Brad Baker Returns To Gustavus To Continue Father's Legacy
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Brad Baker grew up in St. Peter and lived his dream as a high school athlete and a home town college hero, playing baseball for his father at Gustavus College.
Thirty-six years and a successful business career later, he's returned to campus to coach the team at the college he loves so much.
Sit in his office and he's thinking financials.
"We do institutional research, institutional sales, institutional trading as you can see," Baker said
He's assembled his own team of traders, looking for a certain type that comes from a college where they competed in something.
"We do have a lot of fun. It's a really good team of guys. They know what they do, and they're really good at it," said Baker.
Baker was a star at Gustavus. He played for his father there in the late '70s and was so good he signed with the Twins out of college, lasting a season in the minors.
"It was a great experience for me. Happy I did it, happy I lasted all year long," Baker said.
Which brings us to the ball park. See, the man who has built the multimillion dollar business had something on his bucket list he did not know. When his alma mater asked him to come back 36 years later and coach the baseball team, he said yes.
"The fire's there," he said.
It's been a first season hit.
"We don't quit. We just love to play for these guys," said one of Baker's players. "He jokes around a lot, but he's a competitor when it comes down to game time."
It was not all smooth sailing. His team kept losing close games, so he called them for a prayer.
"And God, another thing that I want to talk to you about, I said 'You've taught us about humility, and about humility, and about humility, and about humility. We get humility,'" Baker said.
By the end of the season they were beating some of the best, including a final weekend sweep over perennial power St. Thomas.
The philosphies are working.
"You can just tell, he wants to be there every day," a player said. "He wants us to do really well."
It's been an interesting spring coaching baseball and running a company.
"You get up in the morning, 5:15, come into work, stay until about 2, go down to practice, get home at 7:30, 8, go to bed about 8:30," Baker said.
But getting to the ball park revives in him what every person that has been inside the white lines understands -- that this game is special, and being a part of it is a privilege and a responsibility.
This journey would make his former coach and late father awfully proud.
"He's watching. He's watching," Baker said. "It's pretty cool."
