World Series: Dusty Baker and Rhys Hoskins give baseball’s finale a Sacramento flavor
Reggie Christiansen saw the Rhys Hoskins impact up close and personal.
Long before Hoskins was swatting dramatic playoff home runs for the Philadelphia Phillies, he excelled at Sacramento State. Christiansen was his coach. They formed a good player-mentor bond that now is a close friendship, so much so that the coach can’t get enough of the slugger.
Now that Hoskins and the Phillies are in the World Series, Christiansen is plotting more visits. Philadelphia plays the Houston Astros, led by manager Dusty Baker, who also has deep regional roots; he played at Del Campo High School and attended, briefly, American River College. Game 1 is Friday in Houston.
“No way I’m missing this!” Christiansen said excitedly this week. “I went to two games in the Philly-Atlanta series, and I was in San Diego for the (National League Championship Series) for games 1 and 2 with my wife. This is just so cool.”
Hoskins was a star at Jesuit High School and signed with Sacramento State, the only school to offer him a scholarship in 2011. He was named the Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year after belting 10 home runs. He had 12 more dingers as a junior in earning WAC Player of the Year honors and was a fifth-round pick of the Phillies in 2014. He has been with the big-league team since 2017, a first baseman who has driven in 405 runs with 148 homers in that time.
Hoskins has flourished, motivated in part by his mother, Cathy, who died of breast cancer in 2009, just before his 16th birthday.
Christiansen and Hoskins’ father, Paul, have sat next to each other during some of these tense playoff games.
“We’re all in the family section at these games, with Bryce Harper’s family, all of them,” Christiansen said. “It’s like watching your own kid in Little League or high school again, the us and downs, except these games are on national TV and there are millions of people watching. It’s the very same feel of anxiety of each pitch, of each at bat, and you want your guy to do well. It’s been a whirlwind.”
Christiansen added of the notoriously hostile Philadelphia fan base, “People outside of Philly don’t realize the scrutiny of that fan base. Look at his career and there’s been some ups and downs. To see what he’s done lately, to see the response from the fans, it’s been pretty awesome.”
The 29-year-old Hoskins belted 30 home runs this regular season and he hit four in the NLCS, the most by a Philadelphia player in franchise history.
He said to media after his team eliminated the Padres in five games, “It’s everything. This organization is the one that believed in me and gave me an opportunity to impact the city of Philadelphia in any way. There’s been a lot of people that have had a lot of hands in this going back since I got drafted, but definitely since I got here in 2017. A lot of people that aren’t here that put in work, laid the groundwork for the people that are here to succeed, to dream and to win.”
Christiansen said fame hasn’t changed Hoskins. He’s the same guy.
“He’s such a good person,” Christiansen said. “There was a group of us who went to a game in San Diego, and here it is the middle of the NLCS and he takes time to catch up with is. He’s such a humble, humble person. It’s never been about him. When we saw him play in Atlanta, he said, “I want to thank you guys for coming. You don’t know how much it means to me. The season is long. It’s so good for my soul. I’m thinking, ‘This guys is salt of the Earth.’”
Animated and loud support for Dusty Baker
At the Guy Anderson home in Gold River, there are multiple television sets for the National High School Hall of Fame coach to bark at.
There’s one inside, one outside for Anderson to work over as he pours out his support for his decades-long friend, Dusty Baker. Anderson won more than 700 games as the Cordova High School baseball coach, but one game he didn’t win was when he faced a young Dusty Baker in 1965.
“Beat me with a base hit and we lost 2-1,” Anderson said with a laugh. “I’ll never forget that.”
In the fall of 1966, Anderson was the public address announcer for home Cordova games, and he nearly dropped the mic and his jaw at the sight of Baker scoring seven touchdowns during a day game. His first thought: greatness.
Baker was a four-sport star at Del Campo and joined Anderson in that prep Hall of Fame several years ago. Baker played 19 Major League Baseball seasons and has earned three Manager of the Year honors. It was 20 years ago this week that J.T. Snow plucked 3-year-old Giants batboy Darren Baker away from home plate during a World Series showdown with Anaheim.
Darren went on to star at Jesuit and Cal and is the minor leagues with the Washington Nationals organization.
Baker, Anderson said, was the right coach to take over the Astros before the 2020 season. It took a man of impeccable reputation and thick skin to take over an Astros team rocked by a World Series sign-stealing scandal. The Astros reached the World Series last season, falling to the Braves.
“Dusty came in and took over a tough situation in Houston, and he settled things down and got the most out of them,” Anderson said. “He has that personalty. He connects with the players. They love him. They don’t care how old he is. He got a lot of that discipline from his father.”
Indeed, Johnnie B. Baker was not an easy man to play for or please. He cut young Dusty three times in Little League.
“I was a hot head, a bad temper,” Baker told The Bee a year ago. “I learned the hard way.”
Anderson said Baker’s gifts include being supremely prepared. He recalled visiting Baker’s coaching office years ago when he managed the Giants.
“He had all these 3x5 index cards, well before the computer analytics era,” Anderson said. “He’s very active in the dugout. I see managers now, and some just sit there. I don’t see that they have the same mindset as Dusty. He knows the game so well, and he knows his players well.”
Anderson said Baker badly wanted to return to baseball for one final shot at the World Series. He said the Astros giving him that shot, “saved his soul.”
“Dusty is so good for baseball,” Anderson said.
The Astros also employ reserve centerfielder Mauricio Dubon, a Capital Christian High School graduate. Anderson coached at Capital Christian after Dubon was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 2013 but met him several times when he visited his alma mater.
“I texted Dusty when the Astros got him and told him they have a real fine young man,” Anderson said. “Dubon would come back to Capital Christian and work with our kids. I was so impressed.”
Game 1 of the World Series is Friday in Houston, a 5:03 p.m. local start. Christiansen of Sacramento State will be there. Anderson will be camped in front of his TV, probably well away from his tolerant wife, Karen.
“When he watches games, he drives me nuts!” Karen said. “He’s still coaching, raising his voice. He is the worst. He can yell inside and I’ll sit outside, where it’s much more pleasant.”
Anderson defends his vocals, explaining, “I’ll be rooting for Dusty!”