The pennant race is on !

What is better in September than

the Dodgers in San Francisco in

a pennant race to the end ?

What other rivalry in the Bay

Area is more historic,more

important?

The Giants are guided again by

Dusty Baker, one of the very

best managers in all of baseball.

Dusty Baker recently passed Bill Terry

and is currently second in wins among

managers in Giants franchise history

with 824 (at the time of this

column) in the win column.

I have never heard a baseball player said anything negative about Dusty Baker.

Dusty would be the first to tell you he

is not perfect (If you are, please let me

know, and write to me ASAP), but he is a

manager with a track record. Dusty was

Manager of the Year in the National

League in 1993,1997 and 2000.

Only Tony LaRussa has done that as

a manager.

As I have watched Dusty manage the

Giants for 10 years, I have realized that

managing on the Major League level is

a complete and full-time job. But,more

important I think what makes Dusty so

good is his style of managing. He respects

his players and that respect ‘comes back

to him’. Dusty has handled the Giants

good and bad situations with a lot of

class and has represented the

San Francisco Giants as good as any

other manager dead or alive.

But in my humble opinion Dusty goes

much further than giving signals from the

dogout or cheering his team to victory.

I don’t know how you might feel about

Dusty, but I find it refreshing to see a

Major League manager with such passion

and enthusiasm in the dugout. You see

managers everyday in the Major Leagues

sitting in a corner of the dugout. You

wouldn’t know they are there unless the

camera pans their way. Not Dusty, he

is there on the front line encouraging his

troops in the heat of battle. Dusty Baker’s

love for the game of baseball is evident,

his enthusiasm is contagious and his

style is one of professionalism and a lot

of common sense.

For me as a Spanish Broadcaster, Dusty

makes it easier, since he speaks Spanish

and can also communicate with some of

his players in a much more personal

level.. Guys like Liván Hernández sometimes

really appreciate a manager that speaks

his #1 language. I would think, just

like an employee in a company that deals

with bilingual people, a ML manager that

speaks two languages is also a talent

that is to the greater benefit of the

organization he works for, i.e. the Giants.

For me, it doesn’t matter if I speak with

Dusty in English or Español, he is always

the same Dusty Baker. The same man that

sets the example for his team on and

off the field, the same man that I used to

interview in Spanish when he was a player

with the Dodgers, Giants or A’S.

Dusty is the same prior to a game in

Scottsdale in early Spring Training or

at Pac Bell park prior to a key pennant

race-game against the Dodgers, getting

ready to speak to the local beat writers.

I don’t want to think that Dusty will not be

back next season, but If it happens, It

will be the Giants loss. In my book he is

as good as any manager in today’s

baseball. I do not like to compare one

manager to the other because it is not

possible. That is like comparing a player

from the 50’s to a player today. The world

changes, things change. By comparing

managers or players we are really not

looking at reality. Barry Bonds sometimes

has to face 4 or 5 pitchers in a game.

Did Babe Ruth have to adjust like that?

I don’t think so. Different times have

different players,styles, philosophy. That

also applies to managers in this

5-man rotation era.

I have always said: The best jockey in

the world cannot win if his horse is

limping. In other words, the best manager

in baseball cannot do anything if he does

not have the talent on the field(that would

apply to all team sports). Overall, for

10 seasons in San Francsico, Dusty will

tell you he had some great talent, but the

truth is he was not lucky to have a one-two

punch in the mound like Schilling-Johnson,

who together wins half of their team’s

games. Or the perfect leadoff hitter, like

an Ichiro. He cannot control the team

he gets in April, he can only do best of

what talent he has been given by the

powers to be.

Dusty Baker teams have played as good

as they can,most of the time, for their

God given talents. Dusty is a master of

getting the most out of each player(in that

sense he reminds me of Tony LaRussa)

but his style of managing seems much

more relaxed and unassuming . See,

here I go again….comparing two managers and I should not do that, but it is

just human nature. Sorry!

If Dusty goes Adios from the Giants, for

whatever reason (I don’t care why and I

wouldn’t try to find out why) I would

think I have lost a good friend. That is the

impact of a guy like Dusty Baker, he always

has a smile, a good disposition, a kind

word or two. It is not easy to manage in today’s game, big money brings big

egos and managing today and winning

like Dusty has done here consistenly

takes a special man.

I am hoping for the best, but in this

business nothing really surprises me

anymore. I believe Dusty Baker loves

and respects the game of baseball

as much as anybody else. It shows,

and for me going to Pac Bell and seeing

Dusty Baker getting his line-up card

together and passing it to assistant

Carlos Alfonso gives me some kind

of feeling that after all the

problems in baseball and after all

the problems in this very imperfect and

unjust world, everything is right

when Dusty gets ready to take his

troops into battle.

___________________________________

Amaury Pi-González has been the Spanish

Play by Play Voice for the S.F. Giants

since 1995, previously for 17 seasons

did same for the Oakland Athletics. For

seven seasons Spanish Radio Play

by Play announcer for all NBA Golden

State Warriors games. During Postseason,

Amaury joins LBC(Latino Broadcasting

Corp)a network of over 300 stations in

the US and Latinamerica with Playoff

and World Series. Last two February has called action in English for Fox Sports of

the Caribbean World Series.

His columns are also

available on newspapers as well as

on: www.latinobaseball.com

Amaury is Vice President of the Hispanic

Heritage Baseball Museum, a non profit

organization established in S.F. in 1999.

Amaury’s biography was recently selected

to go into the famous Marqui’s Who’s Who

in America book in 2003.