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
Every time I think about giving him a day off, he hits two home runs. Maybe I'll start thinking about that off day for him.
Now with as much parity as there is now if you gain a couple of key players and remain healthy you can go from worst to first now.
I told them what we're looking for. Hopefully, start the season injury-free, you build it up through the season, you'd like to get off to a good start, and we're looking for a championship -- the same thing we're looking for every year.
It is what it is. Hope it comes out well and hope it's not anything serious.
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.
For a while it didn't look too good because we were hitting the ball hard and on the nose, but right at people. We scored when we had to and the bullpen did a good job.
It's the same with pitching. You talk to Greg Maddux and I'm sure he has a game plan, but he also sometimes can feel when a guy is looking inside or if a guy is looking for something else or it depends on which pitch he takes and how he takes it. Some guys get it early, some guys get it late, some guys never get it.
It's one of the best trades you don't make. Walker made some fine defensive plays tonight. He's hitting the ball outstanding.
It's the first time I've seen four solo homers in the first four innings.
It's possible. I was there in L.A. and I was booed by 50,000 people every day. The next year, I hit 30 home runs and I made the Dodgers All-Time team. Performance changes everything. I've been on both sides.
You talk to him, and he's in a hurry. We're in a hurry to have him, but we don't want to do anything to set him back. I talked to him the other day, and he said that's the best he's felt after he has thrown. We want to continue on that same progress.
That's part of his job as the commissioner, and he has to do his job. I'd like a resolution sooner rather than later. Get it over, and let's go on with baseball.
That's something I just deleted from my memory. Ninety-six was a bad year.
That's the best he's looked so far this spring. It's the right time for him to get it together.