Don Baylor wishes Dusty Baker well in his new job with the Cubs. He knows firsthand that Baker has taken one of the toughest jobs in pro sports.
After 2 1/2 seasons as manager, Baylor was left feeling like a fall guy for a bumbling organization. But he mostly has kept his disappointment to himself. He knew such a bad ending was possible when he took the job.
“I’ve gotten over that,” Baylor said about feeling his midseason firing was unfair. “Do I still hold grudges? No, but I don’t forget.”
After Andy MacPhail dismissed him in July, Baylor quietly packed his bags and flew home from Atlanta without offering his side of the story. He did not return reporters’ telephone calls and subsequently has discussed his tenure with the Cubs in only the most general terms.
Baylor, who has returned to work as a bench coach for New York Mets manager Art Howe, sat down for an interview after a workout last weekend. He did not specifically criticize MacPhail, the Cubs’ president, or Jim Hendry, their general manager, but it was clear he believes they made him a scapegoat for their miscalculations.
After all, it wasn’t Baylor who signed free agents Todd Hundley and Moises Alou or became infatuated with the potential of yet-unproven youngsters Corey Patterson, Hee Seop Choi and Bobby Hill
Baylor believes his original pitching coach, Oscar Acosta, undermined him when he didn’t stop a revolt against conditioning coach Mack Newton and that MacPhail made a mistake when he dismissed Newton after the 2001 season. He raises subtle questions about the handling of Patterson, a fading prospect. He downplays the criticism of others toward Sammy Sosa.
And he maintains he wasn’t given enough time to reverse the direction of a team that hasn’t had consecutive winning seasons since 1972.
“To turn things around, I needed longer than 2 1/2 years,” Baylor said. “It’s a big job to turn around an organization that has been a perennial loser. Dusty’s on the right page with the things he’s preaching and talking about, the need to change the whole mind-set. That’s what I came in there talking too. But they have to be able to stick with a plan.”
When Baylor was hired, he was given a four-year, $5.2 million contract that at the time was among the biggest in the majors. He seemed headed in the right direction when the Cubs made a run at the playoffs in 2001 before fading. They still had 88 victories, 23 more than in his first season.
But last season was the kind of nightmare that has been the organization’s trademark. The team was 34-49 when MacPhail decided to make a change.
“It happened in a hurry,” Baylor said. “[It] just wasn’t enough time for me, not when you’re trying to change the tide.”
Baylor finished with a 187-220 record with the Cubs. The Cubs used 87 players in those games, with stability only in right field with Sosa and at the front of the rotation, where Jon Lieber and Kerry Wood were constants.
Baylor admits he initially didn’t know what to expect from Sosa–he still insists he has no regrets about saying at his first news conference Sosa should become more of a complete player–but now raves about him.
“What I told Dusty was, `You’ll love him,'” Baylor said. “Guys like [Barry] Bonds and [Mike] Piazza, like Sammy, you handle them different from normal guys. But I told Dusty he won’t have any problems with Sammy. He wants to play every day, every inning. . . . Those guys are special.”
Baylor says Sosa contributed to the clubhouse being “up for grabs” during 2000. But he says the problems, which again became an issue after Bruce Kimm took over for Baylor, were addressed. He does not anticipate problems for Baker.
“I told Dusty, `Some people are going to say things about Sammy, but don’t listen to them,'” Baylor said. “He’ll be fine.”
Baylor isn’t so sure about Patterson. The Cubs’ first-round pick from 1998 would rather slug away than use his speed, says Baylor, and has shown a stubborn streak.
“Remember Oddibe McDowell?” Baylor asked.
Like Patterson, McDowell was a small center fielder with surprising power from the left side. He had terrific speed but couldn’t get on base often enough to use it. After generating tremendous excitement as a prospect, he was a career .253 hitter who flamed out after 830 big-league games.
Baylor recounts how Patterson arrived at the end of the 2000 season with no idea how to bunt. He says his minor-league managers had been instructed to let him swing away. Patterson didn’t show much interest in learning, either, according to Baylor.
“When you go to winter ball [as Patterson did in 2001] and come home after half a season, it shows you didn’t want to go in the first place,” Baylor said. “That doesn’t say much for your desire.”
Patterson, according to Baylor, pictures himself as a middle-of-the-order hitter rather than a table-setter.
“Somebody asked him what type of player he was, he could be, and he said `35 to 40 homers,'” Baylor said. “That’s a pretty strong way to feel about yourself. But when you have Sammy, you don’t really need a No. 3 hole hitter. . . . If he gets on base, he can steal 50, 60, 70 bags.”
If Baylor could change one thing about his time with the Cubs, he would have found a way to keep Newton around. He believes the controversial fitness adviser deserved a lot of credit for the fast start Sosa and the team had in 2001.
Sosa was an outspoken defender of Newton’s after several veteran players had turned on him. Acosta was in their corner, criticizing Newton for taking credit for the performance of players.
Baylor knows it is a players’ game. But he can’t shake the memory of how successful Sosa was in 2001 after working with Newton.
“He was some kind of good,” Baylor said of Sosa, who hit .328 with 64 home runs and 160 runs batted in. “He bought into what Mack Newton was trying to do. He was so focused. . . . When I think about Sammy, I think about that year. It’s a pleasant thought.”
Baylor has sold his North Side brownstone and is looking forward to spending the season with the Mets. His son, Don Jr., remains in Brooklyn after being a consultant on Michael Green’s unsuccessful campaign for mayor in New York City.
Baylor wants to manage again. He hopes to repeat his experience after being fired from his first manager’s job, with Colorado. He spent 1999 as a hitting coach for the Atlanta Braves, who won a pennant, and then was hired by the Cubs.
But wherever this opportunity leads, he’s happy to be back in uniform. The Cubs gave him some unexpected time off, and he didn’t enjoy it.
“That was enough time off for me,”‘ Baylor said. “This is what I’ve done since 1967. If you take too much time off, you’re talking about a career change, and I wasn’t going to do that.”
