VIERA, Fla. -- Nationals manager Dusty Baker named off the families he remembers seeing around the clubhouse throughout his career in baseball -- the Boone family, the Bondses, the Bells. He cited the NBA, where players such as Derrick Rose and Stephen Curry have brought their children to the stage for their postgame news conference during the playoffs.
And Baker's son, Darren, served as the Giants' bat boy at the age of 3. So, predictably, Baker was in favor of having children in the clubhouse.
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"I wanted to give my son everything I can give him," Baker said. "But on the other hand, every organization can do what they want to do. Can't judge from afar. All I can do is answer what we're going to do here."
The topic of children in the clubhouse has been in the news after White Sox executive vice president Ken Williams requested that first baseman Adam LaRoche, who spent four seasons in Washington, dial back the amount of time he brought his son, Drake, around the team.
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Baker said the Nationals will continue to allow children in the clubhouse, although he has rules about when they have to be off the field and the minimum age before they can be a bat boy, which Baker has referred to jokingly as the "Darren Baker rule."
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"Everybody talks about the family, the importance of family," Baker said. "But how else are you supposed to have a family sometimes if you don't bring your kids to work?"