I don't get it, at least I don't personally care more about beating up on Dusty's team any more than I want to see the Cubs beat Tony LaRussa's teams, or any other division rival - I hate any opponent in our division. I don't think that Baker was a particularly good manager for us, especially as far as the pitching staff was concerned, but he's not our problem anymore. That's like how Brian Hanley was trying to say on their show this morning that Cubs fans are rooting for Bradley's failure in Seattle I thought that he was a bad teammate, and wasn't even remotely worth the money he was paid (Hendry's fault, not Milton's), but he also is no longer our problem. The same goes with Bears fans and Rex Grossman - who gives a shit?

I hate Dusty....Prior....Bartman....Alex Gonzalez and even Dave Veres. For some reason I don't hate Alou all that much.

I honestly can't speak for anyone but myself and I do acknowledge that its petty but I for one am openly rooting for Bradley to fail. I understand that he isn't our problem but part of being a sports fan is having players that you like and root for and those you dont and want to see fail miserably. Bradley's performance and behavior during his time on the North Side has made me wish nothing but bad things upon him in his future endeavors. Either that or I am just racist.

Dusty doesn't bother me. He is just another manager of another organization. Do you think the giants fans get all hot and bothered every time the little- growing to medium- red machine comes to town?

I guess that I shouldn't have said that I don't get it, rather than saying that I don't understand why the media tries to say that everyone in the fandom loves to hate certain players/coaches/etc. It just seems like a waste of energy to me, personally. I understand that it helps to fuel the fire if one feels that he contributed directly to the Cubs failure (and I do believe that, trust me), but I think of him as a buffoon, just thankfully that he is no longer our buffoon. Bradley's an asshole, his parents were probably assholes, but he's not even in our league anymore. He's gonna suck because he's a shitty player, I don't have to root for the inevitable. He's gonna be an asshole 'til he gets his head screwed on straight and stops saying nonsensical, inflammatory things. Grossman also will suck and will also likely continue to be an asshole, as well...

If Cub fans hated and rooted against every manager and player that failed here, we would be miserable pricks that hated everything and everybody, rooting more against others than for our own team. You know, White Sox fans.

What does it matter how Giants fans feel about having him come to town. I bet there are some fans there who still take some pleasure in watching Dusty's team lose because he helped cost them a WS title as well. I am not trying to talk anyone into rooting against Dusty but I did not realize there was a list of people that we weren't supposed to root against. If you do not like a player or organization it is acceptiable to take some enjoyment out of their struggles is it not? Otherwise Frank wouldn't be in the Cubs section as much as he is.

I'm not a Cubs fan, but I agree that Dusty Baker is loathed by most Cubs fans (that I know at least) because:

A) He used his son as a human shield after bad games

I still don't understand this. Was the complaint that since his little boy was sitting there the media couldn't ask him tough questions? What did that have to do with anything? How did that prevent anyone from asking Dusty why this or that was or was not done?

We can blame J.T. Snow for that btw. Should have let Dusty learn a lesson back in '02. Darren wouldn't have enjoyed the lesson too much though.

That is stupid, not sure why anyone would want that to happen.

There are a lot of reasons to criticize Dusty, but I ain't going to criticize him for having his kid around.

I know a lot of guys who are still pissed off about Herman Franks.

Listen up.. when the kid wasn't there they wouldn't ask the tough questions. When he was there, he was viewed as a 'cute distraction playing with his matchbox cars'.

It sounds like it didn't make a difference if his son was there or not. So in what way was Dusty using him as a human shield?

It seems like nonsense manufactured by the media.

I was predisposed to disliking Baker before he was hired by the Cubs. I spent the late 90s living in the Bay area. I watched him abuse bullpens and mismanage in San Francisco for years. Some of those Giants teams should have been much better than they were. I also associated Baker with their underachievment. I left after the summer of 2001. I remember thinking that I was happy to be away from the day to day nonsense of Dusty..

Only to find him hired by the Cubs the next year. Great. His inability to manage a bullpen. His inability to accept criticism. His inability to be honest about his players with respect to PEDs. He was bringing all of that with him to the team I actually followed. I wanted him fired before he managed a single game. Years of watching him "manage" the Giants led me there.