Cubs manager Baker 'meant what he said' (about white players not taking the heat well)

ESPN ^ | July 7, 2003

[Michael2001]

CHICAGO -- Cubs manager Dusty Baker didn't back down Monday when asked about his recent comments that black and Latin players were better suited to play in the heat than white players.

"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.''

[Michael2001]

Baker's got a right to his opinion, but if a white manager said what he said they'd be fired.

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[weegee]

What's his perception of the Japanese players in baseball? Do they fare better or worse?

[Drathaar]

If a white manager said that, he'd not only be fired he'd be torn up in the press and never heard from again.

[zarf]

The sports media is so liberal/PC they'll on their knees in a couple of days begging Dusty for a go at it.

[thedugal]

So what? Whether he's white or black, he's right. What's right is right, and you stand by it. The man is entitled to his opinion, I happen to agree with him, some may disagree, but to start calling the man racist is pathetic.

[dfwgator]

Didn't Jimmy the Greek get fired for basically saying the same thing?

[freebilly]

Your skin color is more conducive to heat than it is to the lighter-skinned people. I don't see brothers running around burnt.

Everyone knows that people with dark skin are better at working in fields because their skin is more conducive to heat, and lighter skinned people are better at sitting in the shade and managing the slaves, uh, I mean managing the field hands....

[Consort]

Baker is the reason why Eskimos don't make it to the majors.

[rvoitier]

F L A S H

I heard the audio on radio tonight and that's not all he said. Talking about the n-word, he said he had "the perogative" to use it or not and whites don't.

That has NOT been covered in any net news accounts I've seen. They're covering for him.

[185JHP]

I'll send a contribution. Re: the topic of this thread - please see Larry Elder's book "10 things you can't say in America" - there's more black racists than white racists.

[lonewacko_dot_com]

At least we aren't as buoyant as black people.

Oh, wait, you can't say that.

Just because he's right doesn't mean it wasn't a stoopid thing to say. I also doubt whether he'll get the Jimmy the Greek treatment.

[zarf]

No, but blacks have bigger thighs. Slavery and all....

[zarf]

I'm having chicken thighs w/Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, as a matter of fact as I type..

[gubamyster]

Didn't Jimmy the Greek get fired for basically saying the same thing?

You are correct. Jimmy the Greek said that blacks were better athletes dueto breeding. He said, that slave owners took their biggest, strongest male slaves & bread them with the biggest and stronges female slaves resulting in bigger and stronger offspring.

Maybe Dusty's school-teacher mother can look up this piece of history and clear Jimmy the Greek's name. At any rate, I doubt if Dusty will be run out of town the way a white guy would be if he were to make similar comments regarding blacks.

[lonewacko_dot_com]

On related notes:

- Several years ago, I saw a black comic joking about how black people didn't like cold weather. It didn't seem too very controversial to me.

There was a recent article about the Toronto Blue Jays in which it was asked whether they favored white players, as they had the lowest percentage of Players of Color in the majors. It's discussed here: http://colbycosh.com/#wbjs

[lonewacko_dot_com]

On related notes:

- Several years ago, I saw a black comic joking about how black people didn't like cold weather. It didn't seem too very controversial to me.

There was a recent article about the Toronto Blue Jays in which it was asked whether they favored white players, as they had the lowest percentage of Players of Color in the majors. It's discussed here: http://colbycosh.com/#wbjs

[faithincowboys]

Funny how Dusty's team lost the World Series, maybe he wanted it for the wrong reasons. Things have a way of working out!

[xm177e2]

Re: the topic of this thread - please see Larry Elder's book "10 things you can't say in America" - there's more black racists than white racists.

It is impossible for something to be 1)True, 2)Relevant, and 3)Racist, all at the same time. It can be zero, any one, or any two of those--but not all three, at the same time. What he said wasn't racist, so I don't see where you get off insinuating that he's a racist.

[666beast]

Espn played the audio that this article was referring to.

Dusty Baker is not very intelligent. You should have heard his delivery. It was expressed in grunts, snorts and strange clicking noises.

Dusty isn't bright and he may even be senile. I mean, inventions such as sunscreen confuse him. Maybe someday, his descendents will evolve to the point of grasping tools of modern civilization.

He's a so-so manager. He's had great ball players, but his piss-poor decisions cost his team the world series.

I always see him in the dug-out on t.v. chewing his seeds like a grazing cow and wearing those awful beat-nik Malcolm X glasses looking intellectual and I always wondered what he was thinking.

Now I know.

Dusty Baker's Brain: "Well, dee dark playas be better in sun dan duh white playas. when hot out, i be puttin' in dee dark ones. when it be code out derre o derre rain o derre snow, maybe i be puttin' in dee whiteys, both duh honkey and dee cracka, bofe of dem dat be on my team."