the bunch. He won 2,252 games, which is sixth all-time. All five managers ahead of him are in the Hall of Fame already. He won three titles in San Francisco with the Giants and then a fourth with the Rangers in 2023. He’s one of just six managers with at least four titles. The other five are, of course, all in the Hall of Fame. If he doesn’t get voted in, they need to rethink how they vote on these committees. 

Bochy’s Houston thread runs in two directions. The first is that he caught for the Astros from 1978 to 1980. No, he wasn’t a Hall of Fame player, but he did start his big league baseball life in Houston, and that means something. The other side isn’t quite so cheery because his Rangers walked into then-Minute Maid Park for Game Seven of the ALCS and ran the Astros off the field to finish a series that saw the road team win all seven games. It was Baker’s last game as a manager, and whether or not Astros fans want a reminder, it’s part of the story.

Baker’s case isn’t quite as airtight, but it’s not that far off. His 2,183 wins rank eighth all time (though Terry Francona is just 75 behind him). Every manager ahead of him is either in the Hall of Fame already or is Bochy. Outside of the Baker, Bochy, and Francona, all of the top-14 in wins are in the Hall of Fame. Only two others have 1,800 or more wins and aren’t enshrined. One of them is Piniella, also on the ballot. The other is Gene Mauch, who is the only manager with 1,800 or more wins and no World Series titles. 

Baker got his teams to the postseason. He took five different franchises to play October baseball, and he won three Manager of the Year awards with the Giants. Plus, and this can’t be ignored, he had a 19-year playing career that included two All-Star nods, 242 home runs, 1,013 RBI, and MVP votes in three different seasons. Most managerial candidates can’t touch that playing resume.

October had always been the problem for him. He had just one title in 26 seasons, and it included some questionable decisions that drove fans crazy. Before he got the job with Houston and finally broke through, it was a foregone conclusion that he wouldn’t make the Hall of Fame.

When he got hired by the Astros in January 2020, the franchise was in a bit of disarray after the sign-stealing fallout. Baker needed a ring, and the Astros needed someone well respected in the game. Both sides got exactly what they wanted and needed. Baker went 320-226 in four years with Houston, making the playoffs in all four seasons and appearing in two World Series, along with the win in 2022. If he gets in, that 2022 title will be the part that did the most work for him.

If it were a binary decision, there's no doubt Baker would get in, but each voter can only vote for three people. This ballot is crowded. Piniella has been on the ballot before, getting 11 votes in both 2018 and 2023. Maddon has the title that broke the streak for the Cubs in 2016 and three Manager of the Year awards of his own. Sabean built the Giants teams that won three titles for Bochy. If a voter sees them as a tandem, that leaves just one spot for Baker, Piniella, or Maddon. A deserving candidate is going to get squeezed, and there’s a pretty good chance Baker is the one who feels it.

Interestingly enough, both Bochy and Baker are working as special assistants in the Giants’ front office, so they’ll likely hear the news at the same time. While neither will be wearing an Astros cap in Cooperstown, that doesn’t mean it isn’t meaningful for Houston for either of them. Baker and Bochy both had longer runs in San Francisco, but Houston still has a stake in both. One gave the franchise a credibility boost when it was needed and won a title to boot. The other started his career in Houston. Both deserve to give speeches on the same day in July.

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