As much as I hate to say it, I think Dusty Baker
will not return as manager of the San Francisco Giants.

By Amaury Pi-GonzálezCongratulations Giants fans, this was
a great season. Yes, they should have
won game #6 and the World Series,
but yes, there also should be no
hunger in the world, war is bad for
everybody and there should have been
elections in Cuba also in the past 43 years!

What are you gonna do? Stop crying !

Enjoy it. The San Francisco Giants won
the National League in 2002.

I have known Dusty Bakers since he was
a player in the 1970’s with Atlanta.

You might dissagree with him on strategy

and If you follow baseball, chances are

that you dissagree with most managers,

specially when he is managing your

favorite team. The Athletics won 103

games this season and I find a lot of

A’S fan who disagree with Art Howe

during the whole season. Well, A’S

fans I assure you that you will not

be 100% content with Ken Macha.

Yes, the ‘gut feeling’ of playing Pedro Feliz

as the DH on the seventh game of the

World Series. That didn’t produce. Then

inserting Tom Goodwin in his spot also

was not a positive on that game. Or If

you are an astute follower of baseball,

you also criticized Baker for taking

Russ Ortiz in game 6 when he had

around 98 pitches(Giants had a 5-0 lead)

and for bringing the bullpen, which had

been doing great in the previous games.

The bullpen failed. What is a manager

to do ? In game 7 then the Giants

bullpen was perfect.

I know, I know, all you experts predicted

that 3 rookie pitchers(not one or two)

three rookie pitchers blanqued the Giants

for most of game 7: Lackey,Donnelly and

Rodríguez.

John Lackey became the first rookie pitcher

to win a 7th Game of the World Series

since Babe Adams in 1909. That’s 93 years!

Some even complained that Dusty as he

took Russ Ortiz gave him the ball to take

with him as a gesture of ‘you deserve it,

for pitching great’. Some even suggest that

gesture by Dusty motivated the Angels

for the greatest comeback ever, in a

World Series game, after 1 out in the

7th inning scoring 6 times- between 7th

and 8th innings and stealing the Series.

Others keep complaining that Dusty put

Liván Hernández in game 7 and not Kirk

Reuter(who came in relief of Liván

and Angels could not score of him).

But Liván had his regular rest and he still

has a good record in Postseason.

Remember: The Giants didn’t have one

starting pitcher with 15 wins and they

came within 8 outs of winning the World

Series. That means their bullpen was either

very good or excellent to make it this far.

All of these(above)and more is what

makes baseball the Greatest Game

On Earth. In the NFL, a coach usually

has scripted the first 10 or so plays of

the game. Can a Major League manager

write the first 10 plays that his team is

going to execute? He will be lucky If he

orders the ‘hit and run’ and it works !

Dusty has been with the Giants for 10

years and he thinks that is enough, he

came within 8 outs of brining the City

of San Francisco their first World Series

trophy. I honestly believe that If he

would had accomplished that, he would

stayed.

The English flagship station of the Giants

Radio Network has a couple of talk show

hosts that have been speaking for years

about Dusty. Not very good things

about Dusty. Dusty doesn’t speak to some

of those guys. Not that he is afraid of them

but because Dusty is a fair man and

although he can take criticism, enough

is enough. Can you blame him ?

Overall, Dusty Baker brings more to an

organization than just strategy skills.

He is a darling with the community, as well

liked as any manager that the Giants

have ever had since moving to San Francisco

in 1958. Dusty speaks Spanish and that

is a great big asset in 2002 where 30%

of all MLB players are Latinos. Plus, he

participates with the Spanish media.

He is always available to speak to us

in the Pregame show, the first of April

or before game 7 of the World Series as

he did in Anaheim. Dusty Baker brings

much more to the table in a diverse

community like San Francisco and the

Bay Area in general that the “regular”

manager.

The Cubs….the Mariners ? These two

teams would give Dusty probably

a blank check and 4 year deal that most

managers would salivate over. Even the

Dodgers down south would love to have

Dusty back, this time as their manager.

I think Dusty Baker and San Francisco is

as perfect of a marriage as you could get

between a city and a manager in any

Sport.

Baseball is a cruel game. There are no

geniouses in baseball, there are no

Bill Walsh in baseball. Look at Dusty

three time manager of the year, look at

Tony LaRussa three time manager of

the year, among them (both) there is

only ONE World Series Championship ring.

Yes, Joe Torre has a bunch of rings,but

he has Chase Manhattan Bank behind

him and when the Yankees need a player

they just buy it, they do not need to

develop there like the A’S or Giants here.

I told Peter Magowan, Managing General

Partner of the San Francisco Giants to

try to keep Dusty in San Francisco. But

If Dusty doesn’t want to be here, he will

leave.

I hope I am wrong, but I think Dusty is

not coming back. And I pray the next

manager is not Jim Fregosi. You want

to go “low key”? ..give the job to Ron Wotus

he deserves a shot, he has been with the

Giants organization all his life, why not

him. Felipe Alou doesn’t want to manage

anymore and In my book he would be

the perfect replacement for Dusty Baker.

————————————————————

Amaury Pi-González has been the S.F. Giants

Spanish Radio announcer for the past

eight seasons. Recently covered the Playoffs

and World Series for KZSF 1370 AM SF Giants

Spanish Radio as well as for ESPN Spanish

Radio Network. Amaury’s next baseball

assignment is to broadcast the Caribbean

World Series from San Juan,Puerto Rico,

February 2003 for Fox Sports TV(English).

VP of the Hispanic Heritage Baseball

Museum, a non profit organization founded

in San Francisco in 1999 dedicated to the

recognition of the contributions made to baseball by Hispanic American players.

His articles are available on

various bilingual

publications as well as: www.latinobaseball.com