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
I have to talk to him about it. It's mostly going to be up to him. You can't force anybody to do anything. But for his sake and his career, you kind of wish he will play somewhere for a while.
If you rescue him every time, you'll have to rescue him all the time. If you leave him out there, you learn about them or they become a pitcher by coming through. He can say, 'I can handle the situation,' but until you've been in the situation, you don't know if you can handle it or not.
He started out not very sharp and he had 37 pitches in the first inning. That's almost three innings worth and we were debating whether or not to send him out in the seventh or not but he wanted to pitch and he ended the game strong.
He still has a shot, but it's not nearly as good as it would have been if he was healthy.
He's throwing the ball great. We just can't go to him when it means something yet. I have to talk to (general manager Jim Hendry ) and we have to figure this thing out, because we're not out of it yet.
He's such a great human being that you want him to go out on his terms. Very rarely do guys get to go out on their terms, how they'd like to go out. He just told me it was time.
He's strong. He's going to love Wrigley Field. He has tremendous sock to left field and to left-center. He doesn't hit the ball up in the air. He keeps it relatively low. The ball jumps off his bat. So far I like his swing. He can hit that fastball, which is where it starts.
He's still upset about them losing. That's Michael -- he wants to win so badly.
He's the guy who's doing it the most correctly. That's why he has Gold Gloves. To me, and he may not like it, but I point to him all the time as the way to be. It's not his personality to accept that, but I single him out, which I don't do that often. I say, 'Hey, this is how you want to go about your business. This is how you want to perform. This is how you want to work on fielding, hitting, bunting, everything.
He's in the running. This guy has a semi-microscopic ERA.
He's probably the front runner for that position. It's just a matter of how he looks, how healthy he is because at the end he had a few health issues.
He's poised. If he's going to play short, he has to work on getting his throw truer. Right now, it runs into the runner.
He's real honest about when he's had enough.
He's ready to start the season right now.