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
They say you come to the ballpark and you'll see something you haven't seen, and I haven't seen that before when you hit the guy on the helmet with a double-play ball. They get a run out of that and another run on the two-out base hit.
He doesn't say it, but it's on our minds. The thing is he wants to pitch as many innings as he can to win.
As long as Hank doesn't mind, I don't mind.
Henry did what he's supposed to do, get him back on track.
He was more aggressive, he was in the strike zone. He worked quickly, which allowed the players to stay alert on defense. His body language and demeanor was a lot better, which he promised me it would be after our discussion. You like to see a young man do what he says, because talk is cheap. He said what he is going to do and he did it.
Guys gravitate towards him. You need those kind of guys. There's a lot he can still do.
I think the main problem was he couldn't feel the ball in his fingers. I guess it's cold, and the ball is a little slicker when it's cold, and he really couldn't feel it. Consequently, he starts trying to drop down, different things to try to command the strike zone, and he had trouble commanding the strike zone.
It certainly doesn't help the situation. It's a period of adjustment (for Jones), changing leagues. You got to give it some time.
He said he'd had enough, ... He had some stressful innings to get through.
I hope it comes out well. I hope it's not anything serious. I hope and pray it's something minor and he recovers well.
I'm sure there is no miracle drug that's going to make it go away right away.
He's healthy. Sometimes he's not swinging well and other times he runs into some hard luck. It's a combination. I can see him getting frustrated. He needs one or two days and he'll get rolling.
You're playing against guys who are younger than you, so you can set them up. You get to a certain point in your career and you almost know what's coming. You learn to trust your feelings. Hank Aaron told me you don't become a great player until you learn to trust your feelings.
It came at the right time. Michael, the last couple of days, came through with some heroics.