Dusty Baker has distinguished himself as a major league baseball player and manager. He was a two-time All Star and a World Series champion with the Dodgers. He has compiled an impressive managerial record of 1671 wins versus 1504 losses with the Giants, Cubs, and Reds. He has been named Manager of the Year three times – twice in San Francisco in 1993 and 1997, and once in Chicago in 2003.
Dusty Baker knows a little bit about baseball. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
Dusty should keep his public conversations confined to his knowledge about what happens on a baseball field. He’s not capable of reading what happens between the lines.
When Ted Koppel asked Campanis a legitimate question about why “there are no black managers, no black general managers, no black owners?” Campanis responded:
“I truly believe that they may not have some of the necessities to be, let’s say, a field manager, or perhaps a general manager.”
When Koppel tried to give Campanis a chance to dig himself out of such a ridiculous statement Campanis hammered the final nail in his career and legacy:
“Why are black men or black people not good swimmers? Because they don’t have the buoyancy.”
Al Campanis was fired two days later.
Flash forward to Tuesday December 8, 2015. Dusty Baker, another former Dodger, steps onto the national stage at MLB’s Winter Meetings. Dusty commented on Aroldis Chapman’s domestic violence incident. “I don’t believe reports,” Baker said. “Who knows why? I’m not one to judge on how the whole thing happened.”
You can read the conversation here:
And, Dusty Baker on the Aroldis Chapman situation – pic.twitter.com/HNBrEbaShi
— Michael Baron (@michaelgbaron) December 8, 2015
Clearly Dusty doesn’t read very much. He can try to dismiss the Chapman incident as media speculation, but the “reports” are from a Davie, Florida police report. Chapman allegedly fired eight gunshots in the garage of his Miami-area home following an October argument with his girlfriend in which she told police he “choked” her and pushed her against a wall, according to police reports obtained by Yahoo Sports.
Baker demonstrated the breadth of his worldly understanding with his comments on domestic abuse and MLB’s current policy:
“Yeah. I think it’s a great thing. I mean, I got a buddy at home that’s being abused by his wife. So I think this policy needs to go further than the player. I think the policy should go to whoever’s involved. Sometimes abusers don’t always have pants on.”
Unfortunately for baseball fans, and the general public, Dusty was asked an innocuous baseball question:
What specifically have you told the front office you’d like that you don’t have yet?
“You’re always in need of left-handed pitching, left-handed hitting, and in need of speed. I think that’s the No. 1 thing that’s missing, I think, in the game is speed. You know, with the need for minorities, you can help yourself. You’ve got a better chance of getting some speed with Latin and African-Americans. I’m not being racist. That’s just how it is.”
No, Dusty, you are being racist. And ignorant. And you should be fired.
1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.
If Al Campanis deserved to be fired in 1987, then Dusty Baker deserves to be fired in 2015. There are no justifications. And just because a black man uttered racist comments is no excuse for a white man to feel more comfortable uttering the n-word. That is not the point. When a person is the public face of a professional organization there is no defense for ignorance or racism.
Dusty Baker doubled down on his stupidity. First, he defended Aroldis Chapman by inserting the red herring of “media speculation.” Then, he exposed himself as truly ignorant by reaffirming ridiculous racial stereotypes.
Sure, lots of people are nodding their heads and saying, “Dusty is just telling the truth.” No, Dusty Baker is an idiot. We can’t continue to live a world where a white boss says that African-Americans lack “the capacities” to be executives. And we can’t continue to live a world where a black baseball manager thinks Latin Americans and African-Americans are faster BECAUSE they are brown or black. Washington D.C. is now home to the Redskins and the World According to Dusty Baker. It’s embarrassing, and it’s just a damn shame that Al Campanis and Dusty Baker are products of the Dodgers’ organization. Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson must be turning in their graves.
