Dusty Baker and Derek Lowe’s Rift

Only those in baseball’s most sacred fraternity will know what the heck was really going on here, but if you arrived late to the party and you’re wondering what all the hoopla was about between the Reds manager and the Cleveland Indians aging-starting pitcher; head over to Off-Base Percentage and get a recap.

Tell us, Dusty.

“He had some words for me. I really didn’t want to make a public thing or a public spectacle. He’s the one who brought it up. He had some choice words for me. I really don’t care if he respects me. It doesn’t matter.”

“I’m not denying nothing. I didn’t order anyone to hit him. I told (Mat Latos) to buzz him and make him uncomfortable. That’s what happened. Nobody hit him. Then he hit our guy.”

“Man, I don’t care,” Baker said. A lot of people don’t respect me. He don’t respect himself. The word was whatever he did and said probably there was a good chance he was drinking at the ballpark and he don’t remember what he said or what he did. OK.”

“When he said I shook my finger at him to say I didn’t have nothing to do with it. It wasn’t to say I didn’t have anything to do with it. It was to say: Don’t mess with me or my team. That’s what that means. He better learn sign language. OK.”

I love me some Dusty Baker. Last week when we were at the park and a dozen beers deep he was nice enough to toss our buddy a foul ball. We probably didn’t deserve that. He’s always more than cordial to fans, and as evidenced above he has a long-term memory that especially serves him well for sticking up for his players. I really like that.

I decided long ago that I was going to fasten my cart to Dusty the horse, and if the ship was sinking I was going down with it like a captain. He makes me mad almost nightly. His lineups are putrid most of the time. Someone thought so little of Dusty’s philosophy on hitting that they created this. Yet, I am powerless against my own love for this man. What the Hell is wrong with me?

Derek Lowe, you keep your dirty hands off our Dusty or we’ll take your rumple-mints schnapps away from you, you hear!