In Dusty We Busty
October
14, 2017
There
comes a point where even if you can’t explain exactly why something is
happening, you have to stop and do something else. If you were to pick up a gun
and immediately shoot yourself in the foot, that would
be an accident. If you picked up a gun a second time and the same thing
happened, well, that would be a coincidence. But if every time you picked up a
gun and shot yourself in the foot… a third time, a fourth, a fifth… well, then
most people would think, “gee, I must be doing something wrong. I may not know
what it is but perhaps I should stop trying to pick up any more guns.”
Even
if you believe that Game 5’s loss was due to just weird, unforeseen things
happening and that Dusty Baker’s decisions had nothing to do with the outcome -
which, of course is not true, but assuming it is… - then you have to wonder why
this keeps happening to teams he manages.
Game 6 (The Bartman game) in Chicago against the Marlins in the 2003
NLCS.
Game 7 of that same
2003 NLCS.
Game 6
of the 2002 World Series
Losing out on the playoffs on the final day of the season in 1993.
That
doesn’t include the wipe-outs he’s been on the wrong side of in 1997 against
the Marlins, 2000 against the Mets and 2010 against the Phillies. All totaled
his teams won one game in those series.
In 22 years as a manager, Dusty Baker-led teams have gone to the
playoffs nine times and have seven first round exits. In his last ten
elimination games his teams are 0-10.
So
how many times can the same bad penny keep showing up?
“We
thought it was the right move.”
“I’ve
never seen anything like that.”
How
many more times is that an acceptable answer? How many more times do you want
to hear him utter it?
The
thing that impresses me the most about the St. Louis Cardinals, and the New
York Yankees to a certain degree, is that they never beat themselves. They might
be under-talented some years but they never seem to throw to the wrong base, or
take a lackadaisical route to a ball or run into an out or do any of the
ridiculous things that have happened to the Nationals this series (and last
year), and that have happened to every other Dusty Baker led team. And if
something weird does happen in a game, those storied teams usually take
advantage of it. And even if they were the victim of the weirdness, they never
get rattled over it. They simply go on to the next pitch and play just as hard
and just as focused without trying to make up for the mishap by overplaying.
That has not been true with the Nationals. That might be an organizational
issue and not Baker’s sole responsibility but the manager is the one who sets
the tone at the major league level and the one who must demand a certain level
of competence on the field.
So
even if you dispute that Baker makes terrible decisions in critical moments of
big games, there’s no denying the evidence that his teams always collapse,
always come up short, always do something that leaves success just out of
reach. At what point is that not his responsibility? At what point do we stop
making excuses?
The
question now that Baker’s contract has expired is how many more times will the
Nationals shoot themselves in the
foot? They have more than enough talent to make it to the post-season. They
only need a manager who won’t stand in their way once they get there.
The
epilogue to this is that if the Nats decide to re-up
with Baker, the most talented