A Reds fan's take on Dusty Baker.
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by Killuminati
I have been a fan of both the Cincinnati Reds and the Detroit Lions for all 21 years of my life. Throughout those 21 years I have seen some pretty bad teams. Neither team has won a whole lot since I have been born. But even with all those struggles I have never felt like turning my back on either team. Until last night. Last night my biggest fear -- that the Reds were going to hire Dusty Baker as their new manager -- was confirmed. I was a toxic mix of anger and sickness, and I wasn't alone. There were pages and pages of "I'm done being a Reds fan" at a Cincinnati Reds forum that I posted at. Reds fan all over the world, myself included, were all in agreement that the Reds would go 0-162 next year and Homer Bailey's career was already over.
Then, this morning, I woke up and came to my senses. Dusty Baker has had success in this league recently-- something the Reds wouldn't know about. He has been named manager of the year three times and took the Giants to the World Series. He was also five outs away from taking the Cubs, the freakin' Cubs, to the World Series in 2003.
Why, then, are so many Reds fans acting like Dusty Baker had killed Barry Larkin with his bare hands?
I can't speak for other Reds fans, but I can speak for myself. I live in an area that is dominated by Chicago Cubs fans, and we all know how irrational they can be -- they actually thought they had a prayer this year. If you listen to most Cubs fans they will tell you that Dusty Baker single-handedly destroyed Mark Prior and Kerry Wood's career. Could Dusty have been responsible for overusing both guys? Sure, but I don't think you lay all the blame on him. Both Prior and Wood have had some pretty freak accidents. Two notable injuries for Mark Prior were when he ran into Marcus Giles in 2003, and when he took a Brad Hawpe line drive off the arm in 2005. And let's not forget that Kerry Wood was hurt getting out of a hot tub at his home! Unless Dusty spilled water on the ground on purpose I'm not quite sure you can blame him for that one. It seems to me that both players had some pretty bad luck and might have been a touch on the fragile side. That is not to completely exonerate Dusty, but I think it does put things into perspective.
With that said, I'm still not completely sold on Dusty. At times this year, under former manager Jerry Narron, it seemed like there was a lack of fight in the Reds. The players did not seem like they were quite giving it their all. People in the media claimed that Narron ran a pretty loose clubhouse and there wasn't much control over the players. I don't see Dusty changing that atmosphere around. He is known as a "players manager." I was hoping they would hire a guy that ran a much "tighter ship," as the saying goes. My fear is that the Reds will continue to play lackadaisical, unfundamentally sound baseball with Dusty as the skipper. We all saw how bad the Cubs were the year Dusty got axed.
I'm rather confused about this whole ordeal. Although I'm not happy about the signing, I do realize that the Reds will in fact play baseball next year. I think people that are acting like the sky is falling should face some reality about this Reds team: they aren't going to be any good anyway. The Reds weren't a very good team this year, and ownership has shown it isn't willing to make any serious changes to make the team competitive. In sum, the Reds could have hired Joe Torre for next season and they still would win no more than 75 games. I think Reds fans should just see how next year goes before we start burning our Reds hats. I mean, seriously, it can't get much worse. Or could it?
