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As the season ends, team looks to future
Sunday, September 28, 2008
ST. LOUIS — Owner Bob Castellini, General Manager Walt Jocketty and manager Dusty Baker spent nearly five hours huddled in a St. Louis Hilton Hotel suite discussing the future of the Cincinnati Reds.
At one point, Castellini turned to Baker and said, "What are your goals?"
If Baker didn't say, "Win a World Series and win it soon," he should have been handed a ticket to Sacramento.
Baker sat in his office before Saturday's game with the St. Louis Cardinals and said, "I told him exactly what I'm telling you now.
"The town, the people (fans) made it a lot less tough and more enjoyable than it could have been," he said. "There is very little mean-spiritedness. I went into this situation with my eyes open.
"I'm in this for the long run to make this organization better and good for a long time," Baker said.
Told that fans are waiting for nothing more than a winner and that they've been overly patient during eight years of losing and no playoff appearances since 1995, Baker said, "That's what I'm waiting for and that's why I came.
"I'm seeing improvement and I'm seeing fight the way we've come back — like Friday night (down 6-4 in the ninth with two outs, Javier Valentin tied it with a two-run homer, though the Reds lost, 7-6) and like in Houston (down 8-1 in the ninth, the Reds scored five runs and had the tying run at-bat).
"Very rarely now are we blown out of games," he said. "There has been only one game we've been blown out of in a long time (Cubs 14-9 on Sept. 6, but they also lost to Milwaukee week ago, 8-1).
"I like what I'm seeing and I'm liking this team, especially the nucleus," he said. "And I'll tell you there are other people taking notice of this team lately, you know."
Baker said he hates to see a season come to an end, especially now.
"It's always sad to me to have a season end," he said. "It has been a long road and we've come through a lot together. Now I'm one year older and one year closer to the end of my career."
But as he told Castellini, "Sometimes it is difficult to be patient because time is running out. That's OK, though, because when I leave I want to have made this team a winner, won a championship and leave the organization in a better place than when we got here. I want to do what Tom Kelly did with the Minnesota Twins."
Volquez: Tendinitis
As expected, an MRI Saturday, Sept. 27, on pitcher Edinson Volquez's left knee revealed nothing more than tendinitis. He'll continue treatment and rest.
Quote of the day
"The hardest thing about patience is being patient." — Reds manager Dusty Baker.
