One Last Go at Dusty (Until Next Week)
Oh, Dusty Baker. When Chris Deluca writes an article about you, and you manage to appear stupider than Deluca, it’s time to hang them up. Deluca’s in quotes. Mine not in quotes.
There’s Dusty Baker, decked out in a crisp suit, earpiece still firmly in place, looking much more put together than disheveled ESPN partner John Kruk a couple of hours before Game 1 of the World Series at Fenway Park.
You forgot some description. Dusty was also decked out in ESPN wristbands, and he had a toothpick dangling from his craw.
Baker spots a familiar face from his past, puts on a smile and sticks out his hand. Then he does something he rarely did with Chicago media. He uses your first name. Mainly because he has a score to settle.
If it really bothered you that much that he didn’t call you by name, you should have changed your name to “Dude.”
”You were pretty hard on me over there, weren’t you?” Baker says during a break from his ESPN duties Wednesday.
My mother taught me not to suffer fools, but rather to make fools suffer.
”And it wasn’t all fair, really.”
Mark Prior and Kerry Wood agree. Yes, I’m still blaming you.
“I’ve got a few scars from it, but it’s over. And I’m looking forward to coming back and winning — and erasing the end there.”
I agree. I can’t wait until you come back to the NL Central and finally help the Cubs win a few games.
“Because before that end there, I was a pretty good light in baseball.”
That’s true. Your team lit up the fireworks at U.S. Cellular Field. You helped light up the faces of the 150 Marlins fans in 2003. You caused me to stay pretty well lit from 2003 through 2006.
Baker is on the cusp of a new chapter in his life. Before he starts, he knows the previous chapter — the one that featured an up-and-down stint as Cubs manager — will continue to cloud his future. He says he’s not bitter, but he’s clearly still hurting.
Good thing Dusty is the only one still stung by 2003. Never mind the fact that everyone I know actively rooted for Josh Beckett to drop dead during the 2007 World Series.
Shortly after he was fired on the day after the 2006 season, when the Cubs lost 96 games, Baker signed on with ESPN. He went back to being a full-time father while getting an unwanted vacation from the dugout for a season. Two weeks ago, he closed a deal to manage the Cincinnati Reds.
Lucky Cubs. Lucky ESPN. Stupid Reds.
It seems like a clean break, but the past remains a little too fresh.
Maybe if you’d, uh, stop bringing it up?
”I was beat up pretty good. And I haven’t been beat up like that in a looong time,” Baker says.
Swing by any time, man.
”But that’s OK. It makes you stronger. It makes you a better person. It makes you see things in a different light.”
Notice he didn’t say “better manager.”
”The sad part about the whole thing is there’s no such thing as a fresh start. Whatever happened in your last situation, people keep bringing it up in this situation. There’s no new beginning. And you hear about the same things that were misconceptions from San Francisco to Chicago and now to Cincinnati. It’s like, ‘Hey, man, just leave it alone. Just look at the bright side of things.’ Here’s what I have done.”
Go ahead and finish, Dusty. Here is what you have done in your 14 seasons of managing.
First-place finishes: 3
World Series appearances: 1, during which you were completely depantsed by Mike Scioscia
World Series wins: 0
Oh, and you’re a great clubhouse manager. Remember that time you stopped Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds from fighting all the time in the clubhouse? Or that time you prevented a highly-talented Cubs team from getting distracted by the press, the announcers, and the fans?
”At the same time, you try to maintain the love and forgiveness in your heart. It doesn’t change some of the feelings that you have, but you don’t dwell on it. I mean, life goes on.”
Strange that you would quote a TV show about a retarded kid.
For Baker and the Cubs.
Shortly after Baker was fired, the Cubs hired Lou Piniella and went on a $300 million spending spree. As the Cubs went from worst to first, Baker spent a big chunk of his time on ”Baseball Tonight” breaking down the team that was thriving without him.
Strange?
That anyone would hire Dusty to analyze baseball? Yeah, probably.
”They had a good team — a very good team,” he says. ”I was looking at it like, I wish I had access to that team. And sometimes I figured, hey, if I was that bad, then why did you have to spend so much money to get a new team? How come you didn’t have the same team?”
Back up, you stupid fuck. Are you honestly arguing that the 2007 Cubs had more talent than the 2004 Cubs? Seriously? The 2004 Cubs had FOUR 30-plus home run guys. Both Aramis Ramirez and Moises Alou had over 100 RBIs, and Derrek Lee had 98. Michael Barrett had a very solid year at the plate, if not behind it. You had Nomar Garciaparra for a quarter of the season. The 2004 Cubs outscored the 2007 Cubs by nearly 50 runs.
On to the pitching. The highest ERA on the starting rotation came out of future Hall-of-Famer Greg Maddux, and his was only a 4.02. Carlos Zambrano had arguably the most consistently dominant season of his career. You got 43 starts out of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, plus a shockingly solid 16 starts out of Glendon Rusch. Oh, and your pitching allowed 25 fewer runs than the 2007 Cubs.
Lou, on the other hand, had to deal with absolutely zero production out of the catcher’s spot for most of the year. He barely had a single 100-RBI guy and a single 30-HR guy. He changed the appearance of the starting lineup and had the guts to go with young players at key spots on the field. Oh, what might have happened, Dusty, if you had the balls to go with Brendan Harris at shortstop when Nomar was hurt, not unlike Lou went with Ryan Theriot.
Editor’s Note: That would have been difficult for Dusty to do since, as it was pointed out to me, Harris went to the Expos as part of the Nomar deal. Oops.
”At least I broke one curse. I heard that most managers, when they leave the Cubs, they don’t get another job. So I broke one curse.”
Elia got one. He fucking sucked.
The curse he was supposed to break was the one involving a World Series title drought that still stretches to 1908.
After Baker got the Cubs five outs shy of the World Series in 2003, expectations zoomed to unprecedented levels the next season. Then the Cubs choked down the stretch, blowing a wild-card lead. In the process — amid a feud with popular broadcasters Steve Stone and Chip Caray, and a shocking early exit by Sammy Sosa — Baker’s image in Chicago began to tarnish.
Chip Caray was popular? Someone was shocked that Sosa was run out of town? Weird.
Were the expectations post-2003 fair?
Considering the 2004 team was one of the most-talented Cubs teams I’ve seen in my lifetime, yes.
”I don’t know what fair is. That’s OK,” Baker says.
We know. There are a lot of words you don’t understand.
”In ‘04, we ran out of gas.”
And pixie dust. And excuses.
“And then, you lose sight that before I got there, we lost 95.”
Good point. You should bitch about all the talent that was added for Lou. Never mind the fact that the 2002 team had the murderer’s row of Corey Patterson, Bill Mueller, Sammy Sosa, Fred McGriff, Moises Alou, Mark Bellhorn, Alex Gonzalez, and Joe Girardi. Jason Bere, Alan Benes, and Steve Smyth combined for 30 starts. Antonio Alfonseca was the closer. Lots of B126ers on there. Good argument, Dusty.
“And then we damn near went to the World Series, outside of a couple of additions. We didn’t have many additions, and from that point, we had a lot of subtractions. From Mo [Moises Alou] to Sammy, I lost 70 home runs in one year.”
235 home runs hit in 2004. 194 hit in 2005. You suck at math.
As for the ”misconceptions” that still dog Baker, the biggest centers on his dislike of young players.
”Now wait a minute,” he says. ”Didn’t I play [Ronny] Cedeno?”
Yes, even when he proved time and again that he was terrible at the game of baseball.
“Didn’t I play [Matt] Murton?”
Who exactly was your other option? Angel Pagan? John Mabry? Michael Restovich?
“Didn’t I play [Ryan] Theriot to determine if he could play or not?”
Nope. 134 at-bats, Dusty? Really?
“Freddie Bynum and all of the young pitchers we had? Those are misconceptions that I don’t understand.”
Good point. The Cubs should have rewarded you for giving Freddie Bynum 136 at-bats, while only giving Theriot 134.
It seems as if he didn’t give Theriot much of a shot during that lost 2006 season, when the young infielder was hitting .328 but couldn’t stick in the lineup.
”I love Theriot,” he says. ”But how are you going to determine who to keep and who not to keep if you don’t play everybody? Am I right? You would know about Theriot, but then you wouldn’t know about Bynum and everybody else.”
Isn’t it part of your job to evaluate talent? What were you watching? Oh, right. Freddie was one of your “fast” guys. Even though Theriot had 13 stolen bases while being caught twice to Bynum’s 8 stolen bases while being caught 4 times.
Baker seemed to change after the pressure mounted entering 2004. The laid-back manager appeared more uptight — and the feeling spread through his clubhouse. His dealings with the Chicago media also became more tense.
So, he couldn’t manage a clubhouse and couldn’t handle the media. What was he brought in for, again?
”Chicago is one of the first times in my whole career that me and the media weren’t on the same page, so to speak,” he says. ”From Atlanta to L.A. to San Francisco to Oakland, I had been welcomed.”
So, they liked you in California and Atlanta? You want to borrow a map or something?
“Hey, man, I don’t know how it happened. I think some people took exception to some things that I said, and it was never forgotten. I’m sure that probably had something to do with it, too. But I am who I am and I am how I am. But it’s all good, though.”
I wonder if it was the racist comments, the excuse-making, or the nonsensical and rambling stories.
And now he’s back in the National League Central. From Piniella to the St. Louis Cardinals’ Tony La Russa, the Central is loaded with superstar managers.
Yeah, and Ned Yost, Cecil Cooper, and whoever the hell is managing the Pirates.
”I’m one of them,” Baker reminds. ”A lot of people don’t feel like I’m in there, but I’m in there.”
This reminds me of that time that Isaiah Thomas said that he was one of the last “gunslingers” of the NBA, including Jordan, Bird, and Magic.
Yes, he belongs.
No, he doesn’t.
His track record speaks for itself — good and bad.
Any regrets about the four years in Chicago?
Yeah, tons. His lineup construction, his abuse of the starting rotation, his use of the bullpen, his obsession with Neifi Perez- Oh, you mean him?
”No, no. Zero,” he says. ”I’ve been in almost every environment there is to be in. All over the world. So it just makes you that much better, stronger and well-rounded. And know how to deal with anything. There ain’t too much that can faze me now.”
We know, Dusty. You didn’t seem to give a shit about anything. And that’s one of the reasons why we’re so glad you’re going to be in the visiting dugout the next time you show up at Wrigley Field.
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