Sunday, August 19, 2012

Facts failed in reporting Coach Baker's legacy

Once again I am greatly disappointed in the Redlands Daily Facts. I am finally able to calm down, and write a letter to you in response to the article your newspaper wrote about my father, Chuck Baker.

After all the years (39) my father coached and taught in Redlands, your newspaper once again focused on the three years he coached at Redlands East Valley High School, and the losing record. On top of that you used a picture of a player whose family tried to fight my dad in the parking lot of the school after a game, instead of using a picture of just him or a picture of he and my brother.

It is a huge slap in the face, and my family feels very disrespected, that we were not contacted at all by your newspaper for any input on the story. Just shows what kind of research your newspaper actually puts into the news it provides our community.

As a kid growing up I can remember my dad coming home from a game and going straight to the phone and calling the sports reporter for your newspaper. More than once, dad would get the paper and find that his information had somehow been twisted by your reporter. Yet every week, he would call him back and provide whatever information the reporter would ask for. On several occasions, I can remember he and the other coaches talk about how horrible the newspaper treated the coaches in Redlands when they were not "winning."

Not once in your article did you ever mention my father's dedication to sports in this town or the kids that he coached. If you had talked to us, you would have found out how many kids sleep on our couch, when their parents kicked them out. How many times my dad would drive them to work when they couldn't find a ride. How many study sessions we would have to make sure they were all getting passing grades. How many times we would feed 20-plus kids the night before a game. Or the many times that other kids would tell my dad that something he had said to them changed their life and probably kept them alive.

Your newspaper has done a great disservice to the community by not telling my father's full story and history in this town. Once again you focused on the three losing years at REV. My father spent 36 other years in this town changing good Redlands boys into great Redlands men, but your newspaper poured salt into our wounds and focused on the negative.

I don't tell you these things so you can try to fix the damage you have done. I tell you these things so that you know how disappointed my family is in the way your newspaper reported my father's death to the people of this town. He spent a good deal of his life making this town better. Your article just reaffirmed to me what a horrible job your newspaper has done in the past and present to bring information to this town.

If your newspaper told me the sky was blue tomorrow I would not believe it. I cannot even use your article in my father's memory book because my family is so offended. Thank you for destroying all my father's hard work in just a few paragraphs. For all the people that were not lucky enough to meet my father, they will know him as a three-year loser, instead of a 65-year winner.

Myself, my family, and the people that have contacted us, who support this letter, will not support your newspaper in any shape or form ever again. The Press Enterprise had the courtesy to contact my mother and share a story with her about my father, and ask if she wanted to contribute in any way to their article. That to me, is what a real newspaper does to handle this sort of situation.

Jerry Baker

Facts failed in reporting Coach Baker's legacy

The Redlands Daily Facts news item announcing Chuck Baker's death Friday is nowhere close to what it should have been.

My intention was to run a front-page tribute to a man who served his community as an educator and coach.

I learned of Coach Baker's death in the early afternoon, and assigned the story to a reporter with apologies that I didn't have any phone numbers or details, and said the impromptu assignment needed to be done in time to make the next day's print version.

We at the Daily Facts were ignorant of too many things, and worst of all, in our quest for family contact information, we neglected to pick up an old-fashioned phone book. We relied on what stories are available in our online archives, which go back only about 10 years.

Saturday morning I got an email from Jerry Baker, one of coach's sons, that conveyed anger, sadness and disappointment. He said the article was the punctuation mark on The Daily Facts' being a 40-year offense to his family and embarrassment to this community.

He said, "It is a huge slap in the face, and my family feels very disrespected that we were not contacted at all by your newspaper for any input on the story. Just shows what kind of research your newspaper actually puts into the news it provides our community."

Instead of focusing on the amazing man his father was, and the many lives he bettered, we talked only of a short episode at the end of his career that was the least likely to represent his presence in the community.

"If you had talked to us, you would have found out how many kids slept on our couch when their parents kicked them out, how many times my dad would drive them to work when they couldn't find a ride, how many study sessions we would have to make sure they were all getting passing grades, how many times we would feed 20-plus kids the night before a game, or the many times other kids would tell my dad that something he had said to them changed their life and probably kept them alive.

"Your newspaper has done a great disservice to the community by not telling my father's full story and history in this town," Jerry's email said.

"Thank you for destroying all my father's hard work in just a few paragraphs. For all the people that were not lucky enough to meet my father, they will know him as a three-year loser, instead of a 65-year winner."

This is a travesty I regret deeply. I apologize to the Baker family and all of the people whose grieving process did not include the celebration in print he deserved.

I immediately called Jerry, who despite the heartbreak and negativity I know he felt, was respectful and calm.

He introduced me to Coach Baker through memories and stories.

Chuck Baker had a broad and long positive influence in Redlands. He coached and cared for generations of teens.

All the way up to the end of his life, the fruits of his dedication to this town and its high school sports programs were evident when he went in public and was stopped every step of the way by people who were honored to shake his hand.

His mark on football in this town started in 1964 when he was recruited by Frank Serrao to play at the University of Redlands.

Ultimately he was a successful and respected coach.

In the mid '80s he went to Redlands High School to teach government and economics and to coach football. Probably the best team he ever coached was the Redlands High School Terriers in the late 1980s, Jerry said.

"Serrao had a grandson, Josh Looy, in the 1992 graduating class, and that year they as sophomores went 10-0. That hadn't been done at the sophomore level in Redlands for quite a while. They beat up Fontana; they beat up Eisenhower (High School)."

Baker was so dedicated to the youth in this community, he made them part of his family.

"Kids in a boys' home playing ball for dad, they were getting ready to get out, and he said, `You know what? We'll adopt you. We'll bring you in.' That's how the house was. Every three years there was a whole new family in this house," Jerry said. "The kids were over for spaghetti dinners, movie night, study night."

If he heard boys were going to hang out in the orange groves on a Friday night, he invited them over to study football plays.

Baker's first job after graduating from the University of Redlands was as a special education teacher at Cope, which he did for a short time before we went to Clement to teach woodshop. He also coached track and football there. He was also the scorekeeper for the UofR varsity baseball team.

"When track was over, when football was over, he went into golf. There was always something he was doing," Jerry said.

Baker supported athletes his entire adulthood. He coached until he was in his early 60s, and then he served on the board of directors for Benchwarmers.

"He was a great volunteer with Benchwarmers," said current Benchwarmers member Sam Trad. "When he came, we didn't have any ex-coaches on the board, and he really helped us support our mission statement of supporting high school athletics. You couldn't have asked for a better person for that. He had a very balanced view of all sports. He was a really good leader, but also a very humble man."

News of Baker's death generated sad comments on Facebook on Friday, calling him a great friend, a great coach, a treasure and an inspiration.

In addition to Jerry, who lives in Fontana, Baker is survived by his wife Patty of Redlands; son Michael of Center Ossipee, N.H.; daughter Kelly Carpenter of Pittsburgh; his mother, Joyce of Menifee; and seven grandchildren.

Services will be at 6 p.m. Aug. 31 in the chapel at Montecito Mortuary in Loma Linda.

toni.momberger@inlandnewspapers.com

Source: http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/ci_21344846/facts-failed-reporting-coach-bakers-legacy?source=rss_viewed

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