“Baseball life” was purposefully used, because for the last quarter of a century I have recommended that the various committees that judge candidates after they leave the standard Hall of Fame ballot should be thinking of the whole baseball life. The standard group that votes (of which I am a member) are charged with judging just a playing career and, anyway, often lack the information that will come post career and in a full baseball life.

I wrote about this first in 1996, suggesting that if Joe Torre’s Yankees were to win the World Series that year (which they did) that when he passed in front of the then-Veterans Committee, they should take his cumulative career into account. Torre was a borderline Hall of Fame player who by 1996 was in the 14th of the then maximum 15 years on the regular ballot, and it was obvious that he was never getting the votes to enter that way.

To me, this is why Gil Hodges is such a no-brainer Hall of Famer. His stats are similar to Torre’s as a player, plus as manager of the 1969 Mets Hodges steered one of the most improbable, iconoclastic champions of all time. His full “baseball life” deserves recognition in Cooperstown.

The Astros will return the core of their on-field coaching staff in 2021.

The club announced Tuesday it has exercised club options on the contracts of manager Dusty Baker, pitching coach Brent Strom and third-base coach Gary Pettis for the 2021 season.

Hired to replace A.J. Hinch in February, Baker was guaranteed just the 2020 season. Upon his appointment, Baker called the Astros managerial job his “last hurrah” — a final attempt to win an elusive World Series title.

Baker enters Tuesday’s game against the Dodgers with 1,866 career managerial wins. He won a National League pennant with the Giants in 2002 but has never captured a World Series title as a manager.