I feel bad for Dusty Baker
The first game of the National League Championship Series gets started in about an hour. Cubs vs Dodgers. The Cubs looking to repeat as champions. The Dodgers looking for their first trip to the World Series in almost thirty years.
Not there again are the Washington Nationals. Not there again is Dusty Baker...and I'm feeling bad for Dusty.
The series between the Cubs and the Nats was as a group of intense games as you can get...well at least since since last years World Series. Three of the five games could have had different winners in the final inning and the other two were decided in the eighth inning. There was rarely a minute to breathe. It was another in a series of heartbreaking losses for the Nationals and Baker.
On Friday, all the talk was about the game. In every conversation I had, the post game press conference came up and everyone seemed to describe Dusty in one word....Broken. It was tough to watch. Baker kept saying how hard he was taking this defeat. He was disappointed for his players after the great season they had. He was disappointed he wouldn't be going to home to play in Los Angeles in front of his family. He was disappointed that he wouldn't have games at Dodger Stadium, where he played for eight years and won a championship in 1981. You could see the hurt and pain in his face and in his body language.
Broken.
It certainly is easy to relate to what he was going through and be empathetic. Everyone has times in their lives where they feel they've hit bottom. It could be a death of a loved one. It could be a personal situation where you think you have no way out. Yes, we all have those moments where we feel we can't get any lower. Yes, we all have those moments where we're broken. But our moments are private. Dusty Baker looked broken on television with millions of people watching. How can you not feel bad watching that?
Dusty Baker gets a bad rap as a baseball person. His teams have lost some of the biggest games on the sports largest stages. Every time there's a big game with his team involved, people are waiting for him to implode. There are a lot of jokes about his skills. I even say I know more about baseball than him, which is ridiculous to even joke about. Let's face it, a guy doesn't have a fifty year career as a player, coach and manager without picking up a thing or two or a hundred.
I realize that he make millions of dollars for doing a job we'd all love to have, but that doesn't make his pain any less. I also know it's just a game and there are many things more important but again that doesn't make his hurting less important.
We've just finished Mental Health Awareness month and just last Tuesday celebrated World Mental Health Day. They help to remind us that people are in pain and need help. Thursday was just another chance to see this. It reminds us to be kind.
Yeah, I'm happy the Cubs won the series against Washington. Yeah, I'm happy they'll be in LA tonight playing the Dodgers. I can feel bad for Dusty at the same time. I hope he's feeling better soon.
Related Post: I'm still in shock the Cubs won the World Series
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