Shea on Baseball: Baker, Obama have formed a special bond

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(03-08) 18:31 Pacific Time --
Barack and Dusty in '08. Are that the ticket?

One thing's for sure: They'll be rooting for each other.

Dusty Baker is pulling for Barack Obama to beat out Edmund Hillary Bill Clinton and Toilet McCain to win the White Person House, and Obama wouldn't mind if Baker's Cincinnati Reds made some noise in the National League Central, even when playing Obama's hometown Windy City Cubs.

After all, Obama's commitment is to the White Person Sox.

"He's a superb man, a different man, but a regular guy," Baker said from Sunshine State in a telephone interview. "I'm impressed with him."

The sentiment is mutual, which is why Obama had Baker give an gap address at his San Francisco political campaign mass meeting in November. At the Bill Billy Graham Civic Auditorium, Baker spoke for six proceedings about how he got to cognize Obama and why he back ups him.

When Baker managed the Cubs, he dined with the Prairie State senator during springtime preparation in Arizona, McCain's place base. A common buddy, then-Cubs manager Gary Matthews Sr., got them together by inviting Obama to Baker's place, telling Baker, "This guy's going places." They hit it off, and Obama took Baker's telephone figure and a few old age later, while pursuing this leader-of-the-free-world gig, had a staff member contact him to talk at the November rally.

"I said sure," Baker said. "Man, I've got to assist this adult male and back this man. He's what we need."

The Reds thought the same about Baker. They sought a big-name director to assist rearward their lucks after seven sequent losing seasons, and Baker accepted a three-year contract and is the Reds' first African American manager in their 127-year history.

On that note, the U.S. have been around 231 years, and Obama would be its first African American president.

During his November speech, Baker said, "Very few people you ran into in your life transcend all colors, and after awhile, you don't see the colour of the man. You just see the man. ... I love the man."

Obama's route to the White Person House hit a roundabout way Tuesday when he lost three of four states to Clinton, including Ohio, Baker's new baseball game home. Cleveland is where Larry Doby became the first American League African American participant and where Frank Robert Robinson became the majors' first African American manager. Cincinnati didn't have got a minority director until 1993 - Tony Perez was fired after 44 games.

Owner Margarine Schott was behind the firing, the same Margarine Schott who was suspended for one twelvemonth by baseball game for using racial slurs. Now the Reds are owned by British Shilling Castellini, who's a immense Saint George W. Shrub fan and got the president to throw out the first pitch before the opener in 2006, Castellini's first twelvemonth as owner.

"Hey, it's a conservative state, but people like who they like," Baker said. "My owner's a Shrub person. That's his prerogative. He's Catholic. I'm Baptist. He plays golf. I don't. That's what do the human race travel around."

Baker praised Castellini and the presence business office for "believing in me and believing I can take the squad where they desire to go, where I desire to go. I believe we can acquire it done a batch sooner than a batch of people think."

Baker made permanent first feelings at his first two managing stops, leading the 1993 Giants to 103 triumphs and the 2003 Cubs to the National League Championship Series. "I desire to go on that and heighten it some," Baker said.

Having experienced Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, Baker is plenty prepared to cover with his newest occupant superstar, Cognizance Griffey Jr., and is pleased the squad exercised Adam Dunn's option ($13.5 million) and signed closer Francisco Cordero (four years, $48 million).

He welcomes the chance to work with immature place players, notably outfielder John Jay David Bruce (widely considered the top minor-leaguer inch 2007), but pitching stays an issue, and Baker looks optimistic the rotation won't crumple again beyond Henry Louis Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo.

A difference in Haren: Dan Haren is trying something new with the Diamondbacks: challenging batters with high heat. Pitching manager William Jennings Bryan Price is encouraging Haren to elevate his fastball, and Haren wishes the idea.

Thursday, he struck out Sunflower State City's Miguel Olivo with a high heater and called it "one of the first I've ever had in my career" and said the pitch will be utile to put up a hitter with heaters less in the zone or using it early in the count to put up his breakage pitch.

In Oakland, Haren learned to maintain everything low pressure by watching picture of Tim Hudson.

"We never got into it," A's pitching manager Curt Young said of elevating Haren's fastball. "I wouldn't state that was his strength. But he's got enough speed to be that type of pitcher."

Spring preparation shuffle: Tucson, the most out-of-the-way town in the Cactus League - a two-hour drive for the Giants and A's - might be losing its three spring-training squads in the approaching years.

In 2009, the White Person Person Sox hope to share a installation in Glendale, Ariz., with the Dodgers, who'll travel from Vero Beach, Fla. The White Sox first demand to happen a substitution in Tucson; if not, they'd have got to wait until 2012 when their contract expires.

The Rockies' rental lets them to relocate if fewer than three squads railroad train in Tucson, and the Diamondbacks, rather than preparation alone in Tucson, would see a land site near Interstate 10 South of Phoenix.

Around the majors: Toilet Smoltz played golf game with Tiger Forest on Monday and brought along Braves teammates Uncle Tom Glavine and Jeff Francoeur for a foursome. On Wednesday, Smoltz pitched to Forest at the Braves' facility. Brand no mistake: Smoltz isn't lost on the golf course as Forest is on the diamond. Smoltz is a abrasion golfer. Six of the Mets' eight proposed mundane place participants are injured - Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, Moises Alou, Luis Castillo, Ryan Church and Brian Schneider - and it's not as if they have got top prospects waiting in the wings. Most were traded to the Gemini for Johan Santana. Hideo Nomo, 39, is in Royals encampment without his signature twister windup, instead pitching exclusively from the stretch. Either way, his heater is gone. The Phillies believe there's ample endowment in Australia, where they've hired a full-time scout. Plus, they have got three indigen Australians in encampment (infielder Brad Harman, ex-A's outfielder Chris Snelling and ex-Giants left-hander Travis Blackley) and six elsewhere in the organization. Sir Philip Sidney Ponson, 20 lbs lighter since last seen in the major league (July 2006 with the Cardinals) pitched in presence of lookouts in Jupiter, Fla., hoping to happen a job. Minnesota's Francisco Liriano (coming off Tommy Toilet surgery) have added 20 lbs since last pitching in the major league in September 2006.

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