Dusty Baker
Dusty Baker
Johnnie B. "Dusty" Baker, Jr.is an American Major League Baseball manager and former player. He is currently the manager for the Washington Nationals. He enjoyed a 19-year career as a hard-hitting outfielder, primarily with the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers. He helped the Dodgers to pennants in 1977 and 1978 and to the championship in 1981. He then enjoyed a 20-year career as a manager with the San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, and now Washington Nationals. He...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth15 June 1949
CityRiverside, CA
CountryUnited States of America
Competition sometimes will make you sharper than you believe you are. Anybody who watched those games, you could tell it was serious competition.
Duke was masterful. That's what beat us. It looked like Duke was fading some, we had some action, but we couldn't get that big hit.
I've seen some greats leave the game. You never want to see them leave and you'd rather see them leave on their terms and leave on top. It's not over with yet. You don't know if somebody is going to offer Sammy a job here soon or what is going to happen. But Sammy has been one of the great players of the game for a long time and a guy who meant a lot to Chicago and a lot to the game. ... I just hope he gets a job somewhere.
I've never heard anybody booed in St. Louis.
I've never seen or heard of an assault with a belly. ... That's a tough sell in court -- assault and battery with a belly.
I've never seen him that wild. Anybody is capable of losing their control. He doesn't lose it that often. I don't think I've seen him blow one ever. We'll just take it and savor it.
The things I want to see out of him is baseball experience and work on fundamental instinctive stuff -- running the bases, hitting the cutoff man, knowing when to run. I've heard that when he gets thrown out, he stops running. When you get thrown out, you need to be more daring.
I've always said it's harder to get a good leadoff man than anything,
I've always been a big believer that the general manager, who is my boss, he should be signed before me. That's how it impacts me. One down and maybe one to go. Or I should say, hopefully one to go.
I've always been told, 'You start the year hurt, it makes for a long year.
Sometimes when you're 40 years old, it taps you on the shoulder and it's time to get out.
Sometimes change is good, ... Sometimes change is good for everybody involved.
Sometimes he has great command of the strike zone, and the next time ... It's a matter of being more consistent. He is throwing the ball good.
Sometimes he gets overly creative. When you're young, you're going to try stuff.