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July 8, 2003: History Lesson from Dusty Baker

Cubs manager says history supports his remarks

Associated Press

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."

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BMTG:

The DieSeL:
I’ve seen Paul Hogan, who is the greatest outdoorsman of down under. Right? His fair skin was never a liability as he challenged and beat the pygmies at their own game in the blazing Aussie sun. Right?

I’ve seen two Ukrainian brothers, known for their translucent skin, play Street Heat in the blazing Sacramento sun. Right?

I’ve seen the since deceased Jimmy the Greek, sweat dripping from his sideburns, celebrate the differences among the races and get severely punished.

Today, I now see Dusty Baker, hiding behind his own color to suggest that Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and other great non colored baseball legends would have been superior if only they shared his skin color during the blazing summer sun of seasons past.

Shame on you Dusty Himler and your reverse Aryan crusade. You are no better than Al Gore, Bill Clinton, or Al Sharpton by viewing others with contempt because they are not like you in opinion or skin color.

You are ill advised to bring the brilliant accomplishments of others down to your level of mediocrity and bridesmaid finishes. You, my brother, should toss the toothpick and embrace a player for his talents and not because his skin offends your sense of equality. You, the self proclaimed sun loving Mandingo, should accomplish something of substance before you show your lack of any. Right?

Archie:

If dark colors are supposed to absorb light, and light colors are supposed to reflect light, does it not follow that people with dark skin would actually get hotter in the sun than people with light skin? Just ask yourself this - would you rather get into a black car that has been sitting in the sun all day with the windows rolled up, or a white car?

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Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Christian Science Monitor:

Racial double standards and Dusty Baker's quip

LOS ANGELES – Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker took much heat last week from sportswriters, talk-show hosts, and some ballplayers for his half-cocked quip that blacks and Latinos play better in the heat than whites.

But why didn't black leaders such as Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Kweisi Mfume instantly condemn his remarks? If anything, blacks treated Mr. Baker's remarks with bemusement: "Hey, that was Dusty just being Dusty." Presumably that means that because Baker has a reputation for being outspoken, then why get upset about a racial jibe?

Yet, when Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott, sports commentator Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, and Dodger executive Al Campanis made racially loaded remarks about blacks, blacks demanded their heads. (And "The Greek's" and Mr. Campanis' remarks about blacks' athletic superiority or failings were eerily similar to Baker's.)

The Revs. Messrs. Jackson and Sharpton regularly spruce up their credentials as racial gatekeepers by demanding the scalp of any public figure (white, of course) who makes a racial gaffe. If Baker were white, they'd have stormed Cubs offices and demanded his apology, or his firing, or both.

Baker, of course, is unrepentant. He bristles at being dumped into the same bigot bag with "The Greek" or Campanis. After all, they were white, and he's black, and that gives him carte blanche to say whatever he wants about blacks.

But the silence of black leaders and Baker's skewed racial etiquette again point to the ridiculous double standard that many blacks impose on whites. A glaring example of this is the perennial debate over the N-word. When white comedians, politicians, talk-show hosts, and even educators have slipped and used the N-word, they're instantly branded bigots, do profuse mea culpas, and solemnly swear never to do it again.

But black rappers, comedians, and writers have made a virtual fetish of using the word, and there's little if any angry outcry from other blacks.Some black writers even go through tortuous gyrations to justify using the word. They claim that the more a black person uses the word, the less offensive it becomes. They claim that they're cleansing the word of its negative connotations so that racists can no longer use it to hurt blacks. Comedian-turned- activist Dick Gregory had the same idea when he titled his autobiography "Nigger." Writer Robert DeCoy used the same racial shock therapy with his novel, "The Nigger Bible."

But this racial double standard is dangerous. The assumption is that pseudoscientific quips by whites about the alleged physical prowess of blacks - especially athletes - reinforce old, but thoroughly discredited, racial stereotypes and must be swiftly reviled. But in some ways, the same quip made by a Baker or other high-profile blacks do more to validate racial stereotypes than if uttered by whites. This gives the public pause to think that there may be some truth to it. And when blacks don't protest bigoted remarks by someone like Baker, that public pause can easily turn into public belief.

The lack of protest also fuels suspicion that blacks are willing to play the race card and call a white a bigot when it serves their interest, but will circle the wagons to defend any black who comes under fire for bigotry - or other malfeasance.

Some wayward black public officials and celebrities who were guilty of malfeasance use the racial double standard to their advantage - such as the former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry, boxer Mike Tyson, and black Baptist leader Henry Lyons.

They scream "racism" when caught doing wrong. They can get away with it because many whites regard blacks as so far outside the political and social pale that they see blacks solely as a racial monolith. They think that all blacks think, act, and sway to the same racial beat. These whites freely see the words and deeds of the chosen black leader as the standard for African-American behavior.

When an African-American missteps, he or she becomes the whipping boy for many whites - and blacks are blamed for being rash, irresponsible, and prone to play the race card on every social ill that befalls them.

Baker's exercise in racial genetics was, again, proof that silly, racist remarks can come out of a black mouth as easily as out of a white mouth. But when that happens, there's little likelihood that it will draw any heat from blacks. Dusty Baker's remarks certainly didn't.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a writer and political analyst, is the author of 'The Crisis in Black and Black.'

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Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune:

Clarence Page, Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner:
Page writes with clarity and compassion about issues that strike at America's core. A Chicago Tribune columnist and member of its editorial board, Page crafts provocative prose that focuses on politics, affirmative action, educational opportunities, race relations and multicultural issues, making them personal for himself and his readers.

Deeper Realities of Dusty Baker's Dustup

WASHINGTON - I thought Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker was putting us on with his recent comments about skin color and heat tolerance, until he mentioned his mother.

Believe me, when a black man brings up his mother, he is serious.

Well, OK. Not always. I don't want to over-generalize. That's what's gotten Baker into trouble.
Dusty launched his dustup last weekend when he said during a routine pre-game chat with reporters that black and Latino players are better suited to play in the sun and heat than white players are.
"You don't find too many brothers from New Hampshire and Maine and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Right? We were brought over here for the heat, right? Isn't that history? Weren't we brought over here because we can take the heat?"

He must have been facing some awe-stricken faces at that point because he kept going.
"(Blacks') skin color is more conducive to heat than it is for lighter skin people, right?" he said. "You don't see brothers running around burnt. Yeah, that's fact. I'm not making this stuff up. Right? You don't see some brothers walking around with white stuff (sun block) on their ears and noses."

Maybe Baker hasn't been where I've been. My complexion is similar to Baker's, but I've been putting sun block on ever since a 1982 vacation at the Martinique Club Med that I shall say no more about.

And if black folks couldn't tolerate cold weather, you never would have had the Chicago blues or Detroit soul, among numerous other contributions that cold-weather black folks have made to modern life.

I, too, used to think that black folks couldn't take much cold. Then I visited Fairbanks, Alaska, to speak at the university there. I was surprised by the moose, the dog sleds and the spectacular views. I was surprised by parking meters that had electric cables to help prevent vehicle engines from freezing overnight.

And I was surprised to find black folks. The mayor of Fairbanks was black. The local cable television outlet carried BET. Out of 82,000 people in Fairbanks, about 7 percent were black, according to the 2,000 census. Not bad for a cold place.

"I thought black folks didn't like cold weather," I joked with my mixed-race audience. They laughed. Most of Fairbanks' black community came there because of the military and stayed because they liked it, several told me. Take that, Dusty.

Yes, I thought Baker might be kidding, as I was in Alaska. But then, three days after his earlier remarks, from which he refused to back away even a little, Dusty brought up Mom.

"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."

Baker's remarks turned legions of sports reporters into anthropological researchers, which probably didn't do them any harm. Contrary to commonly held suppositions, the preponderance of research shows no major correlation between complexion and heat tolerance. Dark skin apparently does have lower skin cancer rates, but some studies show blacks actually have lower heat tolerance than whites.

Most important, there's no scientific reason to discriminate between the races one way or another based on weather conditions.

Nothing much happened to Baker after his remarks, except for a lot of angry commentaries. If Cubs managers have learned to put up with anything over the years, it's angry commentary.

A white manager probably would not have gotten away with his remarks. Baker did not argue with that. "As a black manager, I can say things about blacks that a white manager can't say," he remarked, "and whites can say things about whites that blacks can't say."

Maybe so. Although Dusty wasn't talking just about black folks, it is hard to imagine who might have been genuinely offended by his remarks. Let's just hope that he sticks to his players' stats, not their skin complexions, in making his personnel decisions on the field.

That's the danger of generalizing too much about people. It takes away their chance to prove themselves as individuals. But I don't think Baker should be punished, any more than I thought CBS sports personality Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder or Dodgers general manager Al Campanis should have been punished for their own similarly controversial remarks about race and the abilities of minorities.

In 1987, Campanis said blacks lacked the "necessities" to be baseball managers or general managers. The next year, Snyder said blacks were better athletes than whites because they were bred that way during slavery.

Like Baker, they were wrong, but their gaffes and the subsequent uproar revealed something important about how little the races still know about each other. The best remedy for such ignorance is candid dialogue. That's not easy for us to have as long as people are worried about being penalized for raising the wrong questions.

As with other matters of race relations, we need to be less punitive and more informative.
Besides, it's hard to imagine an appropriate punishment for Baker, although wintertime community service in the Upper Peninsula sounds about right.

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Ray McNulty, Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers:

No Offense Taken
Dusty Baker's remarks offend nobody except the Politically Correct

It would be far too easy to sit here and argue that Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker should be fired for saying something stupid, something ignorant, something that he innocently believed to be true -- even though it wasn't.

After all, that's what happened to Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder 15 years ago.

And Snyder's wrong-headed remarks in 1988 about blacks being "bred to be the better athlete" were no more offensive, no more racially insensitive than were Baker's misinformed comments last weekend about blacks and Latinos being better-suited to withstand the summer heat because of their skin color.

Likewise, it would do no good whatsoever to belabor the obvious -- that there is, indeed, a double-standard when it comes to race and who can get away with saying what.

Don't think so?

Then tell me: What was the difference between Allen Iverson's unedited rap lyrics and John Rocker's unedited interview with Sports Illustrated?

Both targeted homosexuals.

Both were filled with offensive, hate-filled words.

Both oozed venom.

Yet Iverson remained popular with basketball fans while Rocker became a punching bag -- even though Iverson's lyrics were premeditated and Rocker's ramblings were spontaneous.

Similarly, Fuzzy Zoeller lost his K Mart sponsorship after uttering a racially callous joke about Tiger Woods winning the Masters in 1997. But Shaquille O'Neal suffered no real consequences for making fun of Yao Ming's Chinese heritage last season.

And who can forget Reggie White preaching the differences in ethnic groups, stereotyping not only blacks and whites but also Hispanics (who are "gifted at family structure" because they can "put 20 or 30 people in one home"), Asians (who can "turn a television into a watch") and American Indians (who "have been gifted in spirituality").

An ordained minister, he's still preaching.

But golf analyst Ben Wright, fired by CBS in 1995 after saying lesbians are hurting the LPGA's marketability, isn't.

So, yes, there is a double-standard. And, like it or not, that's not going to change, not as long as somebody or some political party can benefit from making sure this country remains divided -- by race, ethnicity, class, gender, age, whatever.

Baker's remarks will not cost him his job, and they shouldn't.

But if Baker were white, you can bet that Jesse Jackson would be holding a news conference outside Wrigley Field, demanding Baker's immediate dismissal and threatening a boycott of Major League Baseball. (Of course, no mention would be made of Jackson referring to New York City as "Hymietown."

Thing is, this witch hunt has to stop somewhere, and this is as good a place as any.

This is where the revolution begins.

This is where we overthrow the Political Correctness Police.

They've done enough damage to the fabric of this nation, hiding in the weeds, waiting to pounce on anyone who says anything that can in any way be remotely construed as offensive or insensitive or politically incorrect.

Listen up, folks: Being politically incorrect is NOT a crime.

So why do we punish the offenders?

Was anyone really offended by Baker's inaccurate link between skin color and a person's ability to handle the heat?

Who was hurt by Snyder's similarly inaccurate link between race and athletic ability?

What real harm was done, other than someone who didn't know better might actually believe what they were saying?

Both went back to the days of slavery -- to the darkest period in America's past -- to support their contention. Both presented historically flawed arguments.

But Baker said he learned this history from his mother, who taught black American history in Sacramento. And I doubt that Snyder simply concocted the story about plantation owners breeding their biggest, strongest slaves to produce more big, strong slaves.

Somewhere at some time, it probably happened.

Problem is, Snyder claimed that breeding is the reason modern-day blacks are better athletes, and there's no scientific evidence to back up his theory.

He wasn't saying anything derogatory. He wasn't trying in inflame anyone. He made a mistake, probably an honest mistake.

Should that it have cost him his job? Or his reputation?

Of course not.

The same goes for Baker.

He's not a racist.

He's a good man and a terrific manager, but not much of a historian.

He just said something stupid.

Nobody got hurt.

Except the PC weasels.

And who really cares what they think, anyway?

(Ray McNulty can be heard at 7:30 and 8:30 Friday mornings on Oldies 103.7 FM WQOL.)

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Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel, featured on BlackVoices.com:

Dusty's remarks shouldn't inflame hot-button topic

I’m sorry, Dusty.

Please accept my apology and the apology of every other knee-jerk know-nothing who has questioned your sense and sensitivity this week.

In recent days, Dusty Baker, the manager of the Chicago Cubs, has been lambasted by many of us – black and white – who are guilty of premature judgment. He’s been called a racist. He’s had people scream for his job. He’s been ridiculed and referred to as “Dusty the Greek.” All because he said something that is historically accurate.

By now, you’ve probably heard what Baker said the other day when his Cubs were getting ready to play on a hot, muggy day in Chicago against the St. Louis Cardinals. When asked about playing in such sweltering conditions, Baker said, “You have to pretend that you’re a construction worker out there. You have no choice. It’s easier for me. Personally, I like playing in the heat. Most Latin people and minority people do. You don’t find too many brothers from New Hamshire or Maine, right? We were brought over here because we could work in the heat – isn’t that history?”

As a matter of fact, yes it is, at least according to two prominent professors I spoke to this week. While both agree that Baker’s comments are scientifically inaccurate, they say he’s historically correct – at least partly.

“There was certainly a widely held belief in the 18th and 19th centuries among slave owners that black people had a higher tolerance for working out in the heat than people of European descent,” said Richard Crepeau, a professor of history at UCF. “What Dusty Baker said about history is an accurate description of what people believed then.”

Ira Berlin – who just finished a book, Generations of Captivity, about the history of American slavery – says it was “common for people to believe well into the 20th century that black people were more suited to working in the sun.

“That belief became an urban legend,” added Berlin, a history professor at the University of Maryland. “In many ways, though, the belief became a way to rationalize the institution of slavery. There is absolutely nothing factually to back up the thinking that black people perform better in the heat. White people, too, would work rather effectively in the field if somebody were cracking a whip at their back.”

The outcry about Baker’s comments elucidates just how supersensitive and acutely high-strung we’ve become in regards to matters of race. It’s reached a point where you can’t talk about racial issues – even if your statements have historical credence. This isn’t Al Campanis, a white man, maligning minorities by saying they lack the “necessities” to be front-office executives. Or Charles Barkley, a black man, making the incredibly stupid comment that “I hate white people.” This is Dusty Baker, a black man, making an observation about his own race that was taught to him by his mother, an elementary school teacher.

In fact, there are many black people who have been similarly misinformed about their tolerance to heat. “I was taught this stuff in elementary school, too” say Stephen A. Smith, a black columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

When I played high school football, the best player on our team – a black running back named Darrell Thomas – took great pleasure in chiding some of his white teammates during August two-a-days. As he sprinted by us during conditioning drills, he would scream out, “What’s the matter, you white boys can’t take a little sun?”

In today’s hypersensitive world, Darrell would probably be kicked off the team for being a racist.

We all need to relax and turn down the heat.

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Chicago Tribune:

Chicago Tribune Editorial

Dusty’s off-base remarks

A major sports figure spouts some amazingly stereotypical racial views to reporters. What happens next?

In the case of Cubs manager Dusty Baker, not much, other than verbal admonishments from some astonished critics.

This has raised a peculiar issue of fairness, considering that similar foot-in-mouth remarks about race brought an end to the careers of Al Campanis and Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder in the 1980s. Is Baker getting a pass because, unlike Campanis and Snyder, he's black?

Yes, says at least one prominent authority: Dusty Baker himself.

Dusty's little dust storm kicked up last weekend when he proposed in a rambling discourse that black and Latino players are better suited biologically to playing in hot weather than white players are.

Black slaves were brought from Africa because they could work longer under the sun without getting woozy or sunburned, Baker offered, among other jaw-droppers. That explains why you "don't find too many brothers from New Hampshire and Maine and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan," he said.

Not quite. Evidence commissioned by the U. S. military, among others, has found no basis to support Baker's musings on a link between race and tolerance to heat.

Whether Baker was joking or completely serious, he meant no offense and none should be taken. "I was talking about black people," Baker said, laughing with reporters about the national notoriety his remarks have brought him. "If I want to talk about African-Americans, that's my prerogative. I can say stuff and call someone of my color things that you all can't say."

He has a point there, although, strictly speaking, his remarks included more than African Americans. He is being given more latitude, probably because he does not represent intolerance or insensitivity by the race that has historically dominated American society. And he surely did not speak out of malice.

Would his views ever impact his personnel decisions? Would he play an African-American ballplayer simply because it was a doubleheader on a hot day? That would be as ominous as a rain cloud over Wrigley Field.

Baker's position is hardly powerless. He's the manager. He exemplifies the hard-earned progress non-whites have made in their slow but inevitable ascension to management positions in professional sports. With power comes responsibility, including a boss's responsibility to avoid confusing or enraging workers, customers or the public with shoot-from-the-lip comments.

We're pretty safe in assuming he's not going to take Kerry Wood or Mark Prior out of the starting rotation when the temperatures top 90 degrees. Baker has a reputation as one of the best managers in baseball, and he didn't get there by managing according to folklore.

So let's all take a deep breath--at least those who are treating this as high controversy.

Dusty, you were wrong. Now let's go back to talking about that platoon system at 1st base . . .

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Mark Kreidler, Sacramento Bee:

It's Baker's prerogative to state his opinion, but it's not factual

Leafing through "The Biology of Skin Color: Black and White," a surprisingly unboring article from a 2-year-old "Discover" magazine attempting to explain the origins of our varying pigmentations, I was struck by the precise questions that no doubt are reaching you just about now:

1.) Dusty Baker said what?; and

2.) Wait: Someone actually listened to it?

Granted, you might have missed it. It was a few days ago that Baker, the pride of Riverside and Del Campo High School, answered a question about day games at Wrigley Field by informing writers that baseball players of darker skin color -- African Americans and Latinos, to be specific -- do better in the heat than do whites.

"Most of us come from the heat," Baker explained. "You don't find too many brothers from New Hampshire and Maine and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, right? We were brought over here for the heat, right?

"Isn't that history? Weren't we brought over here because we can take the heat?"

Baker was referring to slavery, but let's not stray too far from the point, which is this: The man is wrong. Dusty is wrong, wrong, wrong. I like him immensely, but he's a thousand times wrong, and no matter how often he pointedly insists that it's his prerogative to have his own opinion, it won't get him any closer to being right.

For the record, numerous studies have shown that race is virtually no factor in instances of heat exhaustion and its more serious cousin, heatstroke. In fact, in one such study, Dr. Robert S. Helman of New York Medical College found that, "because of differences in social advantages, the annual death rate because of environmental conditions is more than three times higher in blacks than in whites."

Beyond that, U.S. Army medical reports suggest that "blacks are less heat-tolerant than whites," according to a study by the Borden Institute. And I've got my trusty "Discover" article, which explains that skin color is related not just to the strength of sunlight across the globe but also to the body's need of certain vitamins, which are produced to
varying degrees in ... Zzzzzz.

Sorry, nodded off for a moment there. (It might have been slightly boring, upon further review.) What I'm getting at is that Dusty Baker might have had passion and folk wisdom on his side, but not so much the facts.

Yet because he's Dusty and because he's a fairly prominent sports figure -- and, absolutely, because he's African American -- his words were taken far too seriously far too quickly, with a resultant outcry that no doubt embarrasses the real racial and social activists at work in America.

Baker's words have been compared with those of Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, who once opined on the "breeding" preferences of slave-masters, and Al Campanis, the former Dodgers executive who famously got himself fired after saying African Americans lacked "the necessities" to work at the highest levels of baseball. (Repeat: He said baseball, not NASA. He'd be wrong on either count, but I digress.)

About the only thing these cases have in common, really, is a person talking out of school. Put it this way: I've known Baker for 10 years, and he's a dozen evolutions removed from "racist" as it is defined by our modern culture. All Dusty proved was that a person can be of any skin color and still say something silly and be taken seriously for it, so long as that person is rich, famous, publicly successful or, speaking generally, employed in the entertainment industry.

And so: Enough. Enough with letting a Hollywood actor tell me what my politics should be (and just when I was getting so comfortable with the idea). I'm all done taking stock tips from erstwhile TV chefs not named Martha. Gov. Gray Davis starts telling me whom the Kings need to trade for, that's the moment I delete the voicemail.

Al Davis will no longer lecture to me about which AC/DC album should be considered the band's seminal work. No more fashion tips from Michael Irvin.

And the next time Shawn Estes stinks during a July day game at Wrigley, I'll resist the urge to wonder if he would have done better on a cool night instead, based upon the Baker Theory of Heat Tolerance.

"I wasn't talking about white people; I was talking about black people," Baker said in the aftermath of his statements. "And if I want to talk about African American and black people, that's my prerogative ... I was just stating the facts, Jack."

Or, now that he mentions it, not the facts at all. All of which reminds me of a delightful thing Yogi Berra once said about the vicissitudes of life. I've got to stop doing that.

Reaction to Mark Kreider, from the Sacramento Bee, Fanfare:

Quite a double standard

Substitute Dusty Baker for John Rocker, Jimmy "The Greek," Al Campanis, Trent Lott, Marge Schott -- and you probably would be fired.

Rocker was forced to attend sensitivity training and blasted by the media for exercising his "prerogative" to state his opinion. Years later, he still can't escape those comments and probably never will.

Kreidler ("It's Baker's prerogative to state his opinion, but it's not factual," July 10) wrote, in part, "because he's African American -- his words were taken far too seriously far too quickly, with a resultant outcry that embarrasses the real racial and social activists at work in America."

Are you out of touch with reality? If Baker were Caucasian, these real (whatever that means) racial and social activists would be demanding Baker resign or be terminated from his managerial duties.

The focus of your column shouldn't have been on the validity of Baker's comments (they are quite irrelevant) but the double standards that exist between minorities and Caucasians.

Shaq, Reggie White, Barkley, John Thompson (who said about 10 years ago that he would never start a white player) and many more can say whatever they want and essentially receive a free ride from our liberal media and their employers.

If you saw SportsCenter's segment the other day on past racial comments made by athletes and sports personalities, it was interesting to note that Caucasians were the only ones to be admonished for their comments, whereas zero action was taken against the minorities.

I guess most of us are accustomed to these double standards that exist in all aspects of society. That doesn't make it right.

Steve Warneck
Folsom

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Michael J. Thompson, Auburn Plainsman:

Dusty Baker shows we are in big trouble

In a column penned in June, I alluded to William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and a famous line from the Bard’s play: “Out, out brief candle.”

I spoke of race, and how we must — as a nation — talk about problems we have, without name-calling, unless we are willing to watch this great nation perish.

Two weeks ago, the manager of the Chicago Cubs, Dusty Baker said, “Personally, I like to play in the heat. It's easier for me. It's easier for most Latin guys and easier for most minority people. You don't find too many brothers in New Hampshire and Maine and the upper peninsula of Michigan, right? We were brought over here for the heat, right? Isn't that history? Weren't we brought over because we could take the heat? Your skin color is more conducive to the heat than it is to the light-skinned people, right?”

Baker, who happens to be a black man, was attacked by the press, with writers calling his remarks “stupid,” “misguided” and “unconscionable.” Conservatives were aghast that such comments could be made, pointing to the John Rocker incident and the mandatory mental evaluations he endured for his infamous Sports Illustrated interview. Naturally, many of the national pundits pointed out the double standard, that blacks can say such things and get away with them, yet when a white makes a statement that is deemed racially offensive he is forced to sit out games and undergo clinical evaluation.

Obvious double standards in speech aside, when confronted with the Dusty Baker fiasco one pertinent question-few are asking- comes to mind: Was Dusty right?

Steve Sailer, founder of the Human Biodiversity Institute, believes so as he told me, “Certainly, there's nothing unreasonable about Mr. Baker's understanding of physical anthropology and the history of the African diaspora. All over the world you see examples of people of sub-Saharan African descent tending to live in hot lowlands and other races tending to cluster in nearby cool highlands. Examples include the Andean nations of northwest South America, the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia, and the island of Madagascar.”

The American Anthropological Association currently has a statement out saying that race is a social construct. Many are jumping over Baker for his comments because what he said is scientifically implausible because race “does not exist.” Not so fast says Sailer. “There's absolutely nothing scientifically implausible about implying that people whose ancestors lived for hundreds of generations in hot climates would be somewhat better adapted on average than people whose ancestors lived in cool or cold climates. It's just Natural Selection 101.”

He believes the best way to find the truth in this issue is to test Baker’s theory.

“On the other hand, simply because the background to Mr. Baker's theory is plausible, doesn't mean it's automatically true for baseball. It's something that could be tested by one of the thousands of amateur baseball statistics aficionados, and I strongly advocate that. Science, even baseball science, advances in a cultural atmosphere where individuals feel free to advance hypotheses and others feel free to test them. It's growth is retarded in the kind of climate we see here, where journalists throw a hissy fit over an outstanding baseball man publicly stating an observation he's made in the decades he's been playing organized baseball.”

Sports- to me- are a tremendous way to look at diversity in America, and Sailer agrees, as he said, “Personally, I think we should "celebrate diversity," and the first way to do it is to allow ourselves to publicly notice it.”

With all the talk of diversifying Auburn, lets look at the sports teams. Perhaps the basketball team should try and recruit more white players, as the swimming team should try and garner more black talent? If diversity is so important for the academic sector of Auburn, then logically it should be for the sports teams that represent Auburn on the national level. Shouldn’t we showcase our diversity on television when we play USC in football on CBS-but how can we when 17-of-the-22 starters are black?

Baker has taught America one thing: the candle is growing dim.

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Jay Mariotti, Chicago Sun-Times:

Playing race card on Baker is off-base

Next time you're at a sports memorabilia shop, ask for some of Dusty Baker's early baseball cards. Chances are, he isn't smiling in any of them, as he readily has pointed out. He admittedly was an angry young black man worn out by '60s and '70s racism in its cruelest forms, starting with his family's move from the melting pot of Riverside, Calif., to a predominantly white community near Sacramento, Calif.

At his high school graduation, students walked across the stage in boy-girl couples and accepted their diplomas together. The only one who walked alone was Johnnie B. Baker, a star athlete at Del Campo High, who said he was rejected by every girl he asked. There weren't many days in his teen years, as he told Salon.com in revealing interviews about race, when he didn't feel a chill to his bones.

"Actually, there was a time when I was really militant, really angry, because some of the things I was naive about growing up I got mad about later,'' said Baker, noting that he pondered joining the Black Muslims until his dad said no.

And if he thought people might treat him better when he signed a minor-league contract and traveled from town to town, he was greeted by restaurant waiters who wouldn't serve him, gas-station attendants who wouldn't let him use their restrooms and apartment owners who directed him to the projects of Richmond, Va., where he lived amid prostitutes and drug dealers.

"I'm used to getting beat up. Know what I'm saying?'' Baker says now.

I have not lived in his shoes. I can't relate to his pain and persecution. Thus, I won't pretend to be offended when he delivers a curious yet rather benign commentary about heat, skin pigmentation and why, in his opinion, Latin and African-American ballplayers can tolerate hot weather better than white players. Was the comment necessary? Hardly, considering it has no relevance to the Cubs, baseball or much of anything. Do his Tribune Co. superiors wish they had a mute button for his initial remarks Saturday, then for his reiterative comments Monday? No doubt about it, knowing they market the Cubs as a fan-friendly operation and want nothing but fun at the old ballpark.

But in the context of race, just who is Baker hurting with his assessment? Unlike disgraced baseball executive Al Campanis, who clearly disparaged minorities when he said they lacked the "necessities'' to be general managers and managers, Baker wasn't putting down the Caucasian race when he said: "It's easier for most Latin guys and easier for most minority people because most of us come from heat. You don't find too many brothers in New Hampshire and Maine and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, right? We were brought over here for the heat, right? Isn't that history? Weren't we brought over because we could take the heat?''

At worst, Baker is guilty of advancing a stereotype that might or might not be true, depending on whether you believe his mother, who taught him black history, or experts who have said otherwise in recent days. But anybody who brands him a "reverse racist'' or buys into some of the Neanderthal stuff going on doesn't have a pulse on who Dusty is, where he has been and what he stands for in his craft. First and foremost, the man is known for creating unity and overachievement in the tense, egomaniacal realm of a 25-man team, melding players of various cultures for the common good of winning. He pulled it off all those years in San Francisco, and he has done it again this season under increasingly vexing circumstances at Wrigley Field, where a traditionally fractious clubhouse has become a productive place under the influence of Dusty Love.

A racist never could motivate teams of whites, blacks and Latins the way Baker has. You have to understand his relationships with his players to grasp the context of his remarks. They were the first ones to hear his opinions about the subject, and we've yet to hear any Cubs say they were offended. "I told my team that a long time ago. They were talking about how hot it was, and I said that's why my ancestors were brought over here--for this heat,'' Baker said. "And that's history. My mother was a black-American history teacher in Sacramento. According to what she told me and what the history book told me, it sounds to me a lot of people don't know history. If they're taking this as reverse racism, then they can take it wherever they want to take it. I stand by what I said.''

If Baker's remarks were made in a comedy club by Chris Rock, Richard Pryor or another black comedian, we'd laugh. In fact, many white media members laughed along when Baker, clearly having a good time, stood by his comments. One could argue a baseball manager has a social responsibility that a stand-up comedian doesn't, but listen to Baker's explanation. Is he wrong?

"I wasn't talking about white people; I was talking about black people. And if I want to talk about African-American and black people, that's my prerogative,'' he said. "I can say stuff and call somebody of my color stuff that you can't. ... I've heard Italian people call Italian people stuff that I can't say. And that's how it goes. If I say some of the stuff I've heard other people call people, man. And if you call some of the stuff I call some of my brothers, then y'all in trouble. Just try saying some of the stuff that's said on some of those rap songs and see what happens.

"I was just stating the facts, Jack.''

This is the Dusty Baker Experience. Deal with it, world. He's an intriguing man who has endured more hard times than most, including a bout with prostate cancer and a sticky Internal Revenue Service matter in which his wages in San Francisco were garnished for several years. There will be days when he plays a jazz CD, other days when he asks deadline-jaded beat writers to read Thomas Sowell's The Economics and Politics of Race.

His hardships will sting until the days he dies. The difference is, he's comfortable enough in his own skin to speak honestly. Recently, when Sammy Sosa agreed with comments by Gary Sheffield and Pedro Martinez that race played a role in media reaction to the corked-bat flap, Baker defended his slugger's right to say so. In the same breath, though, he seemed to be defining himself.

"When you state your opinion, you've got to expect that it's going to get you in hot water sometimes,'' Baker said. "Especially when you're a millionaire and you get to the point that you really don't care. Bob Marley was a millionaire, too, but he was for the people.''

Dusty is a man of the people, too. He just has an interesting way of articulating it.

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Ira Simmons, ChronWatch:

Yes, if Chicago Cubs (and former San Francisco Giants) manager Dusty Baker were white, he would have either been severely reprimanded by Major League Baseball or fired by the Cubs for his remarks about race. On Saturday, Baker told reporters that black and Hispanic ballplayers play better in the daytime because their descendants--former slaves--originally came from hot climates of Africa or Latin America. Baker implied that white players perform better in night games because ''whites take the cold better than most blacks and Latins'' apparently because their origins are chilly England, Scandinavia. or maybe Iceland. When a reporter asked Baker for proof, all he could say was ''Trust me,'' ''I'm black,'' ''my mother taught history,'' and ''everybody knows this.'' Similar answers were basically given by Jon Entine, the co-author of ''Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It'' in a Tuesday appearance on Hannity and Colmes.

So I ask Baker and Entine: where is your numerical or scientific proof? I checked a few baseball web sites and could not find any statistics to confirm such theories. In fact, maybe Baker and Entine have it in reverse. To site but two conflicting examples:

1. On Wednesday night in the Giants game in Colorado, Barry Bonds hit a long three run homer. Hey Dusty: How could that happen? Bonds is black and was playing at night in the cooler air of Denver. An additional question for Baker: How can Bonds hit a home run in a stadium in such a high altitude? Isn't subterranean Africa basically at sea level?

2. And what about outfielder Ichiro Suzuki? Since leaving Japanese baseball to join the Seattle Mariners in 2001, Suzuki has been a batting sensation both during day games and at night. Of course, Suzuki is not black but he is also not a white whose origins are from Europe like virtually all the other ''honkies'' that Baker sees in Major League Baseball. Please Dusty, enlighten me: Is Ichiro supposed to hit better in the day or at night? And with the time change between the United States and Japan, perhaps according to Dusty, Ichiro would hit .400 if the Mariners start their games at midnight!

Bottom line: Perhaps from their graves, Jimmy The Greek and Al Campanis may feel vindicated by Dusty's remarks, but Baker is not exactly the second coming of Albert Einstein! He should retract and even apologize for his baseless remarks.

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Bryan Burwell, St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Baker's comments open door for talk about race in sports

White men can't jump. Black men can't swim. Asians are short. Blacks are fast and athletic. Whites are gritty and gutsy. Oh yes, and please check every Latin ballplayer's birth certificate, because . . . well . . . you know.

And now we add to that great collection of stupid racial misperceptions in sports this new brilliant pearl:

Brothers love the heat more than white guys.

Ah yes, here we go again. Grit your teeth. Cover your head. Close your eyes and stick something into your ears. We are about to talk about virtually everyone's favorite subject: Race and sports. Mention the word "race" in any context - particularly in sports - and we all tend to deal with it by either screaming at each other and getting nothing accomplished, or falling sheepishly silent and learning nothing from each other.

But I look at these moments as opportunities. I love it when someone, black or white, utters something controversial on the subject of race in sports, no matter how politically incorrect or incredibly stupid it may be, because it's an opportunity to open a dialogue where we might actually learn a thing or two about each other.

But I have to admit, when I first heard Dusty Baker's comments that black and Hispanic baseball players are better suited to playing in the sun and heat than white players, I thought he was joking. I thought his tongue was planted firmly in his cheek when he told reporters last weekend, "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 and the upper peninsula of Michigan. . . . We were brought over here for the heat, right? 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. 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."

What I did was laugh. I thought the Cubs manager was joking about the troubles of playing all those day games in Wrigley Field. I'm pretty sure that most rational people thought the same thing. But on Tuesday, in trying to explain his remarks, Baker told USA Today's Chuck Johnson, "I'm telling it like it is."

And that's when it hit me that Baker honestly believed this mess.

Well, other than the fact that everything Baker said was completely wrong, historically inaccurate and medically bogus, this was silly. I like Dusty Baker a lot. But as a social scientist, he makes a great professional baseball manager. The simple fact is, racial stereotypes in sports are as old as dirt, and as wrong and harmful as can be. If white men really can't jump, why are all those Eastern Europeans and Scandinavians winning Olympic high jump medals? Brothers don't do well in the cold? So I guess Jerome Iginla ought to just quit playing hockey right now, because it's obvious that all that ice is bad for his complexion. Asians are short? Yao Ming and his pituitary gland apparently didn't get the message. And maybe my ancestors are from Scotland, because I can't tell you how many times I've felt the sun completely suck all the energy out of my body while trying to run or golf in St. Louis' oppressive summer heat.

Next time I want a racial view of the sports world that's this cockeyed, I'd be better off going to the barbershop and talking to Uncle Skeeter. We all know Uncle Skeeter, right? He's that great philosopher who believes that government is reading his brain waves through the radio, Babe Ruth and Larry Bird were really black albinos, and Michael Jackson's never had plastic surgery.

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Bob Padecky, Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, CA):

Unusually dumb words from Baker

SAN FRANCISCO -- Nah, as I kept reading what he said last Saturday, these can't be Dusty Baker's words. Just can't be. Dusty never draws distinctions based on color. People are people. Skin color is an unnecessary reference. Stereotyping is stupid, and Dusty isn't stupid.

"(Blacks') skin color is more conducive to heat than ... lighter-skinned people," the Cubs manager said over the weekend. "You don't see brothers running around burnt and stuff. Yeah, that's a fact. I'm not making this stuff up. You know? Right? You're not going to see brothers walking around with some white stuff (sunscreen) on their ears and noses."

Baker was responding to a question about whether the Cubs play too many day games that may affect their play.

Baker apparently hadn't read the comments of one Dr. Robert S. Helman of New York Medical College, who wrote: "Heatstroke affects all races equally. However, the annual death rate because of environmental conditions is more than three times higher in blacks than whites."

Apparently Baker was never at the same games as Carlos Alfonso, the Giants' administrative coach and video coordinator who has been with the team the previous seven years, all under Baker. Said Alfonso: "I've seen white guys wear sunblock and I've seen black guys wear sunblock." Alfonso emphasized he was never given a reason to think Baker is a racist.

It is a point anyone who has met Baker would make. His wife is Filipino. He counts as friends people of all colors. He is, or has been, color blind. Skill -- not skin color or heritage -- determines success. Baker always has made that point. But not last Saturday.

"Personally, I like to play in the heat," Baker said. "It's easier for most Latin guys and most minority people because most of us come from the heat. You don't find too many brothers from New Hampshire and Maine and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, right? I mean we (blacks) were brought over for the heat, right? I mean, ain't that history? Weren't we brought over here because we can take the heat?"

No, Africans were brought to America to provide slave labor. It wasn't for physiology but for economics.

"There are a lot of blacks in Chicago and New York and it's awfully cold there, isn't it?" said Giants first baseman J.T. Snow. "I have some pretty strong opinions about this, but I don't want to get into it."

There is much to get into. What if it wasn't Baker, an African American, making these statements? What if it was a white manager like Tampa Bay's Lou Piniella? What if it was Piniella, baseball's most celebrated hothead, saying minorities handle the heat better? What would be the repercussions? Would Piniella still have his job?

Would Piniella suffer the same fate as Al Campanis, the former Dodgers general manager? In 1988 Campanis said blacks "lacked the necessities" for upper-level baseball management. He was quickly fired. A year later, CBS' Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder was fired for claiming blacks were "bred" for physical performance. Would any white manager survive Saturday's comments?

If he did, it would be a smear on his reputation, after he paid his fine and sat out a suspension.

Baker will be granted a free pass on this one because of his reputation and of the unwritten rule that permits commentary on one's own race.

That doesn't wash, and it doesn't wash for one reason. Stereotypes are dangerous. They limit. They inhibit. They provide comfort to the ignorant and ammunition to the hostile. It can't, nor should it be, dismissed simply as Dusty suffering a brain cramp.

Stereotypes create a mess not so easily cleaned, no matter its source.

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Terry Frei, Denver Post:

Stupid statements fuel for double standards

Funny thing about double standards: If you aren't culpable in perpetuating them, you don't have to be sheepish when acknowledging them.

Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker's remarks this week about dark-skinned athletes' ability to play in stifling heat were stupid, insensitive and worthy of disdain. All things equal, that should have been it. Inning over, play the music, replace the bases with clean ones, hurriedly drag the infield, move on.

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights have evolved to the point of generally guaranteeing free speech, with the "fire!"-in-a-crowded-theater exceptions. That means free speech for everyone, including hateful idiots and those who speak in the midst of isolated brainlocks or warped interpretations of history.

Yes, there is a difference between governmental restriction on free speech and employers holding workers accountable for something said on the job, but the guiding principles should be the same. We enjoy freedom of expression, coupled with the freedom to judge others by both their words and their actions.

But endorsing or advocating punishment for expression of views is onerous and also dangerous in terms of the precedents. Like a home run ball being tossed back into the field by Wrigley Field's Bleacher Bums, the John Rocker case is back in play. Or at least it should be.

In the wake of Baker's statements, we've heard from many trying to prove their fairness by citing a double standard - "Imagine what would happen if Bobby Cox had said that!" - while usually skirting the issue of whether they embraced the philosophy that helped encourage it.

In late 1999 and early 2000, it was fashionable to advocate that Sports Illustrated's Moron of the Year, Rocker, should be at least temporarily deprived of his right to make a living for expressing his views to a reporter. The Atlanta pitcher - who, by the way, is not in a supervisory position, as is Baker - was insensitive and stupid. He was not a criminal. I'd say he was treated like a criminal, but in the sports world, the crime of domestic abuse too often is considered less heinous than verbiage.

The more consistent approach from those who argued for Rocker's suspension would be to react the same way to Baker's remarks as they would if Cox, the Atlanta manager, had said the same things.
Or, heaven forbid, if John Rocker had said them.

A few have done that.

Not many.

Indeed, many of the same folks indignantly or sheepishly citing the double standard this week would have portrayed Cox as a virulent, ignorant racist if he had said what Baker said. That's the track record of those who don't ponder the long-term cost to their credibility if they overreact, especially when initial overreaction involves a "safe" position.

If those who enthusiastically argued for Rocker's suspension sincerely believe this double standard is shameful, these folks either should be admitting they were wrong four years ago, or screaming that Baker deserves to be punished for his remarks. Suspension. Censure. Whatever.

Mainly, we're just hearing that the generally likable Baker, the best manager in baseball, should be ashamed of himself, and that he temporarily deserves our scorn. Know what? I agree with that. But I wasn't arguing that Rocker should be run out of the game, either.

Baker should be able to say something stupid without it being considered his defining moment. That's what happened to golfer Fuzzy Zoeller, who made a lame, insensitive attempt at humor a few years back and was stamped as a racist with permanent ink.

The short-sighted advocates of a Rocker suspension got their way. I was against Rocker's suspension at the time, and I feel even stronger now because of the inconsistency that has followed.

In 2000, 76ers guard Allen Iverson was more mildly criticized for expressing similarly abhorrent views on his CD. He wasn't suspended. He shouldn't have been. But where were those who wanted to punish Rocker? They were either silent or spoke in muted tones. The Rocker-Iverson comparisons are even more graphic examples of the double standard and the peril of selective sensitivity. Baker said something stupid. Quibbling over the degree of his aberrational stupidity is unnecessary.

We at least seem to be recognizing that the double standards exist.

Next, let's end them.

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Tom Knott, Washington Times:

There will not be any heat for this Baker

No all-out media deluge is coming to Dusty Baker.

He is not going to lose his managerial job with the Cubs. He is not going to be required to apologize. There is not going to be an outpouring of condemnation.

The thought police are not looking to banish him to the margins of society, drawing up the paperwork that results in his dismissal.

You know the drill, going back to Al Campanis.

But not this time. Not this week. Relax.

Baker is cool. He is all right. Stop pestering him. Let the man enjoy life.

We'll get the next one, as long as he meets the necessary requirements.

This dishonest process is inevitably dependent on the color of the person's skin.

In this case, fortunately, Baker rates a free pass in the national press because of his politically sacred skin tone. The outcome is acceptable, just not the basis behind it.

Baker, the part-time social scientist, believes blacks and Latinos have a pigment advantage over whites in baseball's summer months.

He apparently has come to this conclusion through years of anecdotal evidence, if not statistical analysis. Baseball, after all, is the one game that collects statistics on everything.

Baker sounds like a manager who possibly digests statistics along racial lines, no unimportant detail if one of his lighter-skinned players is flirting with heatstroke in the latter stages of a one-run game.

"We were brought over here for the heat," Baker said Saturday. "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."

This depends on the burnt brother, assuming Wacko Jacko is still considered a brother after he caught on fire while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984.

You can go wherever you want with Baker's insight on the various human responses to the sun.

You do see an awful lot of white faces in the winter sports, whatever that means, if it means anything to Baker. Who knows? Who cares?

That is the point, often ignored if the subject is vulnerable to attacks from the left.

Baker said what he said, and he is standing by what he said, and if you are offended by what he said, then that is your problem.

Go see a therapist. Join a support group. Have a group hug. Do what you need to do to feel better.

Here's another suggestion: We could take this moment to be less sensitive and a whole lot more fair with our free-speech interpretations.

We tend to celebrate the free speech of those antiwar protesters who disrupt traffic, create a public disturbance and compare President Bush to Hitler. We tend to think it is almost neat if someone burns the American flag.

Yet we often go looking for pink slips or some form of retribution if the free speech is drafted from a member of an unprotected group, even if the person's words are made in jest or in the heat of the moment and threaten no one but the political activist groups paid to take offense.

John Rocker could run, but he could not hide from an interview he granted to Sports Illustrated in 1999. Wherever he went, however he performed, Rocker was enveloped in the foul odor of his comments.

As far as bad career moves go, Rocker would have been better off to be a drug addict than a full-of-himself ace reliever with a penchant for flippancy and politically incorrect observations. At least as a recovering drug addict, Rocker would have been granted the mushy-headed sympathies of the chattering class.

No exhaustive parsing is really necessary in these matters, as long as you consider the source. Baker is a baseball guy, nothing more than that, who is entitled to his opinions, accurate or not. The same can be said of all those purveyors of ill-advised comments in recent years.

The collection reveals a misaligned playing field that comes with footnotes, qualifiers and asterisks.

The bold will thump their chests in defense of the antiwar views of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, two relatively inane thinkers from Hollywood put on waivers by baseball last spring.

Yet they are horrified if Rocker objects to New York City's multicultural stew, suggesting it would be beneficial if he attended the Falkland Islands Pride Day, or this or that Pride Day.

Baker represents a half right.

He is being spared the mind-bending assault of the national press not because we recognize the hypocrisy of it but because he has a get-out-of-jail card in his possession.

Good for him. Too bad if the next person in Baker's position lacks his impregnable armor.

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Other Reactions:

Reader Mail, Des Moines Register

Dusty Baker played for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1976 to 1983. During his entire career in Los Angeles, the general manager of the Dodgers was Al Campanis. I guess Dusty learned a lot from the man who brought him to Los Angeles.

The Dodgers fired Campanis because he said, on national television, that blacks lacked the necessities to be managers and executives. Recently, Baker stated that blacks tolerate the heat better than whites, and that is why we (blacks) were brought over here, right?

Is Dusty Baker admitting that whites make better managers and executives? Is he taking Al Campanis' side? I mean, after all he is black, and they weren't brought over here to manage, right?

Baker's remarks were disparaging and insensitive and he should be treated like others who have made similar remarks. He should be fired. Does anybody really think that a white manager could have said something similarly disparaging about black or Latino players and kept his job? I know that there is a double standard in America and Dusty will not be fired, but disparaging, racist and insensitive remarks are disparaging, racist and insensitive, no matter who says it or who the remarks are aimed at.

- Gabe Sink, Urbandale

Readers vent on what Baker dust-up’s all about, Chicago Sun-Times

By Mary Mitchell, Sun-Times Columnist

Nearly a week after Dusty Baker's controversial "heat" comments, he still doesn't understand what the fuss is all about. In fact, Baker told columnist Mike Kiley "no one he has spoken to outside of the media has made a big deal" of his remarks that suggested blacks and Latinos can take the heat better than others.

Lucky Dusty.

My e-mails runneth over. Like all things racial, we are clearly divided over this issue. Here's what some of you said:

"Mr. Baker is historically correct, these dark of skin people, Africans were brought to America to withstand the heat of the South. Europeans felt at the time that Africans could withstand the changing weather conditions."
Vince M., by e-mail

With all due respect, I don't think you "get it." Dusty Baker is not just a baseball manager but he is also a manager of employees. Employees in the U.S. have certain protections, one of those being that they will be judged on the basis of performance and not on the basis of skin color. Further, can you imagine the outcry if there were a white high school football coach in Buffalo who said that in his estimation white football players could stand the cold better? How would that make the black kids on the team feel?
Sean Fitzpatrick, by e-mail

The day after you want to recognize President Bush for going to Africa, you critique Dusty Baker's assessment and opinion of why black and Latino players are adjusted to the sun and heat. You are a hypocrite to the fullest extent. Why not recognize Dusty for speaking his view and not backing down from the media? Is it because you are part of the media? Why don't you start a National Association for the Advancement of White People, because you want to be white. Maybe you do not realize that the KKK, Nazis, New World Order, and any other ultra-conservative group (led by the media) are already the NAAWP. You probably will not respond, but that is OK. Because of the freedom of the press and freedom of speech, you have the right to express your opinion just as I have. Moreover, I will continue to read your Aunt Tom Articles because I do enjoy knowing how the Other Side thinks.
Baron K. Shelton, by e-mail

One way to solve this mess is to just add more night games at Wrigley, or move the park to a neighborhood that would allow them to have more night games. I truly believe that [the] comments were more conversational between the reporter and Baker, almost like having a conversation over which hamburger is less healthier--Burger King or McDonald's. I mean, they are both red meat.
Mark Fishback, by e-mail

Personally, I do not find Dusty Baker's remarks offensive. This is America, and he should be able to say what he wants, about who he wants. I just do not understand why there is so much selectivity about all of it (i.e., if a black person slams a black person it's OK. If a white person slams a white person it's OK. But if one slams the other, then watch out). Mary, I just don't get it. The Lord tells us, in the Bible, that much as it is in our power, we should try to be at peace with ALL people. "ALL" doesn't have any colors in it. That's exactly how my parents raised me, and I am grateful to them for it.
Carl Ciangi, by e-mail

Let's face it, if a white manager had said that he thought white players were "smarter" base runners than black players, nobody would be giving him a pass just because he was talking about "his own kind."

I am a Cubs fan that will never be able to watch the team play again without wondering if the Cubs have fielded the "best" team they could or just the most "colorful" team they could.
Dave Tonkinson, Chicago

"Dark-skinned people are better suited for warm weather than light-skinned people are. White or light-skinned people are best suited for the cold weather, such as in Europe. Dark-skinned people are better suited for warm weather such as in the Caribbean or anywhere near the equator. . . . I have read about this in many encyclopedias and also from my high school biology teacher."
Mr. Ginsberg, by e-mail

"My response to Baker's remarks are the same as they would have been if Joe Torre had made the same remarks: Who cares? People are too touchy when it comes to someone's opinions. But if Torre said the same words, Jesse Jackson would be in New York collecting another kickback. Also, the reality is a white kid from Arizona can handle 110 heat better then a black kid from Chicago. Humans tend to adapt pretty well.
Michael Coyle, 23, white male, by e-mail

Finally, I made a facetious reference to the NAAWP in my July 9 column. I've been advised by several readers that the NAAWP is an actual hate group. I apologize for my feeble attempt at humor.

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Other Verbal Blunders

"You've got to keep an eye on those two, because they're going to try to get the upper hand. Mike [Zimmer, defensive coordinator] want the defense to do well, and Sean [Payton, quarterbacks coach], he's going to have a few ... no disrespect for the Orientals, but what we call Jap plays. OK. Surprise things."
Dallas Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells, 2004

"No, I don't believe it's prejudice. I truly believe that they may not have some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field manager, or perhaps a general manager."
Dodgers vice president Al Campanis, in a 1987 interview with Ted Koppel on 'Nightline,' commenting on the small number of minorities in managerial and front office positions in baseball.

"The black is the better athlete. And he practices to be the better athlete, and he's bred to be the better athlete because this goes back to the slave period. The slave owner would breed this big black with this big black woman, so he could have a big black kid. That's where it all started."
CBS broadcaster Jimmy 'the Greek' Snyder, 1988.

Hitler "was good in the beginning, but he went too far."
Reds owner Marge Schott, 1996.

"Jews are stubborn. Why did they persecute Jesus unless he knew something they didn't want to accept? They had his blood on their hands. Then they spit in Jesus' face and hit him with their fists. There are Christians getting persecuted by Jews every day."
NBA player Charlie Ward, 2001.

"That little boy is driving well and he's putting well. You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. ... Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve."
Golfer Fuzzy Zoeller, joking in 1997 about the potential cuisine of champion Tiger Woods at the Masters' championship dinner the following year.

Blacks "like to sing and dance." Whites "know how to tap into money." Hispanics "are gifted at family structure. You can see a Hispanic person and he can put 20 or 30 people in one home." Asians can "turn a television into a watch." American Indians "have been gifted in spirituality."
NFL player and ordained minister Reggie White, 1998.

"Go drink another beer, you Mexican piece of [bleep]."
Nuggets coach Dan Issel, in 2001 to a heckler in the stands following a loss.

"I would retire first. It's the most hectic, nerve-wracking city. Imagine having to take the [No.] 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you're [riding through] Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing."
Baseball pitcher John Rocker, in 1999 on the prospect of playing with one of the two New York City teams.

"Tell Yao Ming: 'Ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-soh.'"
NBA player, Shaquille O'Neal, 2003.

"Let's face facts, lesbians in the sport hurt women's golf. They're going to a butch game and that furthers the bad image of the game. It's paraded. There's a defiance in them in the past decade. ... Women are handicapped by having boobs. It's not easy for them to keep their left arm straight, and that's one of the tenets of the game. Their boobs get in the way."
CBS golf analyst Ben Wright, 1995.

"Look at that little monkey run!"
Howard Cosell during a Monday Night Football broadcast in October 1983, about African-American Washington Redskins receiver Alvin Garrett. The comment, which Cosell also used to describe his playful grandson, led to immediate outcries of racism, and despite a Cosell denial and supportive statements by Jesse Jackson, Cosell pals Cosby, Ali and even Garrett himself, the fallout contributed to Cosell's decision to leave Monday Night Football two months later.

"You can pretty much knock off all the dark athletes. We jumped in Salamanca, Spain, a month ago, and those guys just couldn't compete well in bad conditions. It was wet and cold...Americans are Americans, aren't they? They only jump big in America. Those three guys are a bunch of dribblers. That's all I'm saying. I'm more scared of the two Ukraine and two Russian guys."
Aussie long jumper Jai Taurima, before the 2000 Sydney Olympics, with cool weather likely during the games. In the end, Taurima lost the gold to a "dark athlete" from Cuba, Ivan Pedroso.

"We have trouble because we have so many Negro and Spanish-speaking ballplayers on this team. They are just not able to perform up to the white ballplayers when it comes to mental alertness."
San Francisco Giants manager Alvin Dark, whose team went 90-72 in 1964. Four of the black and Spanish-speaking ballplayers who played for Dark that season made the Hall of Fame: Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, and Juan Marichel.

Sources for the top blunders include The Washington Times and ESPN.

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