Baseball Playoffs : With Baylor, Only Uniform Changes

MINNEAPOLIS — In this, his 16th season in the major leagues, Don (Groove) Baylor looks down at his uniform shirt and sees that he is playing ball for the Minnesota Twins.

He looks over at his manager, and the manager is nodding at him. He is being summoned to pinch-hit with the bases loaded, one out, score tied and a 22-year-losing streak on the line. The Twins’ last postseason win came in the 1965 World Series.

Standing on first base is Gary Gaetti, who has just walked. Gaetti looks toward home plate as Baylor digs into the box.

“He’s only been here a month,” Gaetti will say later. “It’s (Baylor’s leadership) not something he would offer yet. It’s something you just notice. I’ll tell you this--when I got to first base, I said, ‘Son of a bitch, he’s in that situation again.’ I was glad to see it. The right guy at the right time.”

Baylor, age 38 and well-traveled, is the game’s scoutmaster, the guy who brings substance and leadership to your ballclub, the rock, the guy who pushes, prods, encourages, advises and admonishes his teammates.

Some baseball people don’t think this kind of clubhouse activity is of much importance. Others think that it is as vital as plasma, that a player like Baylor can change the mood of a team, make a good team better.

There was talk that he would be traded from the Red Sox to the Angels late in the season, but the talk died when the Angels got Bill Buckner instead. So the Twins hired Baylor’s bat, and his leadership, for whatever either might be worth to a young team in a stretch drive.

Since coming to the Twins to serve as a platooned designated hitter, Baylor has stayed in the background, mostly watching and observing. But in recent days, as the playoffs neared, he has become more active, seeking out certain players, planting suggestions and trying to impart a little calming and inspiring advice to guys who have never been in the playoffs.

The team lost its last five regular-season games, and Baylor wanted to make sure everyone was approaching these playoffs with a positive attitude.

“Certain guys came to me,” Baylor says. “Others, I went to them. (I told them) what to expect in a league championship series: ‘Just be yourself.’ ”

When Twin center fielder Kirby Puckett threw to the wrong base in the eighth inning Wednesday night, he came back to the dugout angrily berating himself.

“Hey,” Baylor reportedly told Puckett, “That’s all right. Forget about it. You still get to bat.”

Not exactly profound wisdom from a Himalayan mountain peak. Baylor doesn’t consider himself a young Confucius, but he believes sometimes a teammate needs a soothing word, a quick message of a sensitive psyche.

Three batters before Baylor, Puckett doubles home a run. Now Puckett is standing on third base, watching Baylor dig in against reliever Willie Hernandez.

Now the talking is over, Baylor is no longer the scoutmaster. Last year about this time, Baylor was a Red Sock, and he helped kiss the Angels out of the playoffs with a ninth-inning, two-run homer off Mike Witt. One out later, Witt was gone, and the Angels were on their way out.

Now, it’s a different team and a different town for Baylor. The Minnesota fans are waving their Homer Hankies like 53,000 maniacs. Their team is a big underdog in this series, and this is a very big game. The local newspaper ran a 34-page playoff supplement this morning, with no less than 36 stories and enough stats to fill a phone book.

The same newspaper distributed the Homer Hankies the 53,000 fans are waving.

Baylor has a streak going, having had at least one hit in his last 10 league playoff games, for the Red Sox last season and for the Angels in 1982.

He likes to talk, he likes to lead, he likes to help in the clubhouse, but he also likes to hit the baseball. The two managers are playing chess now. Baylor figures his at-bat will come, but he’s surprised he gets the call this soon.

“I guess I was doomed to hit,” he will say later.

Speaking of doomed, Hernandez throws two balls, then two strikes. Baylor swings at the 2-2 pitch and drives it on a line into left field, scoring Puckett for the go-ahead run and keeping the bases loaded.

Tom Brunansky follows with a two-run double. The Twins win to take a 1-0 series lead that feels like 100-0.

“How much responsibility for team leadership do you take on your own shoulders?” a reporter asks Baylor in a postgame press conference.

Repeating the question for the masses, a league PR woman asks Baylor, “How much of the responsibility do you take on your old shoulders?”

Baylor laughs.

“I’ve been thinking about it (his contribution),” he says. “It’s going to come one at-bat at a time, in crucial situations.”

And maybe with a well-placed word here or there. He’ll try to keep the boys pumped up and calmed down. Then, when the playoffs or World Series are over, he’ll take his bat and his old shoulders to another team in another city.