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
That's what you want, to be better than .500 on the road. That's usually the toughest part of the equation, but we didn't play well at home.
One good memory I have here is in 2002, we beat the Cardinals to go to the World Series. They've had some great teams here. They usually have a lot of speed. I'm curious to see what happens. Sometimes you change stadiums, change atmosphere, and it changes things.
Once you get it, keep it, and hope it stays for awhile.
The money doesn't make you play. You play for the love of the game. A lot of times you see money change people. But I don't see anything changing him, and if it did, his dad would take care of it. They're good and humble people. He's still their son.
An older club tends to get it together later than a young club. Just like spring training. Young guys, two weeks, they're ready to go. Where the older guys, it takes them longer to get their timing.
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.
Running is the hard part. It's getting close to having to make a decision.