DetNews.com - How much would you pay for a piece of the Tigers’ 1984 World Series championship?
Would you pay $5,000?
That’s the asking price on eBay for the World Series ring of former Tigers’ infielder Doug Baker. As of Wednesday night, there were no bids on the ring, but the auction ends on Friday — so there’s time.
If you have $5,000 to spend, that is.
Or more if that’s not the highest bid.
Who was Doug Baker? He was a rookie role player on the 1984 Tigers, but role players were important. On that team, everyone was important.
Baker hit .185 in 43 games with no home runs and 12 RBIs. But he started 31 games, all but four of them at shortstop — so it’s not as if he just came and went.
“The ring is my original one,” said Baker, who lives north of San Diego and teaches baseball through independent clinics. “It got ripped off in Los Angeles, but later was found.
“I had already purchased a replacement, so that’s why this one is being sold.”
Asked what caliber of ring it is, Baker laughed and said “it’s not a Bill Scherrer special that’s going to turn green.”
Scherrer pitched in 18 games for the 1984 Tigers. Through an appraisal by a jeweler, he learned that his wasn’t the “A” ring that the frontline players had been given. However he since has added two more World Series rings as a scout for the Florida Marlins and Chicago White Sox.
Baker has only one — or rather two from only one year.
“I still wear with pride the one I purchased as a replacement,” he said over the phone. “But I’ve learned to wear it only on special occasions.
“Hey, would you tell Tom Brookens hello for me. I wasn’t ready to play in the majors when I did. That first year (when Baker was 23) I still had the mind of a 16-year-old, but he was a big help to me.”
Despite his low batting average, there were three teams to whom Baker was a thorn as a utility player in 1984. Against Cleveland, Milwaukee and Oakland, he went a combined 14-for-35 (.400) but was 6-for-73 (.082) against everyone else.
Twenty years later, when asked about being a player on a World Series winning team, Baker said in an interview: “It’s exactly what you think it would be. There’s nothing better. You’re on top of the world.”
Now 48, Baker played with the Tigers through 1987, then saw action in parts of three more seasons with the Minnesota Twins. His last major-league game was in 1990.
He hit .207 in 246 career at-bats.
