His life isn't in the dugout anymore. Or in the third base coach's box.
It hasn't been for more than two decades now.
But just because Chip Baker isn't technically a Florida State baseball coach anymore doesn't mean he's not still a vital and important piece of the Seminoles' program. And that vital and important piece celebrated a pretty cool personal milestone this week in Charlotte.
When the Florida State baseball team knocked off Virginia, 13-3, in its first game of the ACC Tournament on Wednesday, it represented the 2,000th win Baker has been a part of in his college baseball career.
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The vast, vast majority of course have come at FSU, where he joined Mike Martin's staff as an assistant coach all the way back in 1984.
"I've just been around," Baker said after FSU's 5-3 loss to Notre Dame on Thursday. "I've been around college baseball for 42 years. ... I've been honored to be around some great people. And I mean some great people. And a great program."
Baker wasn't looking for any publicity for his 2,000th win. He said he didn't realize he was approaching the milestone until the Miami series a few weekends ago. That's when he found out he had been a part of 1,997 wins. And when the Seminoles beat the Hurricanes two out of three that weekend, that got him to 1,999.
Then FSU lost on a walk-off at Florida. Then a walk-off at North Carolina. Then two more losses in Chapel Hill. And that 1,999 was still hanging there.
"That was a long week," Baker said with his typical laugh.
It has been a long -- and gratifying -- career for the High Point graduate.
Baker coached at both Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech before being hired by Mike Martin. And then he coached on the field for the Seminoles for 18 seasons before taking over the duties of Director of Baseball Operations, which is the role he still fills today.
He doesn't consider himself a coach anymore. After all, it's been more than two decades since he was on the field for the Seminoles. But you best believe his former players think of him as a coach. So, do the guys who used to work with him.
To people in the sport, Baker is synonymous with college baseball.
Florida State baseball, mostly, of course. That's where he's spent the last 38 years.
But the sport just means so much to him. You can tell that when you listen to him broadcast FSU games on the ACC Network Plus, and you can tell that even when you have a brief conversation with him.
Because any time you have a conversation that lasts longer than a few seconds with Chip Baker, you know you're going to get a story. Or two.
This week, he told one from a few years ago when Mike Martin Sr. was chasing the all-time college baseball wins record. The Seminoles were up in Boston College and they were trailing, and Baker decided he would station himself in the dugout -- something he almost never does anymore -- to start what he lovingly calls, "chirping."
He was loud, engaged, yelling encouragement to all the players. He was bringing the energy he used to provide as an on-field coach. And the Seminoles did in fact come back to win that game and get Martin one step closer to the record.
When they were leaving the field, Martin told Baker, "C.B., I appreciate you being down here today."
To which Baker replied sarcastically: "11, the heck with your record. That was 1,700 for me at Florida State!"
"And I heard the biggest laugh out of him," Baker said.
Here's another Chip Baker story.
When he first took the job at Florida State, he also had to teach classes. He taught Baseball Theory and Sports Officiating. One day, back in the late 1980s, he was teaching a basketball officiating class when he looked out on the intramural court and saw a whole lot of football starters in a pick-up basketball game.
Six of the players on the court that day wound up playing in the NFL, Baker said.
He knew who they were and he knew how important they were to Florida State. So, he went up and stopped the game immediately.
"Don't you guys ever do this again," Baker admonished them. "Because Coach Bowden is not going to learn my name through you guys getting hurt. He is not going to learn my name!"
Even back then, as a young assistant coach, he was a pretty smart dude.
Having Baker still a part of the Florida State baseball program is such a unique connection to the past. He has been around for just about everything this university has been through and accomplished in the last four decades.
He is close with Deion and Jameis. He's gotten to know everyone from all-time greats like Luis Alicea to current players like Jordan Carrion.
He's coached with Mike Martin Sr. and worked for Mike Martin Jr., and used to make spiked baseballs for Mickey Andrews when the football team would record a shutout.
In 2001, he and Martin Sr. famously helped steer the Seminoles' team bus to safety in California when their driver had a heart attack while at the wheel. It was a heroic effort that was honored by the university and is still much appreciated by the guys who were seated behind them.
Chip Baker also is a walking encyclopedia, with knowledge of everything -- and everyone -- associated with the sport.
And while he's not a Florida State grad, he's definitely a lifelong Seminole. One who cherishes every FSU win and is saddened by every Seminole defeat. In any sport.
But his greatest love has been, and always will be, his daughter, Katie, a 2018 FSU grad who played softball for the Seminoles and was a manager on the national championship softball team. He joked that she was his "publicist" when it came to the 2,000-win milestone, for tweeting the photo above.
His second love, though, well, that's easy.
"I love being a part of Florida State and what the program represents and what Mike Martin started," Baker said.
It's why he's still doing it.
It's why he doesn't want to stop. Even though, as he found out recently, he is two weeks older than Parker Messick's granddad.
"That's the way it goes," he said with a laugh. "But the thing about it is, these kids keep you young. The kids keep you young."
Young enough to still be excited about the sport he loves and the program that has his fingerprints all over it.
Chances are "Big Shooter," as so many former players and colleagues still call him, probably isn't going to be a part of 2,000 more wins. But he's definitely going to give it a shot.
"I just love what I do," he said.
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