Results tagged ‘ Dusty Baker ’
7/1 Dinner with Lou & Dusty
Lou Piniella and Dusty Baker have similar taste in food. The two dined at Joe’s Stone Crab Wednesday night, meeting there by accident. The two faced each other as players in the 1977, ’78 and ’81 World Series when Piniella played for the Yankees and Baker for the Dodgers. The obliged fans at the restaurant by posing for pictures — “The ‘now’ and ‘before,’” Baker said.
They respected each other as players.
“I said, ‘Man, you can hit,’” Baker said, “and [Piniella] said, ‘Man, you can hit.’”
They also respect each other’s baseball expertise.
“Lou was the first guy, when I was with the Giants, who asked when I thought I was going to get a chance to manage because he thought I should get one,” Baker said. “That meant a lot to me.”
Baker, who managed the Cubs from 2003-06, is in town with the first-place Reds.
“I’ve heard the fans have been pretty good to him,” Baker said of Piniella.
– Carrie Muskat
Tough crowd, part II
It’s been three years since Dusty Baker managed the Cubs, yet he still is booed whenever he steps onto the field during a game. Does he think the Wrigley Field crowd will ever let it go?
“They probably won’t,” Baker told MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon on Wednesday. “They still talk about [former managers] Leo Durocher here and Lee Elia. Hey, I’ve come to expect it.”
Baker has no hard feelings towards Chicago.
“Ain’t nothing is going to spoil my joy and pleasure of life. Nothing. Nobody,” Baker said. “I have a beautiful family, a beautiful job, a beautiful life, a beautiful house. It’s beautiful. And I’m healthy.”
– Carrie Muskat
Tough crowd
Apparently, some people in the crowd of 38,403 at Wrigey Field Tuesday night still held a grudge against former Cubs manager Dusty Baker and booed him each time he made an appearance. Baker guided the Cubs to the Central title in 2003 and they got as far as the NLCS. But in his last year in Chicago, 2006, the Cubs lost 96 games.
“It wasn’t his fault,” Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez said in defense of Baker. “Nobody could manage that team in ’06. We had guys coming from Double-A. [Carlos] Marmol was a starter. We had [Juan] Mateo [in the rotation]. You guys probably don’t remember him. We just had a bad team. It’s not [Baker's] fault. If you gave Dusty this team, I guarantee we’d be in the playoffs, too.”
Mateo, in case you don’t remember, was 1-3 with a 5.32 ERA in 11 games (10 starts).
– Carrie Muskat
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