I read this first thing this morning, and thought "well, by the time I get home from work, someone will post here with the inside scuttlebutt that explains what all this is about."

Boy, was I wrong (sez I at 5 PM CDT).

First.

Lowe was once charged with DUI, but the charges were later dropped. Does he have a reputation for drinking? I really don't know.

Yeah, Lowe has been rumored to have issues with alcohol.



More On Derek Lowe's Domestic Troubles

Trinka Lowe alleged in her deposition that the pitcher's agent, Scott Boras, suggested an "intervention" to deal with the player's drinking and told her the Red Sox did not re-sign Lowe after the 2004 season because of his alcohol problem. In his deposition, Derek Lowe acknowledged that the Red Sox thought he had a drinking issue but that he disagreed.

According to Fineman, Trinka Lowe said the alcohol issue got so bad when Boston was in the playoffs in 2004 that bullpen catcher Dana Lavangie phoned her at home in Fort Meyers, Florida "and told me that I needed to come up to Boston because Derek was falling apart....He was depressed. They had taken him out of the starting rotation. He was in the bullpen. They told him pretty much he wasn't going to touch the baseball for any of the playoffs."

Lowe would get drunk last season in the Dodgers clubhouse with clubhouse manager Dave Dickinson, Trinka contends. Dickinson told Fineman "he would drink with Lowe occasionally after games, but not every night. And he also said he did not see Lowe get drunk in the clubhouse."

Lowe's been a hard drinker for a while, but how or when Baker gets involved is unclear. There's probably a good amount of weird beef like this between players and other players and coaches and whatnot that we never hear about, and it sounds like we'll probably never know what really happened here.

Oh, huh, I thought Lowe was an acknowledged recovering alcoholic. Didn't realize these were all allegations. Heh... that's maybe not a great sign for him. Reminds me of Bill James' description of Rod Scurry's drug use: "It understates the case to say that this was common knowledge."

But anyways, yeah, none of this explains why Dusty Baker is throwing at him, or alternatively why he thinks Dusty Baker is throwing at him.