The Chris Moeller Archives

The Tao of Todd

Last year, the Cubs players and their manager successfully lobbied to get team broadcasters Chip Caray and Steve Stone removed from their posts. With neutered announcers now firmly in place in the Cubs' booth, the players have shifted their editorial focus to the Cardinals' television broadcast team.

Second baseman Todd Walker suggested Monday that Joe Buck and Al Hrabosky were trying to make Cards' manager Tony LaRussa look like a "genius" at the expense of Cubs' manager Dusty Baker.
The scenario in question was the eighth inning of a 2-2 ballgame Monday afternoon. Both teams led off the frame with their first place hitter, who reached base. The teams' best sluggers, Derrek Lee and Albert Pujols, were each due to bat third. The Cubs' 2nd place hitter, Ronny Cedeno, dropped down a successful sacrifice bunt, but the maneuver allowed LaRussa and the Cardinals to pitch around Lee. The Cubs ultimately failed to score.
In the bottom of the inning, the Cardinals' 2nd place hitter, Abraham Nunez, swung away and legged out an infield hit. With runners on first and second, the Cubs were forced to pitch to Pujols, who swatted a decisive three-run bomb into the bullpen in left to the roars of "M-V-P, M-V-P."

"At this time, you're going to pick on every little thing," Walker said, "It's the perception that if it's a team like the Cardinals, who have won 80-something games, that they're perfect. That's not the case. When you're losing, people look for things. In baseball, nobody is perfect.

"But there's a perception that if you're 20 or 30 games over .500, [37, actually] that you are, and if you're a few games under, like we are, then they make the assumption that you [lack fundamentals]. That probably is a fair analysis, but that's the case with every team. It gets overlooked when you're winning games like the Cardinals."

OK, I admit his point gets a little confusing at the end. It is a fair analysis that the Cardinals are more fundamentally sound? Or it isn't?
It doesn't help, either, that, turns out, Dusty Baker never called for the bunt. Cedeno missed a sign, according to the manager. It was supposed to be a stolen base attempt, and the runner on first, Jerry Hairston, Jr., missed the sign too. Ouch. (Walker admitted to missing a sign in the fifth inning, when he was thrown out trying to steal.)

The Chicago Sun-Times partially backed Walker by pointing out that the Cardinals' Nunez made a sloppy play in the game, too, by trying to score from second on a wild pitch with Jim Edmonds at the plate. But I thought that was a good aggressive attempt. It took a heady, back-up play by shortstop Cedeno to get Nunez after the catcher's errant throw to the plate.

Walker's support of his comrades is commendable, but, like the criticism of Caray and Stone last year, it illustrates some of the thin skins present in Dusty Baker's clubhouse. LaRussa's national reputation, freshly-polished by his team's success, some recent historic wins, and a best-selling new book, clearly keeps Baker from enjoying a good night's sleep, and Baker's secondbaseman is attuned to that.

Last week, Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon (whose long-overdue firing arrived today,) implied that LaRussa, and his top lieutenant, Dave Duncan, were racists because they have had run-ins with both Baker and him. (McClendon and Baker are both black.) Duncan was suspended four games last week for failing to duck a punch thrown by Pirates' hitting coach, Gerald Perry.

When asked for comment, Baker suggested only that McClendon's comments were misconstrued. (I offer a thorough account here.) The skipper failed to offer other possible alternatives as to McClendon's implication.

The bottom line is this, and I'm going to be blunt. The Cubs were predicting a dynasty in 2003, giddily en route to their first division title in 14 years. At which point, the hand of God-- donning a Cubs' cap and earphones-- reached from the sky and damaged, possibly irreparably, the collective mindset of a decent ballclub. The '03 club did not win the pennant, nor did the following two Cub teams, who have, instead, each endured horrid thumpings at the hands of LaRussa's juggernaut. Only four players now remain from that '03 playoff team.

Sloppy baseball, like it or not, does reflect directly upon the manager. And Walker is absolutely wrong if he believes that the little things even out over a long season, while talent prevails. If anything, the opposite is true. And any fan that has followed the '05 Cardinals can attest to that.

In baseball, players play, but the great teams are always a reflection of their manager. The same principle applies to the poor teams. The blame doesn't always lie with the manager, but the responsibility always does.

posted by CM @ 10:25 PM