DEVELOPING: Dusty Baker Out In Cincinnati

Dusty Baker is out as manager of the Cincinnati Reds- three days after his team lost the National League wild-card game to Pittsburgh.

The Reds are telling anyone willing to listen that Baker is out. He had one season left on a two-year contract he signed last October. Baker guided the Reds into the playoffs three of the last four years, but they never got out of their first round match-up.

Cincinnati went 90-72 this season, but lost their last five and finished third in the NL Central behind St. Louis and the Pirates- thus the away game with the Pirates.

Baker has managed 20 years in the majors with San Francisco, the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati.
So, then this is the last note that Reds fans will have with Dusty...

((HT: MLB))

Derek Lowe vs. Dusty Baker: Will anyone notice this "War of Words?"

Dusty Baker

((ht: cincinnati.com))

This only got our attention because our Cincinnati friends are talking about it. And really, after doing some research on the subject...we aren't exactly sure what prompted it.

The "It" we are talking about is the dueling quotes in the Cincinnati and Cleveland newspapers over some perceived grudge/death battle between Cleveland pitcher Derek Lowe and Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker.

Derrick Lowe

"It"...according to Lowe, dates back to his days with the Dodgers. There is no reference to any "Specific" incident but Lowe says Baker has been telling his pitchers to throw at him (Lowe) "For Years".

The reason for Lowe's perceived anger: Cincinnati pitcher Mat Latos threw a fastball "High and Tight" to Lowe when he came to bat in the 5th inning of Wednesday's game. Lowe retaliated by hitting Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips in the back the next inning.

For his part, Baker doesn't deny telling Latos to "Make him uncomfortable", but denies ordering Lowe to be hit.

After the game Baker continued to rant on about Lowe. Again, he never actually said what the "It" was at the heart of the perceived dispute, only that it exists. He went on to say some not-so-nice things about Lowe and his previous problems with alcohol.

Lowe, for his part didn't get that personal, though he went on vaguely, at length about the bad blood between he and Baker.

You can read his interview with Cleveland/MLB.com RIGHT HERE

Baker's angry rant is from Cincinnati.com RIGHT HERE

We aren't exactly sure if there is a side to choose here because nobody other than the two people at the heart of it know exactly what the heck is going on. It is deemed worthy of a mention here mostly because it is kind of funny.

Heck, maybe there is some sort of feud that dates back several years and somebody wronged the other, but until one of them fesses up, we laugh at both of them. We laugh at them for being completely childish and we laugh at them for getting our attention by saying lots of angry nothing to their local reporters.

Much like this classic Stone Cold Steve Austin promo, we say to this---"What?"