Black History Month Feature: Remembering former AL MVP and Port Don Baylor

To celebrate Black History Month, we at the Stockton Ports wanted to recognize the strong contributions African American players have had on our club and in our community.
Numerous African American athletes have taken their talents to California's Central Valley as baseball's color barrier has long been broken and athletes from across the world have enriched our great game.
Don Baylor put together a long and storied MLB career as a player, manager and as a coach. His success began with an impressive stint with the Stockton Ports in 1968 when he was just a prospect in the Baltimore Orioles system.
Don Edward Baylor was born on June 28, 1949 in Austin, Texas to a working-class family. The young Baylor exceled in sports for much of his early life, and in junior high he made history on and off the field.
Austin public schools were first integrated in 1962 with Baylor and three other African American students becoming the first to attend O. Henry Junior High School.
As a high school athlete, Baylor exceled on both gridiron and the diamond. He received scholarship offers from prestigious football schools including the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma.
Ultimately, Baylor decided that baseball was the sport he wanted to pursue. Leading to him to enroll at Blinn Junior College in Brenham, Texas, an hour-and-a-half drive away from his hometown.
After a strong collegiate career, the Orioles picked Baylor in the second round of the 1967 MLB Amateur Draft. He signed for $7,500 and reported to Bluefield, W.Va. to play professional ball in the Appalachian League.
Following a tremendous start to his professional baseball career, Baylor received a promotion ahead of the 1968 season to Stockton. He enjoyed terrorizing California League pitching to the tune of a .346 batting average to go along with 40 RBI's and 14 stolen bases in 68 games.
Baylor received two midseason promotions that season ultimately ending up in AAA with the Rochester Red Wings.
After two short and separate stints with the Orioles in the early 1970s, Baylor finally established himself as an everyday Major League player in 1972. He hit .253 with 11 home runs and stole 24 bases during his rookie season and made the Topps Rookie Major League All-Star Team.
He went on to play four full seasons for the Orioles before learning his first difficult lesson on the business of baseball. Prior to the 1976 season, Baltimore traded the young Baylor to the Oakland Athletics for former MVP Reggie Jackson.
Baylor's Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver noted that he believed the young slugger had MVP potential, but the organization acquired a bona fide star in hopes of returning to prominence. Jackson played one season for Baltimore before signing with the New York Yankees in free agency.
The shell-shocked Baylor struggled in his one season in Oakland and took advantage of MLB's first free agent period coinciding with the ending of the reserve clause.
Baylor took his talents south down the California coast signing a six-year $1.6 million contract to play for the California Angels. It was a marriage that transformed Baylor from an average big-league player, into one of the most feared hitters in the sport.
1979 was a great year for Baylor and the Halos as he played all 162 games and led the team to their first postseason appearance in franchise history. He won the American League's Most Valuable Player award leading the league in RBI's and runs scored while posting career highs in home runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and walks.
Unfortunately for Baylor, his magical season would end in a bitter postseason defeat at the hands of his old friends in Baltimore.
While Baylor never repeated the success of his 1979 season, he established himself as a fearsome middle of the order presence for a few teams. He trekked east to play for both the Yankees and Boston Red Sox searching for his first championship.
In the second to last season of his career, Baylor was dealt to the Minnesota Twins in Sept. 1987 to add another power-hitting bat to a club seeking a championship. Playing in his second Fall Classic (he was a member of the 1986 Red Sox who lost to the Mets), Baylor hit .385 to help lead the Twins to the title over the St. Louis Cardinals.
After years of falling short of the ultimate goal, Baylor finally reached the pinnacle of the sport in his age 38 season.
Following the end of his playing career, Baylor couldn't stay out of baseball for long as he was named the Milwaukee Brewers hitting coach in 1990. He held onto the job for two seasons before bigger opportunities came calling.
League expansion brought Major League Baseball to the Rocky Mountains, and the newly formed Colorado Rockies named Baylor as the team's inaugural manager in 1993. He earned his first taste of success as a skipper two years later by leading the Rockies to a Wild Card berth and earning the 1995 NL Manager of the Year award.
The 1995 Rockies were the fastest expansion team to reach the postseason in league history at the time. As one of the game's all-time power hitters was leading a line up populated with bombers in Larry Walker, Dante Bichette, Vinny Castilla and Andres Galarraga.  
The remainder of Baylor's tenure in the Mile High city wasn't nearly as fortuitous for him and the Rockies. He was relieved of his duties following the 1998 season and was hired to lead the Chicago Cubs for the 2000 season.
His time in the Windy City yielded similar results with the team never finishing better than 88-74 or partaking in October baseball. The Cubs job was the last opportunity Baylor was given to lead a team, but he found success in working as a member of other big league coaching staffs.
Despite the numerous places his career took him, his short time as a member of the Ports resonated with the Stockton community. Baylor was gifted the key to the city in 2008 in a ceremony honoring his time with the organization.
"Stockton was really a stepping stone for me as a young player," Baylor told The Record. "My girlfriend was back in Texas at the time, so it was all baseball. It was a great place to play."
For the remainder of his baseball life, Baylor coached for the Mets, Seattle Mariners, Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks and the Angels prior to retiring officially following the 2015 season.
Later in life, Baylor's health began to deteriorate due to a lengthy battle with multiple myeloma. He found ways to stay in the game while battling cancer, as he showed his trademark toughness throughout.
Baylor passed away on Aug. 7, 2017 in his hometown following his 14-year battle with cancer. He was 67 and laid to rest at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
His legacy as both an athlete and a man will stand the test of time. The gentle giant, masher of baseballs and friend to many.