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Fridays with Dusty: Chapter 1 -- Why
Written by wrigleyville   
Friday, 04 April 2008
As WV has warned you, I am a big Dusty Baker fan. Have been since I was 10. So no, my real name isn't Dusty. It's taken in honor of No. 12. Over the course of the next many Fridays -- and I'm sure during many, many, many opportunities in between -- I will work to vindicate, in the eyes of Cubs fans, one of the best players, greatest managers and terrific human beings that has come through baseball in the modern era. Why? Because Dusty is a good man. A very good man who deserves a strong, tireless defense. He's a man who was given the greatest expectations of any Cubs manager perhaps in team history, without always the full support or latitude to meet those expectations -- save for one year, 2003. His first. So I ask for an open mind, an open heart as we have these "discussions" on Dusty's credentials. It's time for many of you to let go the anger and look deeper inside the Baker Years. Think of this as the VH1 version of Behind the Scenes -- The Baker Years. First -- the human element. I became a Dusty fan because he was cool. He played ball, didn't talk and let his work on the field make his statements. A stark contrast to many of his Dodgers teammates at the time. He played the game the right way and carried himself the right way. He was a role model in the truest sense. And, since the Cubs sucked in the mid-to-late 70s and had no one to really cool or worth looking up to (at least after Jose Cardenal left) -- well there was Dusty. Fast-forward 25 years....My sister tries to do nice thing for Big Brother. Sends FedEx to Dusty saying it would be great if her brother could meet him. (I'm feeling goofy when she tells me because I'm an 35-year-old exec at the time and Dusty's gotta think I'm some stalker.) Anyway, Dusty calls her, personally. Tells her to have me and my kids meet him at Wrigley (he's managing the Giants at this time...World Series year for them). So we head to Wrigley. But there's no tickets waiting as promised. Something got screwed up. And game sold out, so no way to buy our way in. So sister Fed Ex's Dusty telling him what happened. Dusty calls her again, himself. Apologizes profusely. Gets my number. Late one Friday night, out of the blue, I get a call. It's Dusty -- calling me to apologize for the mixup. It's also 15 minutes before his West Coast game that night...yet he's thinking about making good on a screw up with a fan. (No cheap shots, please - remember this is SF World Series year.) Later that week a box shows up. Signed baseballs for me and my two sons and daughter. Each with a personal message apologizing for the mixup in Chicago. Also autographed photos, baseball hats, new Pac Bell baseball hats, baseball cards -- a plethora of treats for the boys. When he becomes manager of Cubs -- remembers the screw up. Calls my sister again (still had her number). Invites me and my dad to Wrigley. Gets us on field for entire pre-game BP, etc. This is 2003. Get autographs for kids from Sammy, Moises, Kenny. Plus, we're on fricking Wrigley Field -- what else matters? We sat in dugout talking to players. I tell you all this as a tone-setter. Dusty is just a great guy -- a great guy at a time when there's not a lot of "great guys" in pro sports anymore. Who would go to those great lengths and maintain those lingering thoughts of a screw-up in today's professional sportsworld -- any sport? Very, very few. So that's the foundation. In the coming chapters, we'll talk baseball and how Dusty is a great baseball man who found himself in an impossible situation in Chicago. A man who proved himself in SF and now is back in a similar situation in Cincinnati to the SF one (well, without Barry.) And frankly, a man whose team is going to be more of a barrier to Cubs titles in the next 5+ years than the Milwaukee Brewers or anyone else in the Central. A man whose treatment in Chicago has been unfair and unwarranted.

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