Disgruntled Chicagoans just don't get Dusty

Tuesday, March 15,
2005

Scanning the Cactus League and some people under the microscope: Dusty Baker: The bottom line is that Dusty has had chances to win that long-awaited championship, and his teams haven't come through. Life could be worse. Over the long haul, it should be enough that his strengths (character guy, players' manager, solid instincts) overshadow some horrific autumnal episodes.

It's not enough at all. The Chicago media can't let go of last season, insisting on pinpointing the blame. After pushing for Sammy Sosa's departure - - absolutely the right move on the Cubs' part -- writers and broadcast outlets are now obsessed with Sosa: his feud with Baker, how he will be missed, who's winning the spring training war of words.

Good lord, get over it. Sosa is one of the great prima donnas of our time (he was late for his physical in Baltimore because he insisted in riding in a limousine, not a conventional car). Baker protected this guy like a father covering his bratty son's tracks.

Now the media has gone totally insane, to the tune of, "OK, Dusty, you got rid of Sammy; let's see what you do now."

The fact is, Baker may not have enough winners. Two years ago, after his weak Game 7 performance against Florida in the NLCS, Kerry Wood admitted, "I choked.

" Mark Prior, speaking of last season's collapse, used that same word about the team. That should be the biggest of Baker's concerns, not a bunch of idiots calling him a dummy.

One of Dusty's friends, a white man, recently told me, "I hate to say this about my town, but a lot of people in Chicago don't want to see a black man in a job that responsible.

" That's a loaded statement, but don't dismiss it unless you've walked in Baker's shoes. Racist, impatient or just plain dumb, people in Chicago don't get Dusty. They don't deserve him, either.

Win or lose, he will be long gone as soon as his contract expires in two years.


Don't wait two years Dusty if you wanna leave!

Dusty has put his Bay Area writer-friends to work.

Now the opponent is gonna be Chicago and Cub fans. Dusty always has an alibi and an excuse. Mr.

Jenkins(Dusty's mouthpiece) can use the excuse of racism and paint Chicago as a Midwest backwards town. Maybe that flies in the Bay Area. (That plane won't even get on the runway at O'Hare or Midway.

)

Chicago has a lot of problems Mr. Jenkins(Dusty). We have big city crime, we have a public school system that needs to be fixed, we have a Czar running city hall, we have a billion dollar park downtown that our kid's kids' will pay for, we have scandals every week in our government offices, etc.

. We know Chicago ain't perfect. As a sports town our problem is believing in every Manager that says they've come here to build a winner.

That's what Dusty, Jauron, Baylor, Wannstedt, and all of the rest have told us.

Dusty Can't Handle Chicago
Baker is too thin-skinned to handle the Chicago media. If Baker was not ready for media and fan scrutiny, why did he come to Chicago?

The facts are the facts. Baker came to the Cubs touted as a manager who could handle superstars and keep the clubhouse happy. All of that blew up in 2004.

The team became unlikeable and blamed the everbody (except themselves) for blowing the wild card. On the field Dusty Baker has not managed worth a damn since he has been in Chicago. If Kerry Wood "choked" in game 7 of the 2003 NLCS, it was Baker who choked in game 6.

Dusty's unnamed white friend
Why didn't Mr. Jenkins publish the name of Dusty's white friend who called Chicagoans racist? If somebody's gonna make racist allegations in print, I'd at least like to know who's making the allegations.

If Dusty's nameless white friend would like to comment I'd love to hear from you.

Instead I'm busy worrying about elbow of and the shoulder of .

Right now I'm supposed to be working on my brackets trying to figure out which 12 seed will beat a 5. I usually would have looked at the bracket and came up with the number of events that have to fall into place for the to make sweet sixteen, the elite eight or (gulp) the final four. It's Tuesday night, two days before the NCAA tourney tips off and I am worried about the two right arms that could make or break the Cubs 2005 season.

Almost everything that you hear out of spring training is sugar coated (just another reason not to believe the ). That is probably why Steve Stone's take on Prior and Wood in is really refreshing. Stone (who will be broadcasting on ESPN according to ) had this to say on Prior:

On those who've questioned Prior's toughness, Stone said: ''I won't name names, but coming out of camp last year at times was [the opinion] that Prior probably wasn't tough enough.

That he had to pitch with pain. That he has to go out there, that's what major-league pitchers do. I have to believe if he's telling you he's hurting, he's hurting.

And because they can't find a cause doesn't make the pain any less real. So you've got a multimillion-dollar talent, you want to keep running him out there and saying he's not tough enough? Well, I'll tell you what: Let him go and see if anybody else picks him up.

''

The Stone Pony saved his greatest criticism for #34:

''Wood has shown no adaptability,'' Stone said. ''He wants to throw the ball 95 to 96 [mph]; he wants to throw it at times through the catcher. When he loses his mechanics, he can't get them back again.

Somebody is going to have to tell Kerry the object of the game is to pitch. That's why they call you a pitcher. If not, they call you a thrower.

And if they call you a thrower, and if you keep saying you can't change your mechanics, and if in fact your mechanics are partially responsible for you getting hurt every year, you've got a couple of choices: You can take all the money you've made --which is a bundle -- and you can go sell cars. Or you can make some adjustments and try to stay around this league for 10 years.

Man, I will sure miss Stoney on the television broadcasts.

He never would(or could) have said anything like this while working for the Tribsters. I cannot wait to hear Stoney on the Score after Dusty mismanages a ballgame this summer. Dusty thought he could chase Stoney's criticism out of town by getting him off of the television broadcasts.

In a funny way he took the muzzle off of Stone.
Speaking of the Cub broadcast booth, and have a ! Everybody does, right Paul Sullivan?

and welcome Len and Brenly to Chicago.
I'll try and focus on my brackets. Feel free to suggest who I should have in the Final Four.

..

On Wednesday we will see the second go-round for the new Veterans selection process. They vote every two years.

Last week I popped in the DVD of .

I know that it has been written about over and over again. But ladies and gents, it's time for to take his place in Cooperstown next to , , . When you look at third sackers only is clearly above Santo.

Santo's numbers compare favorably with the numbers of HOF third baseman and (players who played in Santo's era).



What keeps Santo out of the Hall? There are a bunch of theories:

• The Cubs of the late 60's already have three players in Cooperstown, even though they never won.

• Santo was loved in Chicago, but nationally he was virtually unknown.
• Many of Santo's NL peers hated his antics on the field. His clicking of the heals in 1969 was considered show boating -- an absolute no-no in those days.

• The Don Young incident.
• Many don't like that Santo and Tribune owned WGN TV Radio have been campaigning for his induction for years.

Everything listed above is crap.

Santo deserves his day in Cooperstown. He's not being voted on by snot nosed writers who only know Santo as the Cub fan broadcasting games on 'GN Radio. With Santo's peers making the call he should be in.

Hell, when you watch This Old Cub every veteran in the HOF claims to have voted for Ronnie.
It would be great to see Ronnie finally get the call on Wednesday. History tells us that it won't come that easy for #10.

It's a shame. One day Ronnie will get the call. I hope the Veterans do it soon enough so Ronnie can answer the call and enjoy his moment in upstate New York.

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"It's not like we need ten or twelve new players to contend."

-- Jim Hendry

"All your statistics are going to tell you is what a guy has done.