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November 11, 2002 By: Jeremy Harness The Giants may have lost the World Series, but they will find out when the 2003 season starts that they’ve lost something more. Former manager Dusty Baker’s contract officially expired last Wednesday without the Giants even making him an offer, and now Baker is free to talk with any team he chooses. Baker is scheduled to meet with the Chicago Cubs this week, and if the two sides reach an agreement, long-suffering Cubs fans will see a rather-quick change in fortune. In fact, any team would be lucky to have Baker as their leader. He was the perfect manager for the Giants. Even though he had quite a bit of egos to work with for the 10 years he ran the field operations, he seemed to take it all in stride. I can recall many a conversation an hour and a half before a game, when Baker will stray from his team for a little while and discuss his love for fishing (he spent this past All-Star break in Montana reeling in rainbow trout in Montana, even though National League manager Bob Brenly had invited him to coach in the Midsummer Classic with him) to kind of ease the tension not only for himself, but also the media who had the honor to chat with him every day. He also let us media folks see his inner self. He was a hip, jive-talking guy who loved to have fun and trade war stories with those around him, especially the media. He also loved to tell stories of Hank Aaron (Baker was on deck when Aaron hit the historic 715th home run of his career to break Babe Ruth’s record, despite constant hate mail and death threats) and Willie Mays. While other major-league managers such as Bobby Valentine and Lou Piniella have often cause tidal waves, Baker resembled a calm river. He seemed to be on an even keel for the entire tenure as the Giants skipper. There aren’t many managers quite like Dusty. Simply put, he made our jobs, and our lives, a little easier. Not only did he liven things up for the media who covered his team every day, but he also created a relaxed environment for his players by allowing their children to be Giants bat boys. The kids as bat boys, by the way, didn’t become an issue until this year’s World Series . Oh, and there was the baseball thing. He seldom had the most talented team in his own division, let alone the National League, but he squeezed every bit of ability out of his troops and brought three playoff appearances, including two NL West championships and a World Series, to San Francisco. The reason why he was able to do this is because he had an undying faith in the people he accompanied the dugout with 162 days a year. He was a very-likeable dynamic personality who managed his diverse set of players as well as anybody could have imagined. How many managers would have exploded when asked about a near-brawl between their two best players in the dugout for everybody to see? Not Dusty, who truthfully pointed out that everybody, including the media, gets into scuffles every now and then. Giants fans and management alike will soon find out, maybe as soon as next season, that there will be storms that brew inside the Giants clubhouse that Baker, and only Baker, would have been able to calm. It’s not going to be the same. I’ve covered the Giants for two years now, and I can’t recall him ever making me look like a fool in front of other reporters, as others in his position have been known to do. He was always very cordial to the Bay Area media, even when things got dicey in Giants land. I found him to be a very inviting person, a book that screams at people to open it up and start reading to find out what he’s all about. Now we Bay Area folks might only get to open him up three times a year. You may e-mail Jeremy Harness at harnessj28@aol.com |
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