The Reds fired Dick Pole today, adding another coach to the list of those whose tenure is shorter than Red Hot Mama’s. Though I’m sure we would have been dismissed by Jerry Narron if he’d had his druthers.

Reds GM Walt Jocketty was so shook up, he couldn’t find the direction of his sentence:

I think as an organization that Dick has done a good job.

Dick Pole is an organization?

At this point going forward, we’re making a change and we’ll leave it at that. There are no specific reasons. We really don’t have a clear candidate [as a replacement]. We’re going to formulate a list and try and find the right guy that can be with this organization a long time. We’ve got some young pitchers coming along. We want to make sure we find the right guy to help develop them.

So basically you don’t know who you want doing the job, but you sure as hell don’t want Pole. Fair enough: he wasn’t exactly doing the job as it was, what with Mario Soto talking Volquez and Cueto and Homer Bailey’s old school coach on the scene. That’s most of the rotation: Aaron Harang doesn’t need much coaching anyway, and Bronson Arroyo is too hopped up on kava kava and green tea to listen to anyone.

I guess that does leave Kip Wells. I’ll give him credit for Kip Wells.

Whatever they have in mind for the long-term, I like the trend. Perhaps there’s another former Cubs coach whose employment in Cincinnati should be reconsidered.