Yesterday, Mike Leake returned from his shopping spree at Macy’s to lead the Reds to a 7-4 win over the Diamondbacks in Cincy. Leake was able to put together a quality start, going 7 innings and picking up the win. But, we’re not here to talk about Mike Leake. We’re here to talk about the Confucius of the Clubhouse – Dusty Baker.
You see, Dusty Baker has a history of saying some rather interesting things. Maybe he’s swallowed one too many toothpicks. Then again, maybe he really is some kind of backwards genius fooling us with his unique wisdom that is beyond the comprehension of mortals. I’m going with the former… I think. Perhaps the worst aspect of Fire Joe Morgan’s shutdown was depriving countless baseball fans of wisdom from the Book of Dusty. Take a gander at some of these classics and be awestruck…
“I think walks are overrated unless you can run… If you get a walk and put the pitcher in a stretch, that helps. But the guy who walks and can’t run, most of the time they’re clogging up the bases for somebody who can run.”
“It’s called hitting, and it ain’t called walking. Do you ever see the top 10 walking? You see top 10 batting average. A lot of those top 10 do walk. But the name of the game is to hit.”
Then there was the time Edwin Encarnacion hit a walk-off home run after Dusty tried to have him lay down a bunt. That actually happened:
“You can’t let him swing in that situation,” Baker said. “He was struggling. I told (coach Chris Speier), ‘I kind of hope he doesn’t get it down so (he) can hit a three-run homer, and he hit a three-run homer.”
On Encarnacion again: “I’m happy for him because this guy bleeds internally, big-time”
On Sergio Mitre: “The horses are the horses. He’s not a horse yet. He’s a little pony trying to be a horse.’
And finally, I don’t even know how to describe this one: “You can tell your uncle stuff that you could not tell your dad. That is kind of the role of an uncle. I feel very much like a father sometimes but sometimes I feel like a teammate.”
I don’t know if Dusty was trying to be a father, uncle, teammate, voodoo priest, some sort of 14th Century warlock, or psychic this time with his latest act of genius in relation to troubled Reds starter Mike Leake. Evidently, Dusty was struggling to decide whether or not to start the fast-fingered thief before yesterday’s game. Take a trip into the deep recesses of your mind and imagine having a heart to heart convo with Dusty Baker. Whatever happened between the Reds skipper and Leake, this is what emerged…
“What you gauge and what is are two different things,” Baker said. “Usually, you can look in a person’s eyes and read that person at that moment. His eyes were gentle eyes, which lets me know that he knows nobody knows joy and bitterness in anybody’s heart but that person. No matter how their face looks. His eyes were gentle to the point of pain and embarrassment.”
Whew, that’s a relief. Thank God he wasn’t bleeding internally like Encarnacion did or else there might have been something serious to attend to. Nope. Nothing to see here except a petty criminal with “gentle eyes” and more wisdom from the sage of the universe, Dusty Baker.
Photo from Bleacher Report
