Poll 'winner' Baker says he can handle criticism

[Jabroni]

"Poll 'winner' Baker says he can handle criticism"

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...ack=2&cset=true

A weekend computer poll on Comcast SportsNet asked fans to vote on which area the Cubs most needed to improve.

 

As Dusty Baker saw when he flipped on the channel, "the manager" was named as the top vote-getter with 50 percent of the total.

 

"So I won?" Baker asked with a grin.

 

Baker isn't in any danger of losing his job, but he has taken some heat for the Cubs' seven-game losing streak and was booed by some fans at Wrigley Field during pitching changes on Friday and Saturday.

 

Baker insisted he had no problem taking the heat for the Cubs' struggles.

 

"You always feel heat at the ballpark," Baker said. "I'm used to heat. I've been under heat all my life."

 

Did Baker get any heat from Giants fans in San Francisco?

 

"No, I mean under heat period, for something," he replied. "Either you're working your bullpen too much, or you're working your starters too much, or you're doing something too much. It seems I don't do 'too much' just right, except win, and that's what we're going to do."

 

Like his old friend, ex-White Sox manager Jerry Manuel, who returns to Chicago on Monday as first-base coach of the Mets, Baker said he'd rather take the heat than let his players get all the blame.

 

"I do that anyway," he said. "You don't hear me blasting my ballplayers. … I had a couple managers [blast me]. That doesn't work in the long run. You lose guys, then they don't want to play for you."

You can feel the heat, Dusty? I thought the heat doesn't affect you because you're black?

[rangercal]

"Poll 'winner' Baker says he can handle criticism"

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...ack=2&cset=true

You can feel the heat, Dusty?  I thought the heat doesn't affect you because you're black?