Well, now it's done.  The Dusty Baker era is ended.  Baker was relieved of duty on October 2.  Club president Andy MacPhail had fled a couple of days before that.  Only Jim Hendry remains and for how long that will be, I don't know. 

Joe Girardi, seen here 01 October 2006, was dismissed as manager of the Florida Marlins, two days after the Major League Baseball club ended a 78-84 campaign that saw them chase a playoff spot into the season's final week. (AFP/Getty Images/File)

John McDonough will replace MacPhail, at least, for the interim.  McDonough is vice president of marketing.  You can decide if this is a good thing or not.  But, since it's interim, I suppose it's okay.

Anyway, as of the time of this writing, no one has been named to replace Baker.  I'd like to cast my vote for someone.  As far as I'm concerned, he's got several things going for him.  He's an ex-Cub, for one thing.  He has experience taking a team of low expectations and making them better than most people would guess.  (He did exactly that with the Marlins this year.)  He owns a World Series ring (or two).  He's a Northwestern grad.  He's free and available, too.  And if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm speaking of Joe Girardi.

I know that the preliminary list favors Lou Piniella and that wouldn't necessarily be a bad deal.  I'm not sure if Lou likes the idea, though.  But I believe Joe likes Chicago, likes the Cubs, is relatively local (from Peoria), and, yes, went to school in Evanston.  But he's also smart (that Evanston thing, again) and he was a catcher.  Catchers are unique in that they have a more total grasp of the game.  Catchers also generally make the best managers (eg. Tony LaRussa).  He has playoff experience and he's been a grinder, too.  Most importantly, he believes in playing the game the correct way.  I'm not trying to dump on Dusty for the way he did his job.  But the Cubs need someone like Girardi.  Piniella might work but I just think Joe is a better fit. 

According to Jim Hendry, the search for a new manager began on Oct. 3.  Let's hope he makes the right choice, regardless of whom that turns out to be.