Now 72, Dusty Baker has had a lifetime of playing and managing Major League Baseball

The 1981 Major League Baseball World Series was not a Yankee Doodle Dandy. It went to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games, with the final one

played on a rainy night at the home of the guys in pin stripes.

The Bronx Bombers were my beat in this strike season. And after the long and winding road of the regular campaign, New York made it to the main stage of our national anthem by turning back the Oakland A’s managed by Billy Martin in an American League playoff game, and Los Angeles represented the National League on a home run by Rick Monday in the playoff game at the then-Montreal Expos.

Not long after the Dodgers landed in New York, there was a neat party at the  Sheridan Hotel with a gathering of players, coaches and media, and I greeted a Hall of Fame then-San Francisco Giants manager Frank Robinson for the first time since I wrote that 1969 World Series piece of him being unsportsmanlike and nasty to the New York Mets fans in right field.

I don’t even know if Robinson read it, but there he was at a table with Dodgers’ manager Tommy LaSorda and everything went well.

I remember LaSorda saying “We play two games here, and then finally going home after being on the road. Maybe we can even fly home with a 2-0 lead in the Series.”

Wrong, they lost both times, but at Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine, they won all three games as their former Hall of Fame southpaw Sandy Koufax predicted in front of me at the batting cage.

But before that, in game 3 Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield singled to left for his first hit in 23 at bats, then asked for the ball as owner George Steinbrener

was seen up at his guest suite upset with this, even mentioned it to Winfield after the game.

I was sitting in the auxiliary media seats reserved in the first base section alongside New York sportswriters Dick Young and Phil Pepe, and they kept taking notes on Steinbrener being upset with everything as his team was in game five and now tied at 2 games each.

After the game, I sat in the upstairs media room writing my story when I noticed someone was behind me, and he introduced himself. “Hey, how you doing, I’m Magic Johnson and I play pro basketball but always wanted to be a sportswriter, so I’m checking out what you’re writing and hopefully we will meet again.”

That we did. Every time the Los Angeles Lakers were in New York to play the Knicks, I would just walk into their locker room and he would call out, “Hey, there’s my baseball writer, good to see you.”

But I can’t forget the Los Angeles starting left fielder, 32-year-old Dusty Baker, now in his second season as Astros’ manager.

The first time I interviewed him in ’81, I referred to the tooth picks he always dangled in his mouth, one at a time, and I popped the question of why, and he answered that he’s being doing it quite some time as a relief from nervous, stress, and being he didn’t smoke, he turned to tooth picks, even brought up former pitcher Sam (tooth pick) Jones doing the same.

Koufax was the quiet type, but when I saw Baker after game five pitched by Dodgers’ phenom rookie Fernando Valenzuela, and with a tooth pick I thought he was chewing on, he told me he’d see me in the Bronx when they wrap it up there, and we shook hands.

And so it was. With renowned trumpet player Chuck Mangione playing the national anthem before the first pitch thrown by Yankee starter Tommy John, and he should have instead play taps as the Yanks lost 6-2 and John flung his glove to the mound when manager Bob Lemon replaced him in the sixth inning when he was only behind 1-0.

Lemon, one of three different Yankee managers that striking wild season, thought it was time for a change with two on, no out, and the big LA batters coming up. So John abruptly picked up his glove and headed for the dugout shaking his head.

To flash ahead, Baker is now 74, he has won only that one 1981 World Series, never with any other team or as a manager in that role for about 35 years.

“Yup,” he said, “I’m still chasing it, still want No. 2, and other than that, I’m having fun.”

Baker goes back to being in the Braves’ lineup in 1968 with Hall of Famer Hank Aaron and getting his first MLB hit at the Aerodrome, where the franchise played prior to Minute Maid Park. After Houston. He won the Colorado Rockies’ first pennant as their manager, and has been in six playoffs.

He’s always been a player’s manager, doesn’t say much but knows the game, does the job, and not one who given himself credit. Instead, he is great at praising his player, sometimes gives the umpires a hard time over a call, and is also a fan favorite, this time in Houston.

And with a lifetime of credentials, gets another chance and he’s happy about it.

He says there’s a few things he still hasn’t accomplished, and it’s to climb aboard the sports’ main stage again and hoist another World Series championship trophy, which would be Houston’s second and the third time in five years for the Astros in the Fall Classic. As for Atlanta, it’s the first time in the World Series since 1999.

Baker is mild-mannered and has nothing negative to say about the Braves and neither does Atlanta manager Brian Snitker. With the man at the helm it’s a family affair as his son, Troy, is a Houston Astros’ hitting coach.

“Look,” says the 66-year-old manager, “it’s like the Snitkers are going to have a World Series trophy in their house here. I don’t know who is going to own it, but we’re going to have one, so that’s a pretty cool thing, too.”

The Astros opened as a 3-2 favorite and with game one at home Tuesday night. The first two are at Minute Maid Park, the next three at Atlanta’s Truist Park, and the final two, if necessary, back in Houston.

While the Astros have been recognized all season behind its pitching, hitting, base running, and depth, Atlanta has been playing by far its best ball after trailing the New York Mets in the NL East Division since May. In early August, the Braves stumbled to a 52-55 record, then passed the Mets in early September.

They have gone without dynamic star Ronald Acuna since his knee injury surgery in July, while the Astros have not had veteran hurler Justin Verlander after he had Tommy John surgery prior to the season.

Announced starting pitchers for game one are former Astro ace right-hander Charlie Morton for the Braves and righty Framber Valdez for the home team.

So if you expected the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers meeting up with the high-powered Boston Red Sox, forgetaboutit, not this time.