PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- The bus snaked through Central Florida, passing by Orlando and Lakeland and Sarasota, south on crowded I-75, before pulling into the sprawling Charlotte Sports Park.
For Dusty Baker, the end of this grueling three-hour-plus, 216-mile journey Wednesday morning was truly a beginning for what is probably the final chapter in his storied career as a baseball manager.
It was the Washington Nationals vs. the Tampa Bay Rays, a meaningless Grapefruit League opener, but a special day for Johnnie B. Baker Jr.
"I guess it is kind of special, but now that I'm here, it's as if I haven't been away," Baker mused, sitting in the Nationals dugout on the delightful afternoon.