I thought it would be an interesting exercise to write a piece suggesting that Dusty Baker may actually be an underrated manager at this point. I’m not sure how well I did, but you can read it over at ESPN.com today.
I’m not sure it’s so much a defense of Dusty, as it is an attempt to show that the caricature of Baker (ruining pitchers, for example) that we see so often may not apply as much as it once did.
Here’s my conclusory paragraph:
Dusty Baker isn’t perfect, by any means, but if you can see past the goofy stuff he does every night, you might find that, overall, he’s done a pretty good job with this year’s Reds, under some difficult circumstances.
Besides, did you know that Dusty played with Hank Aaron?
Feel free to let me know how wrong I am.