Won't back down: Baker reiterates comments about black, Latin players
Let me begin by stating for the record that I admire Dusty Baker. His record as a manager, and his reputation as a player's favorite is well-deserved. Having said that, however, I have difficulty imagining how someone so intelligent, successful, and capable could have even contemplated saying what he did about minority athletes. He would have been better off trying to tapdance through a minefield.
"I meant what I said. ... I try to be as honest as possible, and if that's how I feel, then that's how I feel." he told reporters before Monday's game, a 6-3 win by the Cubs over Florida.
On Saturday, in another pregame talk with reporters, Baker said: "We were brought over here for the heat. Isn't that history? Your skin color is more conducive to heat than it is to the lighter-skinned people. I don't see brothers running around burnt."
Those comments have since prompted debate on radio shows and in newspaper columns across the country.
"It doesn't really matter to me because that's what I said. I'm not going to take it back," Baker said. "What I said to you guys is what I said to my team. I told my other teammates this a long time ago, too. When we talk about how hot it is, I told them that's why my ancestors were brought over here, for that reason, and that's history.
"My mother was a black-American history teacher in Sacramento," he said. "... A lot of people don't know history, that's what it sounds like to me. If they take it as reverse racism ... then they can take it wherever they want to take it."
I've said this before, but I'll say it again- there are a lot of things that can happen when you discuss race in public- AND ALL OF THEM ARE BAD (e.g- Al Campanis & Jimmy the Greek)!! Man, that must have been some MASSIVE brain cramp that Baker suffered.
It's one thing to think those type of thoughts, or to voice them to friends and family. When you take them public, however, it's the PR equivalent of playing Russian Roulette with six full chambers.
WHAT was Baker thinking??
