The ALCS hasn’t even started…the second 2,000-win managerial matchup of all time

This year’s American League Championship Series (ALCS), the best-of-seven series to determine the American League champion of Major League Baseball (MLB), pits two major league teams based in the state of Texas: the Texas Rangers (Arlington) and the Houston Astros (Houston).

Game 1 of the ALCS kicks off at 9 a.m. ET on April 16 at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

The “Subway Series” (New York Yankees-Mets) and the “Freeway Series” (Los Angeles Dodgers-Los Angeles Angels) are phrases used to describe matchups between teams from the same city.

This matchup between Texas and Houston is the “Lone star” series, named after the state flag of Texas.

The Texas cycle with a single star is so symbolic that it’s often referred to as the “lone star,” a reference to the Revolutionary War that Texans fought against Mexico before becoming part of the United States.

The Texas Rangers call Arlington, an affluent neighborhood in the Dallas and Fort Worth metroplex in North Texas, home.

The Houston Astros call the southeastern cosmopolitan city of Houston, one of the four largest cities in the United States and home to many diplomatic missions.

As good as these two teams are, we’re more interested in the managers who led them to the ALCS.

The numbers speak for themselves, and the resumes of these two veterans are nothing short of spectacular.

According to MLB.com, Houston manager Dusty Baker and Texas manager Bruce Bochy are the second pair of 2,000-win managers in postseason history.

There are only 12 managers in the big leagues with more than 2,000 wins.

Baker ranks seventh in that category with 2,183 regular-season wins in his 26 years as a manager through this year.

Bochy, who just completed his 26th season at the helm after a four-year retirement, ranks 10th with 2,093 wins.

Combined, the two have won 4,276 games. 안전놀이터

The first matchup between 2,000-win managers occurred in the 2009 National League Division Series.

Tony La Russa (2,552 wins), then managing the St. Louis Cardinals, and Joe Torre (2,246 wins) of the Dodgers made history.

La Russa retired with 2,902 career wins (2nd) and Torre with 2,326 (5th).

Baker and Bochy, the first and second oldest active major league managers, also set up just the third postseason showdown in history between managers 68 and older.

Previously, La Russa, 77, and Baker, 72, faced off in the 2021 American League Division Series, and Felipe Alou, 68, and Jack McKeon, 72, in the 2003 National League Division Series.

Baker, who led Houston to a World Series title last year to become the oldest manager or head coach to win a championship ring across the four major American sports, will break the record again this year when he raises the championship toast.

After guiding the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants to the top of the National League, Bochy became just the seventh manager in history to lead three different teams to the Championship Series.

No manager has led all three teams to the league championship since 1969, when the league’s Championship Series was instituted, so Bochy will be the first to reach that milestone.

Including the pre-1969 era, if Bochy advances past Houston in this year’s ALCS, he will become only the third manager in history to lead three different teams to the World Series.

Bochy will be battling Baker for the second time in fall baseball, as he swept Baker’s Cincinnati Reds in three games to two in the 2012 National League Division Series while managing San Francisco.