If Dusty Baker wants to tell me about the art of the double switch, I'm all ears. If the manager of the Chicago Cubs and the National League All-Stars chooses to enlighten us on the virtues of a one-out sacrifice bunt with the pitcher's spot coming up, I'll flip open my notebook.

I don't care what Baker has to say about much else. I don't know why anyone would. When I want to know who might win the Cy Young Award, I don't ask Nelson Mandela.

Last week, Baker suggested black and Latin players fare better in the heat than white players. That's why blacks were brought here as slaves from Africa. There are no brothers in New Hampshire, Baker said. That was his evidence. It sparked a weeklong jaw-a-thon. Everyone had an opinion. Here's mine:

So what? Dusty Baker is . . . a baseball manager.

The worst thing he did last week was leave Florida Marlins rookie pitcher Dontrelle Willis off the all-star team. If you're looking for stupidity from Baker, start there. Baseball is something he knows a lot about.

By the way, Willis is black. Somebody care to make something of that?

It's not that Baker isn't versed on anything outside the ballyard walls. Maybe he is. It's that his opinions on life aren't especially relevant. John "Dusty'' Baker makes no policy greater than a pitching change. If the governor or the president, or the chairman of the board at General Motors, said what Dusty Baker said, we'd have problems.

It was the same with John Rocker's enlightened discourse on New York City subway riders. That was equally dumb. It was hateful to those who took it seriously. Ultimately, it meant absolutely nothing. People are still riding subways in New York. (Rocker, however, has taken to riding buses, now that his major league career is a memory.)

You could argue that if Baker had been white, he couldn't have cleaned out his locker fast enough. He'd have been handed a one-way ticket to Al Campanis Land. You'd probably be right. Baker's defense was that he was talking about his own race, so he feels exempt. It's the same logic African Americans apply to their casual use of the N-word, in music and conversation. Also, the same reason some white people make fun of rednecks.

And really, so what?

The last jock to have a lasting impact on society was Muhammad Ali. Ali gave the prime of his heavyweight life to a cause he believed in. Whether you admired him or loathed him for refusing to fight in Vietnam, you cannot argue his legacy.

These days, athletes would rather sell shoes than make social statements. Michael Jordan, take a bow. Every PGA Tour pro, stand in line. Really, that's not a bad thing. To imbue jocks with powers beyond their sports is to give them an authority they don't deserve and can't possibly fulfill.

Ease off on Dusty Baker. Permit him his opinions. (And don't tell me he's no different from Marge Schott. Schott was majority owner of an entire organization. She hired and fired people.)

Now, if the man doesn't get Aaron Boone into the game Tuesday . . .

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E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com