Dusty’s road could lead here

Those comments stirred criticism of Baker from Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti, which in turn was criticized by an ESPN columnist named Scoop Jackson (a name so ridiculous I am embarrassed to even write it), who wrote that the Baker rumors that he wants to leave “come from certain members of the 312 area code media who quietly would like to see someone else at the helm of the organization that best reps America’s national pastime. Someone who looks and acts more like them.”

Jackson criticized other columnists for not defending Baker. “Not that they’re supposed to, but … they ain’t we,” Jackson wrote. “They don’t feel your struggle, Dusty.”

It doesn’t sound like this is going to end well for Dusty Baker in Chicago, and he may be looking a new beginning — maybe in a city where being a long-suffering baseball fan doesn’t mean your team hasn’t won a World Series since 1924. The pain here has been not having a team to root for through 33 seasons, a pain that tends to numb the displays of dissatisfaction that Baker finds so offensive in Chicago.