According to Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times who likes to look into these kinds of things, this weekend’s series against the Cardinals will be meaningful above-and-beyond the respite it offers the Reds after this series with the Phillies. It will mark the 200th time that Dusty Baker and Tony LaRussa has matched up as managers.

He is quick to point out, however, that that unfortunate case of the conjunctivitis-cum-shingles that LaRussa had earlier this year may throw off the count a little. I’d expect that the number of innings managed by each is also somewhat less than the 1,800 you might expect, what with all the rain delays and bench-clearing brawls.

As you can probably ascertain from the title, the story, 10 things i didn’t know about managerial match-ups contains no fewer than nine other managerial match-up tidbits for your reading enjoyment. I’m hopeful the next one will look at the number of different ways LaRussa can bitch about things. I’m sure he’s coming up on 200 there as well.