And it begins.
Not 24 hours after the final outs were recorded -- probably before some ballparks were completely cleaned up -- Dusty Baker is out in Chicago and Felipe Alou will not be renewed in San Francisco.
You could see the writing on the wall with Baker, but come on, it's not like he broke Derrek Lee's arm. And the Cubs have had issues with Mark Prior and Kerry Wood long before Baker arrived. With that track record, Jeff Samardzija will be better off playing wide receiver in the NFL than working his way through the Cubs' system as a pitcher.
Alou, like the Nationals' Frank Robinson, who also did not get a new contract, is 71 years old. Yet, like a lot of managers in baseball, Alou was only about 30 years older than most of his players. Only that wasn't a good thing.
The Red Sox dismissed pitching coach Dave Wallace and hitting coach Ron Jackson. Right, like Wallace was responsible for the Sox having no depth to their rotation -- their pitching staff as a whole, in fact -- and Jackson ... well, they had issues even with Trot Nixon and Jason Varitek healthy.
The Marlins will be idiots and fire Joe Girardi tomorrow, then watch him accept his Manager of the Year Award in November and speak to the media from Wrigley Field.Labels: Cubs, Frank Robinson, Jeff Samardzija, Joe Girardi, Mark Prior, Marlins, Red Sox