Going Deep with The Nats

You thought this story was about Dusty Baker? It is — but the headline is about John Farrell who spent under 5 years in charge of the Boston Red Sox. He won the 2013 World Series in his first year with the Red Sox and then was stricken with cancer. He came back to win the first back-to-back AL East titles in Boston’s storied history winning over 90 games in each of those seasons and then he was fired. The difference is there was no outrage when Farrell was fired. Both managers, Farrell and Baker, lost 2 straight Division Series after they had both won over 90 games each season. Both managers are gone.

The difference in The USA Today headlines (above) and the accompanying stories should probably be reversed. Farrell was under contract and was fired — Dusty Baker was not fired. Baker was a free agent and free to go wherever he wanted although Baker made it clear he wanted to stay — so did John Farrell. The same newspaper took two different approaches to covering similar stories. Farrell’s farewell story was mellifluous and positive while Baker’s was harsh and negative. Continue reading →

Our sourced report said that Dusty Baker wanted to stay and the two sides were talking, and it came quickly to an end early this afternoon that Dusty Baker would not return to the Nationals making any conversation/negotiation made — a moot point as the Nationals felt like they came to a decision and the Dusty Baker era is over.

The popular vote on the MLBTR poll seemed to be slightly in favor of Baker staying. The only vote that mattered was that of Mike Rizzo and the Nationals ownership.

Grant Paulsen on 106.7 radio just said that he heard from his source that Dusty Baker was going to be back, and Mike Rizzo wanted Dusty Baker back. Continue reading →

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

The number is 1863. No, that is not Dusty Baker’s birth year. It is his managerial win total, and he is another full season and a month or two from eclipsing the 2,000 win total and 40 wins from surpassing Gene Mauch and 43 wins from moving ahead of one of the greatest, Casey Stengel. At that point when you match Stengel’s win total, all the managers on the win list from Stengel forward are Hall of Famers.

There is a clear line after Gene Mauch. That line of demarcation separates the World Series winners from many of those who never hoisted the trophy. That is really what Dusty Baker has wanted — a second chance to do what he could not do in 2002 with the San Francisco Giants. The ghost of Russ Ortiz still haunts Baker. Did he do the right thing when his team was winning 5-to-0 in game 6 and 9 outs away from winning the World Series?

Did he stick with Russ Ortiz too long or too little or was it just a matter of his relievers not doing their jobs? Baseball is cruel. Every team on the losing end of a monumental loss can commiserate on how and why it happened. Baker finally won an elimination game in his managerial career when the Nationals won the 4th game of this season’s NLDS and his record in elimination games is now 1-and-9. But he continued his streak of losing post-season games in which his teams had a chance to wrap up a series and Thursday’s game 5 loss to the Cubs ran that string to 10 straight losses which began with the game 6 loss in the 2002 World Series and continued to his game 7 loss in that 2002 World Series and 15 years forward with 8 more heartbreaking losses. That inauspicious streak continues. Continue reading →