Dusty, The Giants, and the IRS:
Dusty Baker spent 10 years as the manager of the San Francisco Giants. After their long relationship, both sides made a decision to part ways. Just two days later, a story leaked to media outlets that Baker was in trouble with the IRS. Baker was furious the story was leaked. Not because the public found out about it. But the fact that the organization he helped take to a World Series one month earlier, had known about this story for years. Baker felt there was a good chance that someone in the organization leaked the story.
The story was first leaked to ESPN and the San Francisco Chronicle. No other Bay Area outlets had the information. That makes this story even more curious for this reason: The Giants helped Baker financially in 1999 when he signed a contract extension. The media outlets probably all new this story then, because $1 million of the contract was given up front to help Baker pay off his debts.
"We gave the Giants full disclosure in 1999. It's his personal business and was not kept secretly from the Giants. Why all of a sudden someone thinks this is newsworthy enough information to leak to ESPN is enormously disappointing." said Baker‘s agent Jeff Moorad.
Baker’s debt actually goes back to 1981 when he invested in four tax shelters on the advice of his brother. The tax writeoffs he received from the shelters were disallowed in 1981 and 1982. The tax liabilities are under $400,000, but with interest over the years what he owes has reached more than $1 million, Baker’s tax attorney, Karen Hawkins said, without giving an exact figure.
I’m sure that the local papers were told about this issue so the story wouldn’t be leaked while he was manager of the Giants. Because Baker was so close to making this story a non issue and because he was about to sign a contract to manage the Chicago Cubs, I don’t see why there was a need on the Giants to leak the story.
That is why I think it wasn’t Dusty’s former organization. It was one greedy journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle. For the Chronicle to be the only local paper with the information the same day that ESPN runs the story tells me the paper told the sports station. Of course every other paper had the story the following day, but in media, it’s all about being first. The Chronicle decided to leak the information that every local paper had because they knew nobody else would know it had been leaked.
This is why many people in our society hate the media. The media has lost respect for their community. They are more concerned with the story itself than the people involved in it. The Chronicle didn’t care how Baker’s family would take seeing this in the papers literally hours after he left San Francisco. They didn’t care if it would make one of the most popular coaches in baseball look like a crook. All they cared about was making the headlines that sold papers. And as an aspiring journalist, that makes me sick. This is what makes me want to volunteer as a coach for Little League, Pop Warner and Basketball leagues and just teach kids to love sports. Because if our media continues to play by these rules, our society will become as ugly as the Chronicle.