Dusty’s Book

This is the headline of a story on the front page of today’s Chron hard copy:

Republicans attack Austin ties of Texas Democratic candidates

Here is how the story begins:

Texas Democrats agree they must broaden their appeal beyond their liberal base if they want to compete in the 2026 midterms. 

But four of the party’s top five statewide candidates are from Austin — often jokingly called “the blueberry in Texas’ tomato soup.” And although the fifth one lives in Dallas, he regularly commutes to the state’s capital city as a member of the state Senate.

Republicans are already seizing on those Austin ties to paint this year’s Democratic ticket as out of touch with the values that have long shaped Texas.

“You don’t have to have lived in Texas very long to know that how goes Travis County is not how the (253) other counties go,” quipped veteran Republican strategist Dave Carney, the top operative in Gov. Greg Abbott’s stable.

Here is the entire story: Texas Democrats’ have an all-Austin ticket with their top candidates.

Oh, brother. A non-story for sure. I really don’t think this is an issue that will drive voters in November. Doesn’t Carney live in New England? Hasn’t Abbott lived in Ausitn for close to three decades now?

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Former Astros manager Dusty Baker has a new book coming out today. Here is from the Chron:

Few baseball lives are comparable to Dusty Baker’s. Now the only man who managed five different teams to the playoffs and capped a likely Hall of Fame career by leading the Houston Astros to the 2022 World Series championship is telling his story in a new book.

“Crossroads: A Memoir in Baseball and Life” comes out Tuesday and over 416 pages, is a sweeping chronology of Baker’s life in the game, first as a player for 19 seasons and then 26 as a manager. 

And this:

The book’s final chapter covers Baker’s time with the Astros, providing his perspective on four memorable seasons in Houston and some major events over that time.

Baker’s arrival in Houston was spurred, of course, by the Astros’ electronic sign-stealing scandal. Baker, who’d last managed in 2017 in Washington, wrote that when the news of the scandal broke, “it felt like someone else’s problem. My life moved on from baseball because baseball moved on from me.”

And finally, this:

Baker was also effusive in his praise of Jose Altuve, especially with the vitriol and “unwarranted criticism” the second baseman — who didn’t rely on the sign-stealing scheme — got on the road after the operation was exposed.

“I came to admire him, because all he did was take it,” Baker wrote. “Jose Altuve was not only one of my favorites as a player, but also as a person. Pound for pound, he was the baddest dude in the land and a model of perseverance. He summed up the character of that team, built on perseverance, belief, and staying positive. We felt like we knew we were going to get to our destination because Jose believed and set the tone.”

Baker said he was “completely at peace with my decision” to retire after the seven-game loss to the Rangers in the 2023 ALCS. He said advice he got from former Dodgers executive Al Campanis about trading a player a year too early rather than a year too late perhaps “applied to my own situation as manager.”

Check out the entire Chron read here: Dusty Baker: Manager reflect on Houston Astros tenure in new book.

More importantly, go buy Dusty’s book.

I ran into Dusty at a local eatery shortly after he announced his retirement in 2023. I showed him the featured photo on my iPhone. He said he had never seen the bobblehead. The bobblehead was not one of those game promotion handouts. It was only offered to some season ticket holders and wasn’t widely distributed.

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The Astros won last night in 10 innings. We are hanging in there.