I know I wrote the story over one month ago, but it is hard to believe that the Bay Area has lost both Art Howe and Dusty Baker.

Both franchises will soon learn that it isn’t that easy to manage successfully in the big leagues. Baker and Howe both learned through many tough ball games what it takes to be a winner in the dugout.

So, now we have Eric Musselman, Bill Callahan, Ken Macha, Buddy Teevans, and Jeff Tedford as skippers in Northern California.

We lost Baker, Howe, Jon Gruden and Tyrone Willingham for truthfully no valid reason.

Rich club owners are not used to hearing the word “No” from any employee and Dusty Baker made it quite clear to everyone within fifty miles of him that he was not interested in coming back. Peter Magowan never took Baker’s threat of departure seriously.

The Giants now will look for a replacement.

Click Below for more.So who will it be Jim Fregosi, Robby Thompson, Bob Brenly? It better be someone who can deal with the entire team because no one will handle Barry Bonds. Bonds is similar to Babe Ruth, Joe Dimaggio, Ty Cobb or other big stars at the end of their careers.

They do their own thing, no matter what the cost.

The trick will be making peace with the other 24 players who will resent the super star. It won’t be easy, and don’t look for someone to corral Bonds because it isn’t possible.

The PR fall out from Baker leaving will be monumental no matter who replaces him. Same thing for Ken Macha once the A’s hit their first bump in the road.

Make no mistake about it, the Giants are the employers, the manager is the employee, if the employer wanted to keep the manager they would have gotten it done without any fan fare. The employer didn’t want to keep the manager, it’s that simple.

Now, Macha says in Thursday’s Oakland Tribune that he would be happy to have Terrence Long in center field and Ramon Hernandez as his catcher, he sees no problems with either player. Please tell me he is kidding. If he isn’t, he has a serious credibility issue because he has seen these two underachievers play for four years and they have problems more often than not. This is what I mean when I say the A’s will have a problem with a rookie manager, he hasn’t learned how to tell the truth to the press, and this is November, wait until he starts talking after a loss in July.

Baseball is a never ending story, each day the events unfold as if written from a Hollywood script. Just when you think the story is done, another line is discovered.

Baseball fans don’t even get the winter off, whether its free agents, managers, trades, or players coming or going, it is a daily story.

And you know what, that is what the game is all about.

We live for the stories.

Dusty Baker and his travails are just another chapter.