By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Rodgers

Darrell "Doc" Rodgers, formerly the Reds' second-in-command as far as baseball operations, will file suit against the Reds, chief operating officer John Allen and general manager Jim Bowden today in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati.

Rodgers spent six years as assistant general manager to Bowden but abruptly was re-assigned to special assistant Oct. 8, 2001.

He left the organization in January to take a job as director of baseball operations for the Baltimore Orioles.

Rodgers would not comment on the suit Wednesday night, referring questions to his lawyer, Ken Lawson.

The suit will charge racial discrimination and breech of contract, among other things.

Rodgers was clearly upset at the time of his re-assignment.

He said after the move was announced: "We had a staff meeting at 10 in the morning on Friday, the last day at Cinergy, to go over details of the move. Five minutes before the meeting, Jim pulled me aside and said, 'We're making a change. You're no longer part of the front office. You've been re-assigned to special assistant.' We talked about some contractual things, and that was it."

Bowden said at the time that the move was made to take advantage of Rodgers' skills as an evaluator of talent.

Email jfay@enquirer.com