IMAGINE THE JOY OF BOCHY AND THE RANGERS AS BAKER PONDERS GOODBYE

Talked out of retirement, the 68-year-old Texas manager is looking at his fourth World Series title, while his partner in advanced years — Dusty Baker — appears ready to bolt managing in Houston

     So concludes the World Series oneupmanship, if not the managerial career, of Johnnie B. Baker Jr. So ends the trajectory of an atomic bat for Jose Altuve, a 5-foot-6 rogue in 29 ballparks. And so restores the down-low cheers of enemies who’ll never forgive the Houston Astros for banging on trash cans.

     But saying goodbye? That also means America must say hello to a new team. Are you more adept than Joe Buck? The NFL announcer, no longer doing baseball, was challenged this month by his Monday night booth partner. “I’ll give you $100,” said Troy Aikman, “if you can name four players for the Texas Rangers.”

     Rather than prove his insight, Buck shot back. “You know, there was a time when I didn’t have to work with you in October,” he bashed. “I don’t know what happened to those days.”

     Maybe it’s because he didn’t know the correct answer. Do you? Bruce Bochy, pulled out of apparent retirement at 68, has returned the Rangers to the promised land after winning three championships in San Francisco in five years. Why did the Giants replace him and why did no one else hire him? You know Bochy, right? Just the same, why are Dusty Baker and the Astros fed up with each other to the point of divorce, apparently in the cranky category of analytics?

     “I don't know. I haven't had time to evaluate or think about my future. Because I'm down the list as far as — like I'm not that kind of dude. I don't want to steal the spotlight or anything from these guys,” Baker said after an 11-4 collapse in Game 7 of the American League championship series. “You've got to savor what we did. You've got think about how we can get better. And then I'll evaluate my situation and my life. So we'll see.”

     He’s gone. He won once. But imagine if his counterpart wins it all for the fourth time. “What an honor and a privilege,” Bochy told his team in the locker room. “We went to Tampa, to Baltimore, we came here. It’s great to be wearing the horns of Texas! Congratulations! We’re going to the World Series!”

     Splash! The only manager to be in the Fall Classic for the third time, with three different teams, is still rubbing sparkling wine from his head. And you know Max Scherzer, pacing maniacally in the dugout and now back in the Series after failing in New York and Los Angeles. And you know Corey Seager, who left the Dodgers and might beat them with two titles. And you know Marcus Semien, brilliant all season in leading AL position players in Wins Above Replacement.

     And you know … who else? If you paid attention to a gonzo victory, where the Rangers blasted the rocket ship out of Houston with four victories, you now know Adolis Garcia, whose home-run bat brought anger and tears to fans who watched him set an ALCS record with 15 RBIs. This time, instead of heaving his toy club, he drew circles in the Minute Maid Park air with his right index finger while wearing a dirty shirt and eyeblack on his face. Before this series, when he homered in four straight games and hit two in the clincher, you might not have known him, a Cuban slugger known as “El Bombi.” Joe Buck might not have known him.

     “He’s a bad man, isn’t he?” Seager said. “He got booed here every night, and what did he do? It was really fun to watch.”

     “This team, right here, we’re a family, and they push me to play hard,” Garcia said. “It’s nothing without the love of my teammates.”

     Surely, Buck knows him now while the world catches on. These are not the Philadelphia Phillies, whose home noise has gone chilly as they stumble against the Arizona Diamondbacks, possibly leaving a Series watched by 250,000. These are not the Atlanta Braves, who won 104 games, or the Dodgers or Yankees. The Rangers have survived the postseason the way you can, by realizing the regular season is some other version of baseball while ruling October. They will host the Series starting Friday night, and damned if attention will go toward the manager, who almost didn’t take the job when one of his former players, general manager Chris Young, offered it.

     “Unbelievable, unbelievable,” said Bochy, who has shown in one season what young skippers couldn’t do in the playoffs. “When Chris called me, I didn’t know if I’d get back in it. Now I know how blessed I am. C.Y. had his vision. And here we are. We’ve had our streaks. We’ve had our injuries. They keep getting up.”

     Here they are, including third baseman Josh Jung and catcher Jonah Heim, both of whom made the All-Star team. There is 21-year-old Evan Carter, who graduated from high school in a pandemic and was called up for a wild run in September. You know the ace pitcher, Nathan Eovaldi, and Yankees fans know Jordan Montgomery. You know the reliever, Jose Leclerc, who had to sit down during the melee in Arlington and lost Game 5 to Altuve. You know first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and the ancient reliever, Aroldis Chapman, who could win again. But you don’t know the owner, Ray Davis, who invested $325 million into Seager and $175 million into Semien. His payroll is around $240 million, and he will pay the sport’s Competitive Balance Tax.

     This is what he had in mind when a stadium was built for him, Globe Life Field, where the area’s sports celebrities — including Aikman — will pack the park. Will this be the first time the Rangers win the Series? First established as the expansion Washington Senators in 1961 before moving to Dallas-Fort Worth, they once were owned by George Bush, who handled only 1.8 percent of the team yet wandered around and shook hands of reporters — including me. I was from Chicago. Later, Bush acknowledged his 1989 deal: "I signed off on that wonderful transaction — Sammy Sosa for Harold Baines.” That’s a long way from Davis, who said, “The key is we don’t want to this just one year. We want this to be sustainable.”

     Why not the Rangers? It’s time people grow accustomed to new stories, even if they don’t mean much in ratings or social media. The Astros and Phillies would be a reason to watch. The Rangers? And Diamondbacks? Well, enjoy the late-season revival of two teams that were desperate losers not long ago. The Astros are the latest winner to falter, meaning baseball hasn’t had a repeat champion since 2000.

     “I don’t like tipping my cap to anybody,” Baker said. “But when someone beats the hell out of you, what are you going to do? We have been spoiled around here, as far as winning. We have nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to put our heads down about. We were playing from behind the whole season. It was a grind.”

     You leave when the owner of the Astros, Jim Crane, is impossible to work for. Somehow, Baker managed to win once, more than he ever did with the Giants, Cubs, Reds and Nationals. With one more ring, Bruce Bochy would be topped in history only by Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel and Connie Mack.

     Does Joe Buck know that?

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.