FanHouse Racism

Now that Dusty Baker will be returning to the dugout as manager of the Cincinnati Reds, he's already got some problems to deal with. He's replaced his old feud with Steve Stone and Chip Caray for a new one with Marty Brennaman, but that's not the only feud Baker already has in the Queen City.

No, apparently he's already hated by Reds fans.

No love for Dusty Baker. Nothing but bile for a man with more than 1,100 career wins, whose teams have finished either first or second in eight of his 14 seasons as a manager. A guy who has been NL Manager of the Year three times, who took the Chicago Cubs closer to the World Series altar than any manager in almost 50 years?

He stinks, you say. Terrible pick. You won't go to the games, you won't renew your season tickets. You're done with the Reds.

Those are the words of The Cincinnati Enquirer's Paul Daugherty. According to the emails he's received, and the phone calls he's gotten on his radio show, Cincinnati is not happy with the hiring of Baker.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly a fan of Baker either. I got a front row seat for his tenure in Chicago, so I know how bad a manager he can be at times. He favors the veterans too much, and he's too loyal to his players. He kills pitchers. Though, to be fair, I think Kerry Wood's arm would have blown up with or without Baker around.

The Debriefing is a column that runs every weekday at 9:00 a.m. here on FanHouse. It goes deep into one issue and then bounces around to a plethora of smaller ones ... and does it all in a way that will make you feel like the prettiest girl at the cotillion. Bookmark this page, and visit daily.



Relationships of all kinds can be combustible. For example, the institution of baseball, throughout its history, has had a turbulent relationship with black people. Baseball has been Ike Turner, black people have been Tina, and baseball has been putting some stank on it for a very, very long time.

Now, as you may know, Gary Sheffield is perceived has having a very on-again, off-again relationship with sanity and self-control. Gary, from time to time, does and says things that normal, self-aware human beings do not do.

And sometimes, Gary's stormy relationship with sanity crosses paths with baseball's stormy relationship with black people. This happened recently, when Sheffield accused Yankees manager Joe Torre of treating black players differently than he treats white players.

Baseball's been on a long and bumpy path with racism leading up to this particular intersection with Sheffield.

(Also at the bottom: Adam LaRoche is awesome, David Beckham seems to find America very pleasing, we have some additions to the Who's Erstwhile? field, Stephon Marbury blogs, and a rugby player, finally, after 15 weeks, realizes someone's tooth is lodged in his head.)

When covering the story of the Athletics designating Milton Bradley for assignment, and then trading him to Kansas City-a deal which was voided-the thought of Bradley's skin color never crossed my mind. In case you didn't know, Milton Bradley is black. It's true. Seriously, just look at the picture.

Dave Del Grande on the other hand, well, he noticed.

LET ME GET this straight: The A's basically cut a supremely talented black outfielder because they have a dime-a-dozen white guy who complains less about being a backup.

Somewhere, Torii Hunter is saying: I told you so.

What in the world was Billy Beane thinking?

Except for a nice run in the playoffs last year, Milton Bradley hasn't done much in his season and a half in Oakland. But let's not forget what he did last October.

The agonizingly inconsistent Bradley has the potential to be a difference-maker when he's hot. Name me one of the Oakland white guys about whom you could say that.

Now in my time, I've read a lot of stupid things. I mean, I proof read all my posts, so I know stupid. This however, this is idiotic.

We'd say we saw something like this coming back in December when we warned USC players to quit screwing around on the internets and start focusing on beating UCLA. All over the papers this morning is the story of the Facebook foibles of a handful of USC football players.

According to the Los Angeles Times, an inappropriate nickname for a Special Teams unit got its members in hot water when backup linebacker Clay Matthews Jr. turned it into a Facebook group called "White Nation" which included teammates Dallas Sartz, David Buehler and Brian Cushing.

Matthews, reached Thursday, said he used "poor judgment" in posting the page and that he "can totally see how it could be taken out of context."

He called it "a joke within the team" that should never have been made public because "it's misconstrued." The junior linebacker said he rooms with an African American, is "not a racist" and regrets posting anything about "White Nation" on the Web.

It is certainly not the first thing that has been posted on the internet with regrets.