April 6, 1993: Dusty Baker wins managerial debut as Giants edge Cardinals on Opening Day

After an offseason replete with anxiety, change, and excitement, the San Francisco Giants ushered in a new era on Opening Day 1993.

To recap: On November 10, 1992, his fellow National League owners rejected Bob Lurie’s deal to sell the Giants to a group of Florida investors who had intended to move the franchise to St. Petersburg for the 1993 season.1 Ten days later, Lurie sold the team to a San Francisco group led by Safeway CEO Peter Magowan, and Al Rosen resigned as general manager.

Roger Craig was fired as manager on November 30 and replaced by 43-year-old Dusty Baker, who had been the team’s hitting coach the preceding four seasons. Magowan and new general manager Bob Quinn promptly made headlines on December 8 by signing megastar outfielder Barry Bonds to a six-year contract worth a then-record $43.75 million, sparking the organization and its fans.

The Giants began the 1993 season on April 6 at Busch Stadium against the St. Louis Cardinals, who were a popular pick to win the NL East Division.2 Pregame festivities included the Budweiser Clydesdales parading around the ballpark, followed by the Cardinals’ players riding in a motorcade of red Mustang convertibles. Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan threw out the ceremonial first pitch. A crowd of 50,892 red-clad rooters turned out on a Tuesday evening with a game-time temperature of 60 degrees.

In a game that featured tidy pitching but sloppy baserunning and defense, the Giants prevailed, 2-1, giving Baker a win in his managerial debut. Coming off a 72-90 season and a fifth-place finish in the NL West, it was a reviving start.

“Man, that game was awesome,” Giants shortstop Royce Clayton said. “You couldn’t let up from the first pitch to the last out.”3

The pitching matchup was expected to be the top two reigning NL ERA leaders – right-handers Bill Swift of the Giants (2.08) and Bob Tewksbury of the Cardinals (2.16). But Swift was dealing with a bothersome throwing shoulder that delayed his season debut for three days, and he was replaced by fellow righty John Burkett.

The game was scoreless through three innings. Tewksbury allowed just a single to the first batter he faced, former Cardinal Willie McGee, who was erased two batters later on a double-play grounder by Will Clark. Burkett surrendered singles to Geronimo Peña and St. Louis newcomer Gregg Jefferies in the first and Peña in the third. Peña was wiped out via a double-play grounder by Ozzie Smith in the first and thrown out trying to steal second base in the third.

McGee led off the fourth with a single to center field. Dave Martinez followed with a single to left, and McGee reached third when third baseman Todd Zeile could not corral left fielder Bernard Gilkey’s throw. But Zeile faked a throw to second, where Martinez was about to reach safely, and McGee, holding his batting helmet, broke for home and was tagged out by Zeile. San Francisco did push across a run, as Martinez moved up to third on Clark’s fly out to left-center and scored when Matt Williams’s high bounder over third went for a double. Bonds struck out looking to end the inning.

In the bottom of the fifth, Zeile led off with a double to left-center. One out later, however, Clark caught Tom Pagnozzi’s popup in fair territory behind first base and doubled off Zeile, who had guessed the ball was going to fall in for a hit.

The Cardinals tied the game, 1-1, in the sixth. Peña drew a one-out walk and scored on Smith’s RBI triple to right-center. Smith was stranded at third as Clayton made a deft play on a hard-hit grounder to shortstop by Jefferies and Ray Lankford grounded out to first.

As quickly as St. Louis drew even, the Giants retook the lead. Clark led off the seventh with a ground-rule double over the left-field wall. He then lucked out trying to advance to third base on a grounder to shortstop by Williams that the normally sure-handed Smith mishandled for an error. Bonds drove in what proved to be the winning run with a sacrifice fly to left for his first RBI with his new team.

“The ball jumped up and hit me here [in the chest],” said Smith, who earned 13 consecutive Gold Gloves from 1980 to 1992. “If I catch it, he’s out. He knew he was out. The ball just jumped up and bit us.”4

McGee, who was teammates with Smith in St. Louis from 1982 to 1990, said: “That just never happens. If it did, I don’t recall.”5

Burkett pitched six innings, throwing 82 pitches and allowing six hits with one walk and three strikeouts, to earn the win. Baker then tactically turned to his bullpen, and Michael Jackson (1⅓ innings), Kevin Rogers (two outs), and Rod Beck (one inning) blanked the Cardinals the rest of the way. Jackson picked off Zeile at first base in the seventh. St. Louis had runners on first and second with one out in the eighth when the left-handed Rogers was called on, and he got Smith to line out to center and Jefferies to ground out to shortstop.

“That was probably my toughest decision, taking [Jackson] out,” Baker said. “But I was hoping for a double play, so I wanted to turn Ozzie and Jefferies around [from batting left-handed to right-handed, which represents an extra step from home plate to first base].”6

Tewksbury, who had gone 16-5 and finished third in NL Cy Young Award balloting in 1992, was the tough-luck loser, allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits with no walks and four strikeouts over eight innings. He threw just 87 pitches.

“The two of them, Burkett and Tewksbury, they looked like the same damn pitcher,” Bonds said. “To tell you the truth, I was more excited about the pitching staff than anything. If people want to downplay them, that’s their right, but they pitched their butt off today.”7

The night belonged to Baker, who enjoyed a 19-year major-league playing career as an outfielder from 1968 to 1986 before joining the Giants’ coaching staff in 1988.8

“The guys are happy,” Baker said after the 2-hour 23-minute contest. “The guys are psyched. They’re happy for themselves, and for me, too. I commend the guys for playing hard and smart. They wanted to get me this first win.”9

Said Beck, who earned the first of his franchise-record 48 saves for the season: “This takes some pressure off Dusty. We got him his win. Now we can go about our business. It was a tough game. He did some managing. There were a lot of buttons to push, and he pushed all the right ones. He’s probably managed this game a million times in his head. There’s nothing different, except this time he really got to push the buttons.”10

St. Louis was left lamenting losing three runners on the basepaths.

“The problem is it’s magnified in a 2-1 game,” Cardinals manager Joe Torre said. “They got away with bad base running and we didn’t.”11

The Cardinals won the remaining two games of the series, but the Giants caught fire soon after. They were in sole possession of first place in the NL West from May 11 to September 9, but after leading the division by nine games over the Atlanta Braves on August 11, they trailed by four games on September 17.12 Tied for the top spot entering the final day of the season, the Braves beat the expansion Colorado Rockies for their 104th win of the season, while the Giants lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Thus, Atlanta captured the division crown and, a year before the major leagues switched from two divisions to three and added a wild-card team (the nondivision winner with the best record) to the playoffs, San Francisco missed the postseason, despite a 103-59 record.13

St. Louis was a middling team most of the season, finishing third in the NL East with an 87-75 record, 10 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies. Nevertheless, the season was the Cardinals’ best since they won the 1987 NL pennant.

Baker was named NL Manager of the Year after piloting the Giants to a 31-game improvement over the 1992 season. He skippered San Francisco through 200214 and then managed the Chicago Cubs (2003-06), Cincinnati Reds (2008-13), Washington Nationals (2016-17), and Houston Astros (2020-23) – winning 10 division titles, three pennants, and the 2022 World Series.15 Baker compiled a 2,183-1,862 record (.540 winning percentage),16 ranking seventh on baseball’s all-time wins list through 2023. He stepped down from managing after the 2023 season and returned to the Giants as a special adviser to baseball operations in January 2024.

Burkett won a career-high 22 games in 1993, tying the Braves’ Tom Glavine and Jack McDowell of the Chicago White Sox for the most in the majors,17 while Tewksbury was a 17-game winner.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Joseph Wancho and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources 

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent material and the box scores.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN199304060.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1993/B04060SLN1993.htm

Notes

1 Lurie, a San Francisco businessman, brought the Giants in 1976 amid rumors that the franchise would be sold to a group of Canadian businessmen and moved to Toronto. From 1919 to 1976, the Giants were owned by the Stoneham family – first by Charles (1919-36) and then by his son, Horace (1936-76). Horace Stoneham moved the club from New York to San Francisco in 1957.

2 Peter Pascarelli, “Season of Hope: Young Players, Big Roles,” The Sporting News, April 5, 1993: S-16.

3 Larry Stone, “Fabulous Start for Baker Boys,” San Francsico Examiner, April 7, 1993: B-1.

4 Rick Hummel, “Cards Crash in Opener,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 7, 1993: D-1.

5 “Fabulous Start for Baker Boys.”

6 Ray Ratto, “Giants Skipper Makes All the Right Moves,” San Francsico Examiner, April 7, 1993: B-1.

7 “Fabulous Start for Baker Boys.”

8 Baker played for the Giants in 1984. He served as first-base coach in 1988 before becoming hitting coach.

9 “Fabulous Start for Baker Boys.”

10 “Fabulous Start for Baker Boys.”

11 “Cards Crash in Opener.”

12 The Giants’ biggest division lead of the season was 10 games on July 22.

13 The 103 wins were tied for the most in San Francisco Giants history and tied for third most in franchise annals at the time. The 1962 team also won 103 games (including two in a three-game tiebreaker series against the Los Angeles Dodgers), as did the 1912 New York Giants. The New York Giants won 106 games in 1904 and 105 games in 1905. Subsequently, the 2021 San Francisco Giants won 107 games. The Giants became the first team to win 103 games and finish second since the 1954 New York Yankees and the first 100-win club to not finish first since the 1980 Baltimore Orioles. They won more games than any second-place NL team since the 1942 Brooklyn Dodgers.

14 Baker’s record with the Giants was 840-715 (.540 winning percentage). He was the third-winningest manager in franchise history, behind John McGraw (2,583) and Bruce Bochy (1,052) through the 2023 season.

15 Baker, who played for the 1981 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, became the seventh person to win the World Series as a player and a manager in the divisional era (since 1969).

16 Baseball-Reference.com credits Baker with a 2,183-1,862 lifetime managerial record. By contrast, Retrosheet.org, whose totals do not include games managed by substitutes during a manager’s temporary absence, has Baker’s record at 2,169-1,858. Specifically, Retrosheet does not credit Baker with 14 wins and 4 losses in games he missed for health reasons (11 games, 7-4 record); to serve suspensions (four games, 4-0); to attend his son Darren’s high school graduation (two games, 2-0); and because of a death in the family (one game, 1-0).

17 Glavine finished third in NL Cy Young Award balloting, while Burkett was fourth. McDowell was the AL Cy Young Award winner.