Baker is Chairman of the "Not My Fault" Department

After dropping 3 of 4 at home to the Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend, the Cubs have now dropped 2 of 3 in Philadelphia to slide back to .500. The loss on Wednesday night was especially bizarre and yet typical of the most poorly coached team in the Majors.

Here's the situation: 1 out, bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, tie game. Michael Wuertz of the Cubs strikes out Pat Burrell on a slider in the dirt for the 2nd out. The ball briefly gets away from Cubs' catcher Michael Barrett. Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollins sprints towards home from third thinking that he can make it on the passed ball. When Michael Barrett gets to the ball sooner than Rollins expects, Rollins turns around to retreat to third. Instead of running Rollins back to third (as every little leaguer is taught), Barrett throws the ball to third base immediately...with Rollins still closer to home than third! Rollins (surely stunned by Barrett's benevolence) turns and all but walks across home plate to end the game.

Everyday on the official Chicago Cubs website (www.cubs.com), a new collection of Cubs' "notes" is posted. The following was part of yesterday's post.

"Mistake prone: Baker was fuming after Wednesday's 4-3 loss because of his team's mental mistakes. Three Cubs pitchers did not cover first on ground balls. In the bottom of the ninth, the Cubs lost on a passed ball with the bases loaded, as catcher Michael Barrett threw down to third while Rollins was halfway up the third-base line, allowing him to score.

But it was the pitchers not covering first base that had Baker upset.

'[Pitching coach] Larry [Rothschild] is going to address it.' Baker said. 'It's within his department.'"

What is Dusty's "department"? Obviously, he doesn't work in the throwing/fielding department. The baserunning department is not really his line either, since he blamed Derrek Lee's costly baserunning mistake last weekend on a perpetual managerial "green light." Anything that has to do with coaching his players in the fundamentals of baseball does not seem to be Dusty's department.

Would someone please show Dusty to the Unemployment Department.