In case you might have missed it, here are the comments from Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker that are kicking up so much dust on sports talk radio today. On Saturday afternoon, Baker was asked how his team would cope with the higher number of games they have to play in the heat and Sun in the Summertime at Wrigley Field:
"The heat is nothing new to me, I'm from Sacramento. ... Personally, I like to play in the heat."
Then, with a laugh, Baker kept talking about the weather and how it affected players.
"It's easier for most Latin guys and it's easier for most minority people because most of us come from heat. You don't find too many brothers in New Hampshire and Maine. Right?
"We were brought over here for the heat. Isn't that history?" Baker said.
"Your skin color is more conducive to heat than it is to the lighter-skinned people. I don't see brothers running around burnt," he said. "That's a fact. I'm not making this up. I'm not seeing some brothers walking around with some white stuff on their ears and noses."
Now, there was a time when comments like these could end the career of those who uttered them. Like when Al Campanis said African-Americans lacked the necessary tools to succeed in front office jobs in baseball. Or when Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder saw his career end in an afternoon after some ill-considered remarks about the way slaves were bred.
Down at the Dallas Morning News, Kevin Blackistone, himself African-American, doesn't want to give Baker a free pass:
Now, I'd like to just chuckle along with Baker, too. In fact, had he said the same thing to me in the privacy of a corner booth in some watering hole, I probably would have just chuckled at his commentary and shook my head.
But he said what he did to the media. Outlets around the country, including The Dallas Morning News, picked it up, and it was incorrect. It stood only to fuel a misnomer that has led to a stereotype.
Later, Blackistone launches into a series of grafs loaded with facts about how African-Americans are just as susceptible to heat stroke and skin cancer, and perhaps more, than the general population. That's fine as far as it goes, but to be quite frank, I'm prone to give Baker a pass on this one.
What we have here is what's commonly known as a gaffe. Baker should be allowed to apologize and move on -- something Campanis (whose record as a player and a scout marked him as anything but a bigot) should have been allowed to do after his infamous appearance on Nightline so many years ago.
UPDATE: David Pinto is calling for a suspension, and possibly preventing Baker from managing in the All-Star Game in Chicago this week.
ANOTHER UPDATE: David Pinto responds to my appeal to let Baker slide on this. From where he sits, if Campanis, Marge Schott and John Rocker all got slapped down simply for voicing unpopular opinions, then Baker ought to be as well:
But MLB does punish this type of speech. And since they do, they should punish Baker, or announce that they have a double standard. I would love to see Selig come out and say that the three offenders above were treated unfairly, and the commissioner's office would no longer take action against speech. But until then, Dusty needs to be suspended, just like the rest of the bigots who shot off their mouths.
(Yes, I'm talking about two wrongs making a right. This is one of the few cases where I think it applies.)
To which I respond, when will the madness end? If you defend free speech on the basis of principle, then occasionally that means having to defend the rights of those who you disagree with. At other times, it means simply defending the right of another to act like a jerk. And in some cases, it means acting with a little grace, and letting someone who made a mistake (small or large) escape with some dignity.
After all, what we're talking about here is an off-color joke that went one sentence too far. Now, if anyone seriously believes that Baker is benching White players in the Summer heat, and then planning to get them back into the lineup if the Cubs somehow make it to the postseason, please stand up.
In the end, we're skirting into some dangerous territory here. Remember, it wasn't long ago that the Boston Globe suspended columnist Bob Ryan for a month for simply saying he wanted to smack Joumanna Kidd. Meanwhile, Jason Kidd, who actually did smack his wife, didn't miss a day of work due to any suspension from his employer.
I hate to disagree with David, but if we're looking to set a new course in the terms of public debate, I'm afraid hanging Baker's head on a wall like a trophy isn't the way to go.
FINAL UPDATE: Dan Lewis reminds us that there really isn't any such thing as free speech for employees of Major League Baseball.
