This time of year most losing teams are looking around in an effort to hire the right manager for next season.

All of a sudden, the A’s, Giants, Mariners, and Cubs have become entwined in a tug of war over potential managers that is worthy of a Hollywood script.

The A’s won 103 games, the Mariners in the 90’s, the Giants may win the World Series, and the Cubs have the best up and coming rotation in baseball.

Why are these teams connected in their search, click “read more”Dusty Baker has prepared everyone the Bay Area for his departure following the 2002 season. Trouble is, the season didn’t end when Peter Magowan thought it would and now Magowan is stuck rehiring Dusty at the figure Dusty wants, if and only if, Dusty wants to stick around.

Things got so bad in August when the Giants were floundering that the “replace Dusty” rumors took on a life of their own.

This was reminiscent of what happened in 1964 when the St. Louis Cardinals wanted to can manager Johnny Keane and replace the Cardinal skipper with Leo Durocher. The wheels were in place, GM Bing Devine, Keane’s boss, was fired and replaced in August with the Cards well behind the Phillies.

Surely, Keane’s demise would soon follow.

A funny thing happened on the way to the firing, The Phillies folded up, the Cards sneaked in and won the NL flag and headed into the World Series against the Yankees.

After seven tense games, the Cards beat NY and Keane had his championship and the Cards thought they still had their manager.

At a team party, immediately following the clinching, Keane got up to accept the congratulations of owner Gussie Busch, a jerk if there ever was one.

Keane surprised the owner by resigning on the spot instead of accepting an offer for another contract, embarrassing Busch in front of the organization.

Busch reacted by hiring long time Cardinal Red Schoendienst as manager to appease the faithful, while Keane moved on to NY to replace Yogi Berra, his world series opponent, who was fired by the Yankees.

What a sequel to the 1964 World Series.

All this sounds very similar to what Dusty Baker went through this summer while the Giants were 10 games behind in August. He was out the door and telling his friends that it was time to move on.

So, don’t bet on Dusty staying in SF even though Magowan will eat crow and offer Baker the contract of a lifetime (just like Busch did). Baker is a very proud man and didn’t like being vilified by the press in the Bay Area or by being hung out to dry by Magowan.

When Lou Piniella leaves Seattle, Baker is a very likely candidate to succeed Sweet Lou.

Baker and Seattle, a perfect fit.

I can’t wait to see what Baker tells Magowan when the owner tries to sway Baker to stay in SF.

Now, the fun starts. If Baker leaves San Francisco who follows him?

Some say Jim Fregosi, who is one of the biggest public relations nightmares of the twenty first century, will be the one. He makes Saddam Hussein seem warm and fuzzy.

Look no further than Arizona where Bob Brenly is dying to leave the Diamondbacks and come to California.

He is a former Giant and no threat to Magowan. He probably could handle Barry Bonds, which is the most important attribute any new SF manager can have.

So where does Lou end up?

Piniella says he wants to be near home. Home is Tampa. The Mets and Devil Rays want Piniella and are ready to give Seattle compensation in the form of money and players for the right to sign the Billy Martin clone.

My advice to Lou is this: move your home to NY because if you choose Tampa Bay because your wife and daughter are there, you will be miserable on the baseball field with a perrenial loser, almost guaranteed to lose 90 games per year, which will do wonders for Lou’s health.

If Lou opts for some place other than the Mets Art Howe now enters the equation.

Billy Beane has given the Mets the right to negotiate with the A’s manager because “the all of a sudden magnanimous” Beane feels the A’s will not be able to sign Art after the 2003 season.

Beane is a devious sort and always has a trick up his sleeve. Art got too much credit for taking the hodge podge team Beane gave him in spring training 2002, turning the line up into 103 game winners.

It was Beane who insisted on Dave Justice batting fourth and Scott Hatteberg hiitting third in the initial line up. It was Beane who forced Howe and the pitching staff to have Jeremy Giambi and Terrence Long in the outfield, a defensive nightmare. It was Beane who forced Ted Lilly onto the post season roster.

Now, Beane would like to remove Art Howe, but can’t because Howe is signed to a 1.5 million dollar contract for next season.

So, he is trying to slip Art into NY and then he can hire the guy he really wants, his best friend AAA manager Bob Geren.

If Art goes to NY, there is a school of thought that Beane would hire Ken Macha to take the reins. Trouble is Macha is the number one choice of the Cubs, who may make the announcement any day. Do you think Macha wants to work for Beane after Beane denied Macha the chance to move up and interview for the Red Sox, Tigers, and Royals jobs last season?

Macha stewed all season over the tacky move by the A’s, of not allowing him to interview for the open jobs.

The only way Macha would work for Beane is if all the other available managerial jobs were to fall through for the veteran baseball man.

In the most dramatic irony of all, the Red Sox want Beane to be their GM, but the A’s won’t give him permission to move. This all takes place after Beane rips the fans for not coming out to the day time over priced playoff games.

If Macha gets the Cub job and Art Howe the Mets job, then Beane gets his wish by making Geren his manager.

Beane even planted Geren’s name with his media shill Peter Gammons in this week’s ESPN Column under Gammon’s name.

Now here’s one more scenario, Howe takes the Arizona job if Brenly leaves or the open Cub job if Macha doesn’t get it and then makes Macha his bench coach with the Cubs.

Now how about this. All opportunities to move Art Howe fall through and he is back running the A’s in 2003, his final season. The A’s already said they can’t meet the price of his next contract. How do you market the manager in 2003? Come out and see the team and Howe, although Howe won’t be here next year folks. Come out and see the 2002 Manager of the Year (maybe) run the team, that’s right folks, the one we tried to give to the Mets for nothing. Talk about bad PR, can’t the A’s ever give the fans any good news? If Howe doesn’t leave, let’s see Steve Schott spin this one. What a PR can of worms they opened this week.

The Bay Area, sitting on top of the baseball world may get rocked in just a short time if things fall a certain way, all because of the egos of Billy Beane and Peter Magowan.

And for what, Magowan complains that Dusty Baker gets too much publicity and Beane wants his buddy to run the club because Art Howe isn’t going to be his fall guy and shoulder the blame alone when Beane’s moves backfire.

Over 5 million baseball fans came to games in the Bay Area last year, you tell me what needs to be fixed.

And you thought Hollywood had the only scriptwriters around.

You haven’t seen baseball at work, just watch, it happened in 1964 in the blink of an eye as soon as the series ended.

Deja vu all over again.