More "thoughts" from Sweatband McToothpick

[Larry Horse]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/sports/cst-spt-cub01.html

 

Enjoy

[illiniguy]

''I will continue to manage,'' he said. ''I still have some more championships to win.''

What championships has he won as a manager again? I guess he has a few division and one National League title, but you would think the guy is Joe Torre from this quote.

[RockTheIvy]

Horse, I'm glad you brought back your name.

[badger1679666666]

God. Just LEAVE dumbsty. you whine more than 5 year old kid at the supermarket.

[halplm]

so... all the negative attention has nothing to do with being a bad manager? It's getting scoops about negative personal stuff...

 

Um, what negative personal stories have their been this year? Speier's DUI? If anything, that was under-reported.

 

I'm a little confused about how Dusty has been a target for negativity about anything other than managing a $95 million payrol to what will probably be almost 100 losses...

[biittner77]

Dusty Baker said:

 

''It used to be we're all in the game together,'' Baker said. ''It used to be not us and them or not nearly as mistrusting as today. When I broke into baseball, the media rode with us on the planes and on our buses. They were like part of the team. We used to hang out with the media, go to the same bars and restaurants and stay in the same hotels. We were like one instead of two.

 

Didn't Baker get Steve & Chip kicked off the team plane? Hasn't Baker always fostered an "us vs. them" mentality regarding the media?

[swordsman]

I look forward to a time when reading a rather inocuous statement by Dusty isn't interpreted as making excuses for why the team is losing.

 

"I get racist letters and they are hurtful and I don't like it and it makes my job less fun. But I will still go out there and do my job. It doesn't effect how I manage." - Not making excuses

 

"D-Lee would have won us 10-15 more games." - ignorant, likely hyperbole, thinly vailed excuse-making. Shame on you Dusty

 

"The media has really changed in my time in this game. It's a lot more hostile now. I'll bet it's because they have more competition to get people to pay attention to their stories." - Not making excuses and, in my opinion, not far off base.

 

I don't think Dusty should be managing this team either, but come on folks, not everything the guy says should get people's truss in a tangle.

[halplm]

If he said "I haven't managed this team well given what we had to work with"

 

then all this other stuff he comes up with would just be stuff.

 

But he's coming up with all this stuff and is hoping no one will blame him for the team playing horribly. He won't take responsability, and continues to bring up stuff totally unrelated to the performance of the Cubs trying to get people talking about something else.

 

He's really good at it, but it's still trying to manipulate things so he looks better.

 

Clearly you don't have a problem with this, but many people do...

[CubsInNC]

I look forward to a time when reading a rather inocuous statement by Dusty isn't interpreted as making excuses for why the team is losing.

 

"I get racist letters and they are hurtful and I don't like it and it makes my job less fun. But I will still go out there and do my job. It doesn't effect how I manage." - Not making excuses

 

"D-Lee would have won us 10-15 more games." - ignorant, likely hyperbole, thinly vailed excuse-making. Shame on you Dusty

 

"The media has really changed in my time in this game. It's a lot more hostile now. I'll bet it's because they have more competition to get people to pay attention to their stories." - Not making excuses and, in my opinion, not far off base.

 

I don't think Dusty should be managing this team either, but come on folks, not everything the guy says should get people's truss in a tangle.

 

I agree totally. All he says in this is basically he wants to manage more. He wants to win more. I can't fault him for that much. If I had been successful at my job in the past (in my eyes) and I took another one and wasn't successful, I'd chalk it up to bad luck and try again too. Nothing to see here, move along.

[halplm]

I look forward to a time when reading a rather inocuous statement by Dusty isn't interpreted as making excuses for why the team is losing.

 

"I get racist letters and they are hurtful and I don't like it and it makes my job less fun. But I will still go out there and do my job. It doesn't effect how I manage." - Not making excuses

 

"D-Lee would have won us 10-15 more games." - ignorant, likely hyperbole, thinly vailed excuse-making. Shame on you Dusty

 

"The media has really changed in my time in this game. It's a lot more hostile now. I'll bet it's because they have more competition to get people to pay attention to their stories." - Not making excuses and, in my opinion, not far off base.

 

I don't think Dusty should be managing this team either, but come on folks, not everything the guy says should get people's truss in a tangle.

 

I agree totally. All he says in this is basically he wants to manage more. He wants to win more. I can't fault him for that much. If I had been successful at my job in the past (in my eyes) and I took another one and wasn't successful, I'd chalk it up to bad luck and try again too. Nothing to see here, move along.

 

In that case, he should not try and make excuses. Just say it was a bad year on everyone's part, and move on. Don't drag up all the stuff he's dragging up trying to get people talkign about anything but the bad team!

[abuck1220]

Baker said he's baffled by all the negative media reaction.

 

seriously, what's with the negativity, people? can't anyone write about all the positives that come with a 95 million dollar team sitting at 25 games under .500?

[abuck1220]

Then there's the Internet, too.

 

new scapegoat alert, new scapegoat alert!!!!

[RockTheIvy]

Then there's the Internet, too.

 

new scapegoat alert, new scapegoat alert!!!!

 

They've got the internet on computers now?

[CubsInNC]

I look forward to a time when reading a rather inocuous statement by Dusty isn't interpreted as making excuses for why the team is losing.

 

"I get racist letters and they are hurtful and I don't like it and it makes my job less fun. But I will still go out there and do my job. It doesn't effect how I manage." - Not making excuses

 

"D-Lee would have won us 10-15 more games." - ignorant, likely hyperbole, thinly vailed excuse-making. Shame on you Dusty

 

"The media has really changed in my time in this game. It's a lot more hostile now. I'll bet it's because they have more competition to get people to pay attention to their stories." - Not making excuses and, in my opinion, not far off base.

 

I don't think Dusty should be managing this team either, but come on folks, not everything the guy says should get people's truss in a tangle.

 

I agree totally. All he says in this is basically he wants to manage more. He wants to win more. I can't fault him for that much. If I had been successful at my job in the past (in my eyes) and I took another one and wasn't successful, I'd chalk it up to bad luck and try again too. Nothing to see here, move along.

 

In that case, he should not try and make excuses. Just say it was a bad year on everyone's part, and move on. Don't drag up all the stuff he's dragging up trying to get people talkign about anything but the bad team!

 

I'm *not* a Dusty defender. In any sense of the word. I think he should be gone, and have for awhile. But, in this particular instance, and probably many others, do you think he brought it up? Or do you think it's possible that he was giving his post-game/practice/towel drill/thumping interview and someone asked the question, "Dusty, if you're not with the Cubs next year, what would you like to do?"

 

"Dusty, how do you respond to the repeated criticism of you in the press?"

 

"Dusty, have you always felt that way about it?"

 

"How are you holding up in this season? Is it wearing you down? Making you want to quit? Regret being here?"

 

 

Running to Lee, "Derrek, what do you think of the media as it covers baseball?"

 

 

Isn't that at all possible? Do you really think that many baseball-affiliated people would just stand/sit there and drone on and on and on, without getting asked a single question? The Chicago media (and national media to an extent) are more and more like sharks in the water around Dusty. They're smell the blood of the imminent change of tenure and want to stir up as much controversy as possible so they get the scoop.

 

I'm sure Bruce could comment further.

[YearofDaCubs]

I'm glad Dusty is coming up with excuses and clearly, from his comments he will not be here next year and that makes me happy.

[halplm]

"Dusty, how do you respond to the repeated criticism of you in the press?"

 

He could respond saying: Well, the press has their job to do, just like I do. They're going to critisize the team and me when we don't perform as well as we should, which we haven't this year.

 

"How are you holding up in this season? Is it wearing you down? Making you want to quit? Regret being here?"

 

He could respond with: No, I don't regret being here. I was hired to do a job here, and I've done the best I could. Clearly it didn't work out well this year. It's hard to have a losing season, but I'm looking forward to next season. If it's here, I'll do my best here, if it's somewhere else, I'll give it my best there.

 

 

Sure, those might be standard type answers, not giving much insight into what Dusty is really feeling, but they would be talking about HIM. The questions are directed at him, and how he is handling things. They are not about the press, or his mail, or injuries, or anything else.

 

When someone asks you how you feel about critisism directed at you, you should say how you feel about that critisism, not that "a long time ago, I wouldn't have been critisized because the press was part of the team."

 

I personally just don't like seeing someone try to get out of any responsability whatsoever for something THEY are in charge of failing...

 

If Dusty just ONCE said "Yeah, we had injuries and some bad luck and all that, but when it comes down to it, it's on me to work with what we've got and have the team perform as well as it possibly can. I failed to do that this year." Then I'd call him a class act and wish him well on his way out of town.

[CubsInNC]

The questions are directed at him, and how he is handling things. They are not about the press, or his mail, or injuries, or anything else.

 

I'm not there when they're asked. So I assume that you are. Have you ever told something to a friend who might have happened to mention it to someone else, then someone else, and next thing you know someone who's kinda nosey is asking you about it? Dunno if that happened, but it *is* feasible.

 

When someone asks you how you feel about critisism directed at you, you should say how you feel about that critisism, not that "a long time ago, I wouldn't have been critisized because the press was part of the team."

 

And Dusty does NOT say that. He says that the media has changed. It's much more sensationalism driven. Which is true, isn't it? We all want to know the latest scoop, and we give our attention to the one who provides it. He doesn't say that they never criticized. He says they had a job to do and "didn't necessarily squash everything or monitor everything. If something bad happened, they did their job and wrote about it. But they would report on the game more, rather than concentrate on reporting about the personal lives and personalities of the players." If anything he's blaming the MEDIA for making it about the personal lives, not the bad play on the field. Did we hear about the alcohol, drug, and gambling problems of many of the players in the 50-70s while they happened? Or were they for the most part after the fact? Did the media follow the players on their own personal time to track down who was sleeping around, who was snortin lines of coke, etc? Or was that considered just that, personal time?

 

I still don't see it as him taking blame, more shifting it to the players (probably those dad-burn rookies). But he's not saying things the way you think.

[halplm]

except the media hasn't DONE that!!

 

Where are the personal lives of people being exposed?

 

If the media was doing that, I'd be all for saying "talk about what's on the field!"

 

But Dusty is the one that only talks about personal stuff!

[dalgreen]

Aren't any of you football fans? I've been able to let Baker go since it seems he's lame duck, plus he should have no effect on the Cub's 2007 season. Something I wish I could say about Hendry. I don't understand why some still react to Baker comments. Finally, he seems to be out of here in 29 games and it seems as if some of you can't let him go. Just like the Neifi Perez posts that for some reason are still out there. He's gone and instead of forgetting that he ever wore a Cub uniform, we have to still have topics relating to Perez. By the way, it sounds as if Derrek Lee said the same thing, just in a shorter way, as Baker did regarding the media. Why not criticize him, too?

[abuck1220]

if anybody's exposing personal lives, it's dusty. he's the one that continues to harp on the racist letters, how they're affecting his family, what darren's daily routine is, etc.

 

with all the stuff in the past about hundley, farnsworth, sosa, etc, i'd say this season is pretty low on the personal life exposure scale.

[frostwyrm]

"I get racist letters and they are hurtful and I don't like it and it makes my job less fun. But I will still go out there and do my job. It doesn't effect how I manage." - Not making excuses

Yeah but he keeps bringing up the subject in the media, apparently so he can look like an underdog or a victim.

[dalgreen]

"I get racist letters and they are hurtful and I don't like it and it makes my job less fun. But I will still go out there and do my job. It doesn't effect how I manage." - Not making excuses

Yeah but he keeps bringing up the subject in the media, apparently so he can look like an underdog or a victim.

 

He brings it up or does the media ask him about it? It's hard for me to believe (even with Baker) that that is his response when asked, "What did you think of the ump's call at first base?"

[halplm]

He could say "That's not really an issue"

 

But instead, he talks about it repeatedly. He knows the media will portray it as something it's not, and he uses that to try to distract people from what happens on the field.

 

I'm all for letting go of Dusty, but it's wrong to say he has no impact on 2007. He's doing things right now with this team that may hurt them next year. And the media circus swarming around him could cause some problems if he starts laying blame on specific players, as he likes to do...

[dalgreen]

He could say "That's not really an issue"

 

But instead, he talks about it repeatedly. He knows the media will portray it as something it's not, and he uses that to try to distract people from what happens on the field.

 

I'm all for letting go of Dusty, but it's wrong to say he has no impact on 2007. He's doing things right now with this team that may hurt them next year. And the media circus swarming around him could cause some problems if he starts laying blame on specific players, as he likes to do...

 

What's he doing right now that could impact 2007 moreso than Hendry's off-season and the manager for 2007 decisions?

[halplm]

He could say "That's not really an issue"

 

But instead, he talks about it repeatedly. He knows the media will portray it as something it's not, and he uses that to try to distract people from what happens on the field.

 

I'm all for letting go of Dusty, but it's wrong to say he has no impact on 2007. He's doing things right now with this team that may hurt them next year. And the media circus swarming around him could cause some problems if he starts laying blame on specific players, as he likes to do...

 

What's he doing right now that could impact 2007 moreso than Hendry's off-season and the manager for 2007 decisions?

 

I don't think he'd haveMORE impact. But he can still influence these players, and he can cause bad blood and tensions everywhere. HE can overuse pitchers, and teach batters bad habits. There's plenty he could do.