The Nationals may have buyer’s remorse on new manger Dusty Baker already, and the winter meetings haven’t even concluded. Three high-profile players -- Yasiel Puig, Jose Reyes and Aroldis Chapman -- are all being investigated for domestic violence incidents, and Baker was less sensitive than he should have been when asked about them.
His response to a question about how he felt about MLB’s new domestic violence policy made light of the seriousness of the crime.
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“I think it’s a great thing. I mean, I got a buddy at home that’s being abused by his wife. So I think this policy needs to go further than the player. I think the policy should go to whoever’s involved. Sometimes abusers don’t always have pants on,” Baker said.
That may have been funny when Baker was a player -- in the late 1960s -- but now, it’s a tone-deaf crack from someone hired to lead the Nationals.
When asked about Chapman’s incident specifically, Baker brushed it off. “Who’s to say that the allegations are true, number one? And who’s to say what you would have done or what caused the problem?”
That sounded an awful lot like Stephen A. Smith, the ESPN analyst who questioned whether ex-Ravens running back Ray Rice’s then-fiancee “provoked” Rice into knocking her out cold in 2014.
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Baker earned an unflattering link to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for his dismissiveness of domestic violence, as well as some not-so-P.C. remarks about teams needing more speed.
So there’s prob going to be a firestorm around #Nats’ Dusty Baker, but people forget this is Marion Barry’s town pic.twitter.com/N9FpTd0byI
— Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) December 8, 2015
Yeesh. When these are the tweets about your newest hire, it’s time to have a sit-down with him.
Trump-Baker 2016? https://t.co/oz2tVVXvIi
— Dylan Stableford (@stableford) December 8, 2015
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