Dusty Baker Accuses Derek Lowe of Drinking at Ballpark After Pitcher Calls Out Reds Manager

Derek Lowe and Dusty Baker appear to have some personal history together, and it began to bubble to the surface on Wednesday after Lowe faced off against Baker’s Reds.

In the fifth inning of Wednesday’s game, Lowe was at bat against Mat Latos when he was buzzed by a fastball inside. Lowe then gestured to the dugout at Baker, who waved his finger in the air at the pitcher.

Lowe later took the mound and retaliated, hitting Brandon Phillips and prompting the home plate umpire to warn both benches. After the game, Lowe had some choice words for Baker.

“I have zero respect for the guy — not that it matters,” Lowe said of Baker. “I imagine he’d say the same about me.

“You can go ask him. He’ll deny it like he has no idea.”

Lowe hinted that the issue between the two stemmed from Lowe’s final year in Los Angeles in 2008, but had never been made public.

On Thursday, Baker fired back in a big way.

“I really didn’t want to make a public thing or a public spectacle,” the Reds manager said. “He’s the one who brought it up. He had some choice words for me. I really don’t care if he respects me. It doesn’t matter.”

When pressed on the matter, however, Baker got really personal and went after Lowe.

“Man, I don’t care,” Baker said. “A lot of people don’t respect me. He don’t respect himself. The word was whatever he did and said probably there was a good chance he was drinking at the ballpark and he don’t remember what he said or what he did.”

Baker just turned a spat into a full-on blood feud, so don’t be surprised if there’s more to come from this one.

Click here for an opinion on how Baker went too far with his comments >>