Dusty Baker Once Smoked 'Grass' With Jimi Hendrix
by Russell Preston, KHTK Sacramento
Dusty Baker has witnessed some great stories throughout the years: Hank Aaron becoming the new home run king, Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs in a year, and he may have invented the high-five.
Despite his public experiences, Baker revealed more about himself in his new musical memoir. The longtime baseball player and manager once met rock star Jimi Hendrix when he was just 19 years old in San Francisco as a young ball player - then they smoked marijuana together.
Most people don't know Baker was a musician for a large portion of his life when he wasn't playing baseball. The Sacramento native had just been drafted in the 26th round by the Atlanta Braves back in 1967 when he and some friends decided to make the trip down the Monterey Pop Music festival. The three-day event was filled with legendary musicians - Steve Miller, The Who, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane and of course, Jimi Hendrix.
He was just starting his professional baseball career, so he and his buddies agreed to a "No Grass" rule to stay clean for the big leagues. Alas, they watched Hendrix play his guitar and sing during a powerful performance.
"Hendrix had that exhilarated look of being as amazed as all of us at what was happening with his guitar," Baker wrote, from his review in the New Yorker.
Baker wouldn't meet up with Hendrix just yet, still sticking to his no grass policy. That is until he ran into Hendrix on the streets of San Francisco the following year.
"He's mum about the words they exchanged, if he remembers them," writes Charles Bethea of the New Yorker.
While the memoir focuses on the music, not the weed, and how it shaped him, it's still a cool little fact. Just when you thought Baker couldn't top his previous stories, this one takes the cake.