Did Dusty Baker Deserve to Get Fired...Again?

Dusty Baker was fired as manager of the Washington Nationals two days ago. It was Baker's fourth managerial position, the tenures of which span 22 years. The Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, and the Cincinnati Reds all fired him too.

Baseball Hall of Fame writer Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News, thinks that Baker is, once again, getting the shaft.

I'm inclined to agree with him.

The rap on Baker used to be that he wore out young pitchers' arms, something that could hardly be said of him in Washington, where he and the Nationals franchise seemed to baby Stephen Strasburg.

I'm neither a Baker defender nor detractor. But he has had a lot of success in 22 years. He has a lifetime .532 win percentage.

On the face of it, that might not seem overwhelming, but he's gone to four franchises that were in rebuilding mode and on each stop, he achieved success.

By way of comparison, Sparky Anderson, who won at Cincinnati and Detroit and is covered in glory, had a .545 lifetime win percentage, not that much higher than Baker's. Joe Torre, one-time Yankees manager (who also managed the Mets, Braves, and Cardinals) was .538.

The difference between Baker and those managers is that he hasn't won a World Series. Very few managers or players ever do, of course. But that seems beside the point to Washington's ownership or, according to McCoy, many other owners these days.

The Nationals organization, formerly the Montreal Expos, has been a largely hapless franchise through the years. Baker managed them to two consecutive appearances in the post-season after 97- and 95-win regular season campaigns. But ownership obviously decided that their talent-rich roster should have been in or won this year's World Series.

According to USA Today, Baker stayed in Washington nine days before heading to his off-season home in California. He waited so that he could sign a new contract with the Nats. That didn't happen, but when he left DC, he still seemed certain that he would be re-signed. After he left town, he was notified that his services would no longer be needed.

It's a cliche to say it, yet I think it's true: It's a lot easier to fire a manager than it is to get rid of players. Baker seems to be a casualty of that fact.

On the other hand, I may not have any idea what I'm talking about.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

The sadness of Pete Rose

Paul Daugherty has long been one of my favorite newspaper columnists, his specialty being sports. He writes for the Cincinnati Enquirer. Yesterday, Reds Country was abuzz with the announcement that Pete Rose, long banned from baseball and separately barred from the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown because he bet on baseball when he was a player and manager, would this year be inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame at Great American Ball Park and his number 14 forever retired from use by the Reds.

Daugherty registered what is probably a widespread point of view among Reds fans in a column titled 'Sadness pervades Reds' Rose announcement.' This is how it ended:

Enjoy the local honor [Daugherty writes to Rose]. It’s not a consolation prize, not for someone who grew up on the West Side and still, in some small way, owes his personality to that part of town. It’s not Cooperstown, either, or even a batting cage. Sadness endures, even on a day of celebration.

I responded:

I'm a lifelong Reds fan and Rose was, in Big Red Machine days, my favorite player. (In retrospect, I tilt toward Morgan as the best all-around and most pivotal contributor to the team's success though.)

People like Bonds and McGuire should never be allowed a spot in Cooperstown because, while baseball delayed taking a hard stand against PEDs, they and others juiced themselves in ways that made their on-field exploits artificial. They cheated.

But because baseball didn't finally promulgate stricter rules to banish such cheating from the game until after McGuire, Bonds, Sosa, and the others had done their worst, their ilk can't be banished from baseball as they should be.

Separately, they're still eligible for the Hall, though I doubt that they'll ever get in.

I am disappointed in teams that hire them.

But this has nothing to do with Pete Rose.

Despite repeated protestations to the contrary, given over a period of years, Rose did bet on baseball and on the Reds.

And, unlike the PED-users, there was no ambiguity about the rules governing betting in baseball. Since 1919, this has been a cardinal sin of the game. Rose knew it. Every player knew it.

So, while it may be sad that Rose isn't in baseball and may be disgusting that PED-users can stay in the game and even be eligible for Cooperstown, there's nothing to be done about it. Rose clearly violated the rules of the game, even flouted them.

The McGuires and Sosas of baseball violated decency but no official rules. While they shouldn't be allowed in the Hall, baseball can't block them from the game ex post facto, after the game finally cleaned itself of the filth of PEDs.

It had cleaned itself of gambling long before Pete Rose dirtied the game he loved and the career he cherished.

My sadness for Rose has nothing to do with thinking baseball is wronging him. It isn't. My sadness comes from realizing how, like the character in a Greek play, someone with so much greatness tossed his career and his greatness aside.

 

Junior is in the Hall

Here. Check out the videos embedded in the article.

Ken Griffey, Jr. was the best player of his generation, owner of the sweetest swing at the plate I've ever seen, tremendous records despite injuries that plagued him particularly while he played for his hometown Cincinnati Reds, and one of the best ever to patrol center field.

Often maligned by Reds fans who questioned his commitment (the way they would later similarly question Joey Votto), Griffey Jr. let his performance on the field speak for itself.

I saw an interview with him yesterday on MLB Network in which he talked about how he practiced in a batting cage at his home each night after games, from 11:30 to 3:00 in the morning. Yes, he had great natural ability. Yes, he grew up around the members of the Big Red Machine. But Griffey worked hard at being a great player. And he was.

Ernie Banks Has Died

Ernie Banks, the great Chicago Cubs slugger, has died. It's impossible for baseball fans to talk about Banks without a smile: By all accounts, he was not just a Hall of Fame great, but a nice man.

So far as I know, Banks never gave out with any lamentations, but it's too bad that he played for the Cubs throughout his major league career and so, never got to the post-season.

Here are two interesting articles about Ernie Banks:

14 Remarkable Facts from Ernie Banks' Hall of Fame Career

Mr. Cub Ernie Banks dies at 83

Barry Larkin Inducted Into Baseball Hall of Fame

Barry Larkin was a great hitting shortstop for my fave Cincinnati Reds for nineteen years. I am so glad that, yesterday, he was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He had a true Hall of Fame career and is deserving.

Now, I hope that through the veterans committee, another Cincinnati shortstop, David Concepcion, will be admitted to the hall. Concepcion was the best shortstop of his era and deserves to be honored as a Hall of Famer.

Concepcion Fails to Get Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame by Veterans Committee

Story here.

This guy, while also giving the reasons why Concepcion should not be a Hall of Famer, presents the most convincing arguments in Concepcion's favor that you'll find:

He was part of the best infield of all-time and one of the best Shortstops of all-time. The guy was money in the playoffs, batting a career .297, batting over .300 in 4 of his 9 series. Let’s look at his career numbers. 2326 hits (good enough for #130 on the all-time list). While that may not look so impressive, here’s some players he has more hits than: Jim Bottomley, Eddie Mathews, Bobby Wallace, Kirby Puckett, Kiki Culyer, Joe Cronin, Mike Schmidt, Willie Stargell, Joe DiMaggio and Willie McCovey. These aren’t cupcake, shrub-type names. These are ALL Hall-of-Famers, and some are recognizable household names. He has more hits than Joe DiMaggio, one of the most iconic figures in baseball history. When you compare him to similar players, www.baseball-reference.com lists Bobby Wallace, Pee Wee Reese & Luis Aparicio (all Hall-of-Famers), Alan Trammell (still on the ballot and should be a Hall-of-Famer), Edgar Renteria (a man who definitely has a case) & Tony Fernandez (one of the best Shortstops of his era).

9 All-Star Games. That is something only 92 people have ever achieved. He started 5. That’s one of 87. So who else has 9 appearances? Albert Pujols, Bobby Doerr, Don Drysdale, Joe Gordon, Jimmie Foxx, Bob Gibson & Goose Gossage. 5 starts? Roy Campanella, Lou Gehrig, Chipper Jones & Jackie freakin’ Robinson. (All those are Hall-of-Famers or sure future Hall-of-Famers.)

5 Gold Gloves at Shortstop. Only 68 people have won 5 or more Gold Gloves at the same position. People with more Gold Gloves than Concepcion at Short? Ozzie Smith (Hall-of-Famer), Omar Vizquel (hopefully future Hall-of-Famer), Luis Aparicio (Hall-of-Famer), Mark Belanger (offense not really strong enough to make the Hall-of-Fame) & Derek Jeter (future Hall-of-Famer).

And what does it say that a guy played in 2488 games, good enough for #54 on the All-Time list? What about 8723 At Bats (good enough for #85)? A guy showing up and doing his job? A guy like that screams Hall-of-Fame to me.

While it's not a no-brainer decision, I believe that Concepcion, who taught a generation of shortstops how to play their position on artificial turf and was certainly the best shortstop in the 1970s with the greatest National League team of all time, deserves to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Here are Concepcion's lifetime stats.