Dave Dombrowski, Hall of Famer? His case gets even stronger with Phillies’ run to World Series

HOUSTON — Dave Dombrowski was still a college student in 1977 when he found his way to baseball’s winter meetings in Hawaii. He was determined to work in baseball as he passed out his thesis paper — titled “The General Manager: The Man in the Middle” — to major-league decision makers. It paid off as his hometown White Sox offered him a job, paying him $8,000 a year.

And now it seems likely that that’s how a Hall of Fame career was born. Dombrowski, after molding the Phillies into National League champions, is the first executive to lead four franchises to the World Series. He won the World Series in 1997 with the Marlins, won American League pennants in 2006 and 2012 with the Tigers, and won it all again in 2018 with the Red Sox. That should be enough to get a plaque in Cooperstown, N.Y.

» READ MORE: How Dave Dombrowski turned the Phillies’ stalled rebuild into World Series contention

“That’s something that I don’t even give thought to,” Dombrowski said before the Phillies opened the World Series against the Astros on Friday night. “That’s not my focus at all. I will say that my focus is four more wins. This is my fifth Series and we’ve won two and lost two. I feel a lot better when we win them than when we lose them. That’s my goal.

“I just pinch myself in a lot of ways that I’m even in baseball. I’m very fortunate to do something that I love, which is not something that a lot of people get to do, and I’ve been able to do it for over 40 years. When you’re doing something you love, you’re very fortunate. It’s not about my situation. It’s about the organizations and the communities that you share it with. It’s great.”

Dombrowski didn’t assemble the entire roster, but he did inherit a stalled rebuilding process before the 2021 season when managing partner John Middleton personally pleaded for him to come to Philadelphia. He retooled the farm system, urged Middleton to exceed the luxury tax for the first time by signing Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos, replaced Joe Girardi with Rob Thomson, and acquired players at the trade deadline who are making October impacts.

Dombrowski turned the Phillies into championship contenders.

“There are common threads but every one one of them is different,” Dombrowski said of his pennant winners. “This is going to sound cliché, but it’s a lot of good players. That’s who gets you there. Players. I remember a long time ago, my mentor Roland Hemond, I was so lucky, you used to hear people saying, ‘The players are making so much money and we’re not making anything in the front office.’ I wasn’t saying that, but he would say, ‘Dave, remember when people say that that no one comes to see us do our jobs in the front office. They’re coming here to see the players do their job on the field.’

» READ MORE: How the Phillies and Astros built their World Series rosters

“And he’s absolutely right. So the thread is good players. The other thread is to have good leadership on the field, good coaching staff and managers, every one of those clubs had a tremendous manager and staff, and you have a good support staff throughout the organization.”

Astros manager Dusty Baker said he fielded a few congratulatory phone calls before the start of the World Series.

“Just my homeboys, some homegirls,” Baker said. “Let me see, Snoop Dogg, a couple of rappers, local dudes, coaches I had, Bill Cosby, just different people that I’ve known in my life.”

Did Rob Thomson hear from Snoop?

» READ MORE: Baker represents ‘so much for so many’ as he looks for his first World Series win as manager

“I didn’t,” the Phillies manager said.

Perhaps the Canadian heard from Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau?

“No, no, no,” Thomson said. “I heard from Dave Keon. If you don’t know who Dave Keon is, he’s a famous Toronto Maple Leaf. … I heard from Tony La Russa. I heard from Joe Torre. So those are nice.”

Zack Wheeler’s knee was sore enough that he was icing it in the trainer’s room on Sunday when Bryce Harper hit the home run that launched the Phillies to the World Series. But he’s good to go for Saturday’s Game 2.

“It’s sore, but it feels good,” said Wheeler, who was hit by a comebacker in the fourth inning on Sunday against San Diego. “I think it was more of just like in the moment where it really hurt and, of course, the next couple days, but it’s fine now. … It was my left leg, just right off the inside of the knee.”