After Adam LaRoche’s retirement because the White Sox won’t allow his 14-year old son Drake to hang out in the clubhouse as he did in the past, everyone in the baseball and sports spheres has chimed in with their take. New Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker, as traditional as baseball traditionalists get, now has his say, and his say shouldn’t be a shock.
His three-year old son Darren became famous during the 2002 World Series when he nearly got run over at the plate. MLB then instituted the “Darren Baker Rule”, stating that all bat boys be at least 14 years old.
Baker explained the reasoning for having his young son in the dugout with him, via MASN.
“I had cancer,” he said. “When he got rescued at home plate (by the Giants’ J.T. Snow), I didn’t know if I was going to live past that World Series. I wanted to give my son everything that I could give him. People ask me: ‘Why was he out there?’ and this and that. Because I had cancer.”
Thanks to that chastening experience, and largely because he still is a traditionalist, he believes the clubhouse is still a place for fathers and sons to bond. Jayson Werth’s son Jackson was in uniform during Nats batting practice on Thursday.
“Everybody talks about the family, the importance of family,” Baker said. “But how else are you supposed to have a family sometimes if you don’t bring your kids to work?”
Although, he didn’t outright condemn the new White Sox policy in regards to children.
“Every organization can do whatever they want to do,” he said. “You can’t judge from afar. All I can do is answer what we’re going to do here. Personally, here, I’m going to do what I’ve always done: invite kids in.”
To each their own, like this controversy. It’s not going anywhere any time soon.
[MASN]
