Making the decisions of when to hit-and-run, when to pull a struggling pitcher, and how to construct a lineup aren’t easy, and those decisions are the ones for which MLB managers get paid the big bucks. The actual process of managing, though, isn’t hard. Put nine guys in a lineup in some kind of order. Try to have a pitcher in there somewhere. Make sure the guy who bats ninth in the lineup always bats right after the guy who hits eighth in the lineup, even if you’ve switched the guys around. Not hard at all, really.

So how in the hell has a Dusty Baker team TWICE in the last four years batted out of order? In 2004, Dusty’s Cubs batted out of order against the Reds. Remember that one? Dusty made a huge production out of pissing and moaning at C.B. Bucknor, as if it was Bucknor’s fault that Dusty had no idea how to make a double switch. It happened again over the weekend.

What is this, Pony League? I remember one summer while playing with my town league, the guy who was supposed to hit after me stepped to the plate to take my at-bat. One pitch into the at-bat, both my coach and I realized that a mistake had been made. I finished the at-bat down a strike. I was ten years old.

That’s right, Dusty. A ten-year-old kid and a coach who exacted revenge for his own failings as an athlete through a group of adolescents aren’t quite as stupid as you are. Hell, as dying_diehard pointed out over at Desipio, batting out of order has only happened about seventy-seven times in the history of the MLB. Dusty Baker was the manager on THREE of those occasions. That is staggeringly stupid.

Meanwhile, Lou’s Cubs currently sport the best record in baseball, are at the top of the NL Central standings (obviously), and haven’t once lost a single out because their manager is too busy munching on exotic pieces of wood to be bothered to take a peek at a lineup card.

How did we put up with anything less for four whole years?