Cincinnati manager Baker gives mixed message about fighting and swearing in baseball
Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker has proposed a clever idea to end a feud between Matt Garza and Johnny Cueto: the two should fight.
In Sunday’s extra innings loss to the Chicago Cubs, Red’s pitcher Cueto fired a pitch over David DeJesus’ head, which angered Garza — DeJesus’s teammate — as the pitcher took the opposing pitcher’s high toss very personally.
“If we wants to say something to me, he knows where my locker is,” Garza told ESPN. “If he’s got a problem, he can throw at me, and I’ll do the same. Hopefully he grows…up. I hope he hears this. I really don’t care.”
On Monday morning, Baker chimed in with his suggestion as to how the problem should be resolved.
“Just put them in a room, let them box and let it be over with,” the skipper said to ESPN. “I always said this, let it be like hockey, let them fight, someone hits the ground and it’s over with. I’m serious about that.”
But while Baker seems to think fighting would be the appropriate way to handle one situation, he disagrees with allowing other types of aggressive vulgarities in baseball. The same afternoon that he suggested his pitcher fight another team’s pitcher, Baker covered even more ground on the league’s controversies when he publicly criticized the Red’s best player, Joey Votto, for swearing after striking out.
“I understand (his frustration),” Baker said to Cincinnati.com. “I have a son that idolizes him. Sometimes an open display of displeasure is not a good example, whether you come through or not later. Joey is the face of baseball. I’d like to see him temper it a little bit.”
It seems that fighting and swearing are in two different ballparks according to Dusty Baker.
