It's always a chore navigating 25 personalities and egos in a baseball clubhouse, and managers need to push buttons and establish order in a way that they see fit. One of Dusty Baker's time-honored tools is to bond with players through music, literature and the arts. His office is the baseball equivalent of Oprah's Book Club.

Cincinnati Reds pitcher Homer Bailey, an ardent reader, occasionally combs through the manager's personal library for a new page-turner to help pass the time. Earlier this year Baker suggested that Bailey read Allan W. Eckert's novel "The Frontiersmen," the story of Simon Kenton's role in opening the Northwest territory to settlement. Bailey, in turn, has given Baker two works by Paulo Coelho -- "The Alchemist" and "Warrior of the Light."

"I've borrowed quite a few books from him," Bailey said. "Dusty is a really diverse guy in all the things he's been around and seen. We're just trying to trade knowledge a little bit."

Baker has a reputation as a manager with little tolerance for young players, and that label agitates and confounds him to no end. In 1968, Baker made it to the majors with Atlanta at age 19. Hank Aaron, Orlando Cepeda, Clete Boyer and Joe Pepitone were major influences in his formative years with the team, but there were times when Baker felt he had more in common with the bat boys than the veteran Braves because of the age gap.

Now Baker is at the opposite end of the spectrum at 63, and his son Darren, 13, is his pop culture lifeline. If his pants are too tight, Darren is quick to bring it to his attention. And when Darren tells him that something he's done is "sick," he wonders whether that's a good or a bad thing.

During a recent stop at Citi Field in New York, Baker sat in his office with an advance scouting binder, a copy of Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment" and the obligatory plastic box of toothpicks on his desk. The toothpicks keep him off chewing tobacco, and Baker claims to wear wristbands in the dugout to wipe the perspiration off his forehead. But some Dusty-watchers are skeptical.

"I think he does the wristbands and the toothpicks because he was a player," Bailey said. "To him, he's still playing. He's just playing a different position, if you will. Bobby Cox wore spikes for years, and nobody gave him [grief] about that. And he's not sliding into third base any time soon."

Cloudy future

Baker keeps plugging away even though Cox and several other contemporaries -- Lou Piniella, Tony La Russa, Joe Torre and Cito Gaston, to name four -- have drifted off into retirement. He's the fifth-oldest manager in baseball behind Davey Johnson, Charlie Manuel, Jim Leyland and Terry Collins, but the passage of time has done nothing to curb his enthusiasm or dull his competitive edge.

That was readily apparent in June when Baker engaged in a nasty exchange with Cleveland pitcher Derek Lowe that crossed the line from contentious to personal, and again recently when he took some shots at La Russa over the omission of Cincinnati's Johnny Cueto and Brandon Phillips from the National League All-Star team.

While Baker's feistiness remains intact, his future in Cincinnati is hazy. He's in the final year of a two-year contract extension with the Reds, which followed the original three-year, $10.5 million deal he signed in 2008, and the next 2.5 months will go a long way toward determining whether he returns for the 2013 season and beyond.

The Reds resume play Friday night against St. Louis with a 47-38 record and sit one game behind Pittsburgh in the NL Central and atop a crowded wild-card field. A playoff berth would help secure Baker's future, but sources say there's enough division within the Reds' hierarchy that it might take an extended postseason run to save his job.

Owner Bob Castellini is a perpetual wild card and prone to do impulsive things -- like giving Joey Votto a 10-year, $225 million contract and spending an additional $72.5 million on Phillips just when it appeared the Reds were tapped out. According to one person familiar with the situation, Castellini was "charmed" and fell "head over heels" when the Reds hired Baker five years ago. Baker earned his extension with a playoff berth in 2010, but his $3-4 million salary seems steep for a team that ranks 17th in baseball with an $82 million payroll. And it might take some serious big-footing by Castellini to invest that much in Baker for a third go-round.

General manager Walt Jocketty's allegiance to Baker is unclear, and it seems unlikely that he would push to retain Baker in the absence of a significant team breakthrough. But if not Baker, who? Triple-A manager David Bell probably isn't ready. Jim Riggleman, manager of Double-A Pensacola, is a respected baseball man with a long-standing relationship with Jocketty. But he has a .445 career winning percentage and left his last job in Washington amid a hail of controversy over a contract dispute. La Russa and Terry Francona would be prize catches, but they'd be every bit as costly as Baker.

Baker made it clear several months ago that he has no interest in providing a blow-by-blow of his contract situation, and his lame-duck status has yet to become a distraction. During a spring training interview with MLB.com reporter Mark Sheldon, he pronounced himself unfazed by speculation that he's on the "hot seat."

"How many times have I been there?" Baker said. "By this time, my butt should be burnt up."

Lightning rod

Baker's posterior is intact. But if he's paying close attention, his ears are probably burning. The changing media landscape provides a greater opportunity for knee-jerk reactions and second-guessing. And with the possible exception of Atlanta's Fredi Gonzalez and Colorado's Jim Tracy, it's hard to find a manager who's subjected to a more relentless flow of criticism. The "Fire Dusty Baker" movement is gaining traction on blogs, a Facebook page and a Twitter site that provides an outlet for Reds fans who pronounce themselves tired of "questionable line-ups, too-late pitching changes & utter buffoonery."

“ He's one of the more diverse and complete men I've ever met. The range is so broad.

” -- Reds bench coach Chris
Speier on Dusty Baker

The biggest complaint against Baker, according to one Reds insider, is his "undying loyalty" to scrappy, marginally talented players. The list includes Willy Taveras, Corey Patterson and Willie Harris, who have joined former Cubs infielder Neifi Perez in the pantheon of Dusty favorites who seemingly inspired greater devotion than their numbers would warrant. In April, while Reds die-hards were hoping for an extended look at young Todd Frazier, Baker publicly observed, "We've got to get Willie going." Harris, 0-for-9 at the time, went 5-for-his-next-35 before...