The Washington Nationals have reportedly hired Davey Martinez, a man with no previous managerial experience, to replace Dusty Baker.

News just broke that the New York Yankees, a team that well exceeded expectations this season and made it to Game 7 of the ALCS, have fired manager Joe Girardi. Based on a statement Girardi gave to WFAN, this does not appear to be a mutual parting.

For a nice cathartic kick, I recommend USA Today’s Bob Nightengale’s take on the Nationals’ dumb but depressingly predictable firing of Dusty Baker, done via telephone Friday:

Max Scherzer came very close to throwing a no-hitter while you were eating lunch. And then, with one out in the eighth inning, everything went to shit. It was a quintessential Max Scherzer game until it wasn’t, and it was yet another display of Dusty Baker’s peculiar judgment.

Darren Baker, the son of Nationals skipper Dusty Baker and probably best known for almost being trampled at home plate during the 2002 World Series, was selected by the Nationals on Wednesday in the 27th round of the MLB Draft. We’re all so very old.

Dusty Baker had a choice to make heading into the seventh inning of last night’s NLDS finale, and both options would have been defensible. Nobody would have blamed him for keeping Max Scherzer, who had thrown 99 pitches and worked himself through some high-stress situations at that point, on the bench; and no mobs…

New Nationals manager Dusty Baker took his turn with the media scrum at the Winter Meetings today, and a Dusty chat session always has the potential to be a weird one. (Remember, this is the guy who once bemoaned getting runners on because they’re “clogging up the bases.”) But this one was a doozy.

Last Wednesday Bud Black agreed to become the Washington Nationals manager, with seemingly everything wrapped up and just the i’s to dot and the t’s to cross. It was such a done deal that the Washington Post was writing articles with headlines like “What’s next after the Nationals’ hiring of Bud Black?” This morning…

Dusty Baker, who you probably best know (somewhat unfairly) as the author of many befuddling managerial decisions, wasn’t necessarily destined for a career in baseball. His first love was actually music, and now he’s written a memoir of attending the infamous 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, which featured a disgustingly…

Dusty Baker called for a suicide squeeze with two on and two out in the 15th inning and guess what? It didn't work. The Cardinals took the lead the following inning on a Matt Adams home run and defeated the Reds 5-4.