Lueke and the Times - Props for Baker
As Grizzly, himself a business manager, put it at Mariner Central:
Ok - I still think he's head hunting but mad props for him showing up to post his reply. Mad props.
And it goes wayyyy beyond taking the time, as such.
There are any number of dudes who will (1) publish an opinion that (2) is damaging to others and then (3) scurry away and claim they don't have the time to engage the rabble.
This is, of course, not true. There's nobody busier than me :- ) and I still figure if I've got the time to publish a controversial opinion, then I've got the time to answer for it.
One time as I was being shown around an aerospace consulting job, a guy ran me past the break room. He went over and refilled the empty coffee machine. He told me pointedly, "I usually figure, if I'm too busy to make coffee, I'm too busy to drink it." He wasn't talking about coffee.
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Baker had the time to publish a criticism of the way that the Mariners processed the Josh Lueke acquisition. This criticism was no holds barred, swinging with the foil on. Baker intended to land a body blow to the Mariners' imperious heirarchy and he busted a couple of their ribs.
Baker also had the time to stand in the middle of the ring and ask, "Who's next? Anybody got a problem with that?"
This makes all the difference. It is the difference between (1) the chess geek whipping the running back across the face with a shoestring, and then scurrying over to stand next to the teacher, and (2) two guys in the locker room offering to step out behind the portable. It's the difference between believing that you are right, and pretending to believe that you are right.
I might see the Lueke and Fusco situation differently than does Baker. But the fact is, he didn't take a potshot and then run and hide. What he did was, step out into the middle of Royal Brougham and offer to throw down. With Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong, the men who control the access that makes his job easier.
Therefore: Baker's attack on the Mariners was not feline. It was a callout. I respect that, period.
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Churchill publishes an opinion at Prospect Insider and then he stands in the street, ready to back up every word he writes. Jeff Sullivan does the same thing, although he rarely gets any pushback, as is also the case at SSI. Geoff Baker does the same.
There's no inherent reason that public writers shouldn't accept responsibility for the confrontation that they provoke.
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Props for sure,
Jeff