Zac Efron is a collector of autographed baseballs, but he doesn’t spend his money to get them. It started when he was a kid, and he was attending San Francisco Giants games. Efron is a big Giants fan, and when he was on the YouTube show Hot Ones, he talked about the autograph he got from then Giants manager Dusty Baker. It’s one of the baseball autographs Efron treasures because of the story behind it.
“He drove by, and he was on a motorcycle, so he didn’t have a window he could roll up,” Efron said. “I ran up to him with a baseball, and I was like ‘Will you sign this?’ I had a blue pen and the sweet spot of a brand-new ball, and I showed it to him, and Dusty was like ‘Ah, I can’t right now, I gotta go to church.’” Baker said he would be back in 30 minutes, but he didn’t believe him. However, Baker returned 45 minutes later, and Efron said: “I was like, ‘No way!’ And he literally pointed right at me, and was like, ‘Come over here.’” Efron described the situation as “really cool.”
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Baker was the Giants manager from 1993-2002. He has also been the manager for the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals before his current position, which is the manager of the Houston Astros. However, Baker’s known more for his time with the Giants, winning National League Manager of the in 1993, 1997 and 2000. He led the Giants to the World Series in 2002, but the team lost the Anaheim Angels in seven games.
Baker is now in a unique situation, as the Astros were caught in a cheating scandal that led to former manager AJ Hinch getting fired. Shortly after Baker was hired, he said: “You got to go forward and make sure that it doesn’t happen again,” Baker said. “It certainly is not going to happen on my watch here, and I don’t foresee it happening ever again because this has been an embarrassment for a lot of people.”
Along with being a longtime manager, Baker also played in the major leagues from 1968-1986. He was an All-Star in 1981 and 1982, and he was a two-time Silver Slugger winner. Baker won the World Series in 1981 when he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
