Snow Memory, But Baker Looks To Move Past Famous Video

LONG BEACH, Calif.—Darren Baker has heard about it for most of his life. Just this week alone at the Area Code Games, Baker said it’s been brought up to him probably 20 times—the defining moment of his young life. It’s a moment he doesn’t even remember. He was too young.

But he’s seen the video clip—from 2002, Game Five of the World Series. With two runners on, Giants outfielder Kenny Lofton rips a pitch to deep right field, off the wall, for a triple. Now, here’s the twist: As J.T. Snow prepares to cross home plate, with David Bell motoring closely behind him, he sees the 3-year-old, overzealous bat boy running into the basepath, putting himself in tremendous danger. Instinctively, Snow grabs the tiny boy by his jacket as he crosses home plate, pulling him into his arms and away from a surefire collision at the plate.

“Thank goodness that J.T. Snow was aware and got Darren Baker out of the way,” announcer Joe Buck said on the FOX broadcast at the time. “Thank goodness.”

The son of then-Giants and current Nationals manager Dusty Baker, Darren was tagging along with his father for the World Series—an adorable storyline that nearly turned scary. So scary in fact that, shortly after the near-collision, MLB raised the minimum age of bat boys and girls to 14.

Baker, now more than old enough to be a bat boy, said he remembers very little from that night, just some of the moments prior to running on the field.

“It’s funny,” he says now, watching the highlight 14 years later. “I was just wondering what I was doing really. I look back now. It was a questionable decision to say the least.”

A questionable decision and a hazy memory—one he’s constantly reminded of. But now Baker is trying to create new memories on a baseball field, to establish an identity beyond That Manager’s Kid Who Ran Out On The Field.

He’s on the right track. The 5-foot-11, 157-pound Baker has played a prominent role on the Athletics Area Code team this week, batting leadoff and playing a sterling center field in front of hordes of scouts and front office personnel. On Sunday night, after lining out to third on a sharply struck ball in his first at-bat, Baker picked up his first hit of the showcase in at-bat No. 2, lifting a ball into left center for a single. The lefthanded hitter proceeded to steal second base with ease, flashing impressive speed. Mere seconds later, he was standing on third with another swiped bag. He added a ranging, athletic catch in the left-center gap later in the contest, showing even more tools.

“I’m not the biggest guy,” Baker said. “I’m not going to hit homers and stuff, so I’ve just got to use my speed to get on base and score some runs.”

What Baker lacks in size and sheer strength, he makes up for in aptitude and baseball I.Q. Certainly, it helps spending most of his youth in big league clubhouses, as does participating in the postseason and World Series. He’s tried to absorb bits and pieces along the way.

“I was around Barry (Bonds) when I was 3, 4,” Baker said. “And freshman year in high school, I was around Joey Votto and now Bryce Harper. So just learning from those guys and seeing how they conduct themselves really helps me when I get out here and practice and everything like that.”

Of course, his father helps, too. They try to talk after every game. Baker said when he was younger it was harder on him, with his father being away. He didn’t fully understand it. But he knows now that it comes with the territory. FaceTime chats and the phone calls make it easier, and he’s spent as much time as he could with Dusty and the Nationals this summer.

Even when he’s off playing his own games, it’s still like his father is there with him.

“Sometimes my mom, whenever she remembers, she’ll record my at-bats and send them to him,” Baker said. “And he’ll text me late at night, ‘Make that adjustment or make this adjustment,’ so he coaches from long distance.”

In the 2017 draft class and a California commit, Baker doesn’t need J.T. Snow to swoop in and pick him up by his jacket anymore. Snow probably couldn’t do that if he tried. But Baker knows Game Five of the 2002 of the World Series will likely follow him for some time, and he’s OK with it. His own baseball career—and the new memories it’ll assuredly produce—is still in its infancy.

“I’ve come to realize over the years . . . people remember me how they want to remember me,” Baker said. “I just come out and play. If they remember me as the kid who ran out or the kid who played center field, it’s either way.”

Continued performance in events like the Area Code Games can help ensure it’s the latter.