Should the Cubs Fire Dusty Baker?
Today on Chicagosports.com there was yet another article on the topic of whether or not Dusty Baker should be sent packing. This article was less serious than the ones which came before it, the writer's purpose being to show how there is no way Baker can be fired when there are so many other worse sports figures still around. Some people might take this column at face value, but to me the fact that Baker is being compared to the likes of Barry Bonds and Dennis Rodman speaks volumes of the reality of Rick Morrissey's opinion on the subject. Yes, he says that Baker should stay, but the entire article is written in a sarcastic tone, therefore signaling that there is no way Morrissey would like to see Baker in a Cubs uniform next season.
I, for one, think Dusty and his so called "Magic Dust" has been a failed experiment and the team needs to move on. With that said, let me make myself clear: In no way is the team's poor performance this season Bakers fault! No, we can put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Jim Hendry, one of the worst GMs in the game, but let's save that for another post. However, Baker and Alex Gonzalez, the once gold glove-caliber shortstop, may his career rest in peace, were responsible for the collapse in 2003 (sorry, it wasn't Steve Bartman's fault). Baker's also to blame for the debacle in 2004 when they added Derek Lee after coming five outs from the World Series the year before. The team would have easily secured a Wild Card spot if they had not been mismanaged by Dusty.
I can't stand watching the man and his laid back attitude. The Cubs need someone next year who won't hesitate to get in the face of a player when he is not getting the job done. Cubs fans won't like to hear it, but the team needs someone like Ozzie Guillen (see article) and in my opinion I think Lou Piniella would be a perfect fit. Any comments? Opinions? What do you guys think?
posted by Ryan Anthony Dreyer at
8:19 AM
2 Comments:
My comments in re your blog about the sad Cubs.
Tied To The Hip,
Shoot From The Lip:
The problem with the Cubs is an untenable Manager/GM issue that is analogous to a co-joined life form which cannot be surgically separated because IT shares too much of ITS vital parts with ITSELF.
Baker and Hendry who are melded so firmly to the hip, actually to the lip, that it is impossible to
separate them, with eerie similarity to Chaney and Bush,
whereby the action of one or the
other is a direct result of an inseparable relationship.
The only difference is that Bush and Channey report directly to GOD
while Baker and Hendry report to a demigod, Andy McPhail, the angel of death as far as this Cub fan is concerned:
It is naive to singularly blame
Hendry for the personnel advice he has naively heeded from Baker, same as it naive to blame Hendry for the poor on-field managerial decisions of Mr Dusty and his on-field cohorts. In reality, the failure on the field is simply symptomatic of the Baker, Hendry relationship, not the fault of
either individual, not the fault
of the Tribune's management style
nor the fault of Steve Stone.
The unrightable blame solely falls on the self-massaging Mr McPhail for leading the Tribune and Cub fans down the drain by his mind
boggling, self serving decision to create a day-today management team that was destined to fail:
By installing two eerily similar
personalities which have cancelled
each other out and have, in the process, been swallowed up in the
very echo of themselves.
To be sure the players have been
left helpless in an energy sucking vacuum. How else do you explain
the utter haplessness of this bunch.
McPhail, acting out on his propensity to be a minor corporate
despot, probably surmised that he
could better control his manager
and his GM if they were a simple, one headed, morphistation (i.e.
manifestation) joined a the hip or more accurately joined at the lip, if you will.
Well done Andy! The result, one BIG FOUR EYED GEEK of a management
team that is more concerned with defending itself against criticism
by players and press than leading by mature and individual example(s):
Hendry and Baker are a clearly a manifestation of one BIG TOOTHLESS MOUTH rather than the hardened Soldier Manager and Geometric GM
that the troops require to succeed on the battlefield.
So goes, Alou, Sosa, Wood, Patterson, Hill and so will go Pierre and Prior, Ramirez and maybe Lee unless the Cubs do something quickly to engage the
player's minds quickly in the fundamental crudity of baseball rather than victorian etiquette and table manners of hand maidens.
Call the players out on how they
perform and leave the rhetorical pleas for etiquette to the wives and mothers of the children we stupidly spoil because they are big hairy guys who have the BALLS to dress in muted coloured tights.
On his own, sans Hendry, Baker is
a good old boy who can fairly
manage his inarticulate tongue, but, co-joined to Hendry, Baker
has become simply a shrill echo of
geekish Hendry retorts that are
hurled at baseboys who have the pimple faced nerve to speak their unsophisticated minds to reporters
who make a living by making an ass out of themselves.
Hendry cannot abide players who threaten his self perceived power
by verbal deprecation because he
is a GEEK, a nerd who must have
been bullied as a kid and who, as an empowered adult, is compelled
to answer childishly back or come
to grips with his NERD days and do
something to get the festering
neurosis behind him:
And Baker, it is very amazing to
say, is simply the shrill echo
thereof, rather than the blasting
trumpet that his players and
coaches need to hear in order to get into (baseball) march step.
I suppose that Dusty learned, all
too well, the lesson of failed
rebellion (that came from his short
term at San Fran). I am sad to say that in this writer's eyes, the experiencing served to emasculate the 'man'. How else can one explain what Dusty has become. For all intents and base-
ball purposes, he is useless.
BAKER IS A MERE ECHO OF HENDRY AND VISA-VERSA.
So what to do: Fire McHail, but not before he fires Hendry and
Baker, and put together a
management team before December takes us into 2007 or the dream of
obtaining any decent free-agent for 2007 will end in nighmarish failure. REMBER KRAUSE AND THE BULLS!
First fire Baker, kick Hendry high and far upstairs, out of
baseball affairs with the rest of the Tribune nerds:
And, then replace McPhail with a corporate BASEBALL winner from THE American league. Either get the
Mets organization to mutiny and
jump onto the Cub ship or go where
the baseball brains dwell.
Then tell Wood he will never pitch as a starter again and make him the closer with Dempster as the set up man. Keep Eryes and Howdry and pick up two more bull pen pitchers by trading the rest of the bullpen staff, including
Ohlman, Novoa, etc: they all stink. Relievers will come by way of free-agency because relievers
have no loyalty to any organization, except for closers.
Trade Cedano while he is worth something. He will never be a top flight major leaguer: He is years
away from a good utility roll, so bite the bullet and fire away.
Trade Walker. Now, you must bring in a shortstop and second baseman
for 2007. Hopefully, this can be done while the ship is sinking, but it must be done as the team is too weak up the middle where it counts the most. Forget the play-
offs, we are talking about respectability here, to start with.
Keep Nevin: Keep Jones and bring up Pie: Keep Pierre if he can be convinced not to jump a sinking ship. this will be hard to do but it must be done or forget the Cubs for 10 years.
Now, without a blink of the eye, trade Murton and throw in Pie,
for proven power hitting, starting outfielder. YEAH! But Hendry will never have the guts to do this because it is something Boston, the Sox or Yankees would
do without even blinking an eye. THE CUBS MUST GET BETTER AND THAT MEANS THEY MUST MOVE PLAYERS IN ORDER TO BRING IN BETTER PLAYERS: IT IS ELEMANTARY. MY DEAR WATSON.
THE ONLY UNTOUCHABLE SHOULD BE LEE: OH, MY GOD, IT
IS WORSE THAN I COULD HAVE EVER IMAGINED.
ONE,(Hendry), TWO(Baker), THREE STRIKES (McPhail), YOU'RE OUT;
(out of luck Cub fans because there are no real assets to trade except for the one's you want to keep. This is a pro organization's
worse nightmare, really, and makes
the 100 year wait for a champion on the north side more a likely- hood than the quick fix I alluded to above.
ASSETS: LEE
ZAMBRANO
RAMIREZ
BARRETT
All are really untouchable except
for Barret, so the Cubs could
could only hope that someone bites on the Murton/Pie scenario and the Tribune ups the payroll so the
Cubs can land 3 star free-agents,
but I do not believe they will get even one because who, in their right mind, would want to come to a sinking ship without a captain and admiral. It is a nightmare, no matter how many dream scenarios
one conjures up: Are any plans doable given the current circumstances, and time is running
out.
P.S. Just watched Baker's boys
get swept in DC. Now Marmoul is hurt:
These guys not only stink, they are fragile like china dolls. My God!
Greets to the webmaster of this wonderful site! Keep up the good work. Thanks.
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