Austin Legend Don Baylor: A Life Well Lived

Don Baylor, a 19-year veteran of major league baseball, and the first manager for the Colorado Rockies, has passed away here in his hometown of Austin at the too-young age of 68.

Baylor was a career 260 hitter with 368 home runs and 1,276 runs batted in. Baylor batted .385 for the Minnesota Twins in the 1987 World Series that Minnesota won in a 5-game set with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Talk to those who played with Don and they will tell you that he was the ultimate “Clubhouse Guy” a leader who had the respect of everyone in the room. He came by that trait at a very early age, growing up in the Clarksville area of Austin. Clarksville is the oldest surviving post-Civil War area settled by freed…