After getting the axe, manager left waiting

The Oakland A's and San Francisco Giants are possibilities.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Dusty Baker knows if he is meant to manage again, it will happen.
For now, he's back in Northern California tending to all of the things he didn't have time for while leading the Chicago Cubs.
Today, he will fly to Detroit to do television work for the World Series.
"I don't have a plan," Baker said Wednesday in a phone interview. "It's up to other people to initiate the plan. You go on with your life. You've got to keep moving, and you've got to keep moving forward at the same time."
He certainly would listen if the Oakland Athletics or San Francisco Giants contacted him about their managerial openings. The A's fired Ken Macha on Monday after the team reached the AL championship series. From 1993-2002, Baker managed the Giants, who cut ties with him after the club lost the '02 World Series to the wild-card Angels. Yet patching up his differences with owner Peter Magowan might be difficult.
"I haven't talked to anybody," Baker said. "Some of it happened so recently. You try not to rush into making decisions."
Tough ending
Baker's contract was not renewed after four seasons with the Cubs, who finished 66-96 this season. In his first season, the Cubs came within five outs of the World Series.
Things went downhill from there for a franchise that hasn't won it all since 1908. Baker led the Cubs to their first back-to-back winning seasons in more than three decades but had losing seasons in his final two years -- including an NL-worst mark in 2006.
Baker, always popular with his players, is relying on his faith to tell him what's next. And he is heeding the advice of his former All-Star basketball coach from high school, Frank Carabajal.
"I got the best advice: 'Good people fall forward,"' Baker said. "Some of these things take time. I try not to worry or stress out."
Baker's phone has been ringing off the hook -- "every day, all day" -- with calls from old friends and coaches, everybody curious about what his future holds.
He was headed to Sacramento on Wednesday to visit his father and check on his house there, where he'd eventually like to retire.
"I have not been here but twice in eight months," he said. "I've been home five days since I left for spring training. I have everything to do."
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