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
It's very intense. It's probably intensified more since Tony and I came here. When you play 18 times against a team that's had a long-time rivalry, and my former manager and my former confidant, that just increases things.
I try to have businesslike camps all the time with mixing in some fun in there with a little laughter in the workplace at the same time.
It's real big. That's not the whole series, but it definitely gives you ... it jump starts you for the series.
It's rare to see your best player is your best citizen, too. He reminds me a lot of how Hank Aaron used to conduct himself.
At this point, we're taking it slow. We're trying to get him on a course and program to be ready for his start Opening Day. We don't know if he'll be second or third on the list, but we're trying to get him ready.
At this point, we're grooming him as a starter. That's why we got him. It's not like we have a surplus of starters.
That's a good time to talk to people. They're usually loose.
That's a real good sign. It shows the kind of guys we have here.
The last few days, we haven't been as sharp. Baseball players aren't used to getting up at 5, 6 o'clock every morning. You have one day off in six weeks, that's a pretty good grind.
The last couple weeks, he has really progressed. It's impossible to predict a rehab. You can't rush him, or he will be in-and-out, in-and-out. Hopefully, it's not too long.
The last couple days Michael has come up with some heroics.
They're playing hard, we just didn't play good defense. You can't give runs away in the major leagues, even at the end of the season. You have to play to win every day, and our defense didn't do that.
They're playing hard. Corey circled the ball and missed and, like I said, we just played bad defense today.
They're avoiding him because he can hit you out of the ballpark. It doesn't have to do with anything but that. That's it. I don't believe any manager would let personal feelings - no matter how they feel - get in the way. They're trying to win games.