Baker Stands By Recent Comments

Chicago Cub Manager Dusty Baker didn’t back down Monday when asked about his recent comments that black and Latin players were better suited to play in the heat than white players.

“I meant what I said.... I try to be as honest as possible, and if that’s how I feel, then that’s how I feel,” he told reporters before Monday’s game.

On Saturday, in another pregame talk with reporters, Baker, who is black, said: “We were brought over here for the heat. Isn’t that history? Your skin color is more conducive to heat than it is to the lighter-skinned people. I don’t see brothers running around burnt.”

Those comments have since prompted debate on radio shows and in newspaper columns across the country.

“It doesn’t really matter to me because that’s what I said. I’m not going to take it back,” Baker said. “What I said to you guys is what I said to my team. I told my other teammates this a long time ago too. When we talk about how hot it is, I told them that’s why my ancestors were brought over here, for that reason, and that’s history.

“My mother was a black, American history teacher in Sacramento,” he said. “ ... A lot of people don’t know history, that’s what it sounds like to me. If they take it as reverse racism ... then they can take it wherever they want to take it.”

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Cub center fielder Corey Patterson was put on the 15-day disabled list because of a torn ligament in his left knee and will sit out the rest of the season.

Patterson tore the anterior cruciate ligament and cartilage in his left knee when he beat out an infield single in the eighth inning Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals.

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The seven escalators at Coors Field will remain closed until at least July 25 while officials try to determine why one malfunctioned and threw dozens of fans on top of each other. The escalators were shut down after last Wednesday’s accident injured 32 people. Witnesses said a three-story escalator suddenly sped up after a postgame fireworks show, dumping screaming fans into a pile at the bottom.

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The Mets owe the city $4.5 million in payments on the club’s lease at Shea Stadium, city Comptroller William Thompson found in an audit released Monday. The team denied it owed the money.