Shame on you, Scoop Jackson.
In a recent ESPN article, Jackson stooped (hey, just stumbled on a pun; from this point forward, his name is Stoop Jackson) to playing the race card in the recent discussion about Dusty Baker and the rumor that has him headed to Hell-A at season’s end. Basically, he said that the white Chicago media wants Baker out because he’s black.
This is preposterous for a litany of reasons, which I discussed in full in my piece about why Baker should go. I find it the height of laziness, never mind ignorance, that any white person who critiques a minority is instantly a racist. It suggests that the predominantly white media should grade minority coaches on a sliding scale. There’s a word for that. It’s called pandering.
Let’s have some fun with some of the more interesting quotes in the piece.
“Trust me, the man has kept two raggedy-ass teams playing .500 ball for two seasons. Yet the columnists and radio hosts in the city want him out.”
Actually, the man has two supremely talented teams barely playing .500 ball. Am I a racist for expecting this team to play to the best of its ability?
The last line in the piece is my favorite, though.
“The only question left to ask will be this: If it were Bobby Cox and not Dusty Baker, would I have ever had to write this column?”
No, because if it were Bobby Cox, the Cubs would be in first place, no matter how many injuries they had suffered. You know, kinda like his Braves are, a team held together by duct tape and chewing gum? You want to talk about injuries and underperforming players? The Braves have cornered the market on it. Chipper Jones, Mike Hampton, John Thomson, Tim Hudson, Danny Kolb, Rafael Furcal, Brian Jordan, Raul Mondesi… need I go on?
Stoop, we don’t want Dusty to leave because he’s black. We want him to leave because he had history in his grasp, but let it slip away on account of his own managerial incompetence. We want him to leave because he’s acted like a sullen teen ever since that moment, pouting and protesting about how everybody’s out to get him. Lastly, we want him to leave because it doesn’t appear that he really wants to be here. Being a Chicago coach is hard work. Ask Tim Floyd, Dave Wannstedt, Dick Jauron and Jim Riggleman. We ran them out of town too, and guess what? They’re white. Race has nothing to do with this, Stoop. Stop seeing things that don’t exist, and then blaming other people for not seeing them, too.
