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
Usually, if he makes a mistake, they don't hit him out of the ballpark with that sinker, ... He made a mistake; that's what happens with youth. We have a young pitching staff and a young bullpen that's subject sometimes to walks and also subject to mistakes.
With the injury he had, the biggest hurdle is everything. It's an injury to his core, which controls everything: getting out of bed, getting in and out of the car, getting up and down, hitting, fielding, throwing.
Walker is probably the front-runner for that position. But he knows he has some competition for that job.
We were a lot closer before I got here. When you play 18 times against teams that have been long-time rivalries, and then it's against my former manager and my confidant before I came here, it increases things.
We were trying everything to get him his victory. It was a great run by Greg. The guys wanted to win for him, and we left him in in the ninth to have that opportunity.
Woody is the most advanced. Miller and Prior aren't too, too far behind.
Woody is a competitor. He wanted to go out on a positive note for next year. He couldn't wait to get out there, and I was anxious to see him out there. In the winter, what you remember is how you finish.
We're still friends. But on the field, we're competitors. You have a heated discussion with your wife, does that mean you don't love her anymore? That's just part of the competition. Part of the game.
When you saw that Ecsktein went down that's when you know the field is too sloppy to play on.
There are days when you don't have your premier stuff,
There are some guys who have the nod because of experience. There are some guys who have demonstrated better control and better stuff than others. We'll see how they do the last couple weeks of spring and how they do when they go to Triple-A or Double-A.
Until we have 100 percent of the facts it can't change. The amazing thing is it doesn't seem like it's affected him.
Well being a manager is sort of like being a father. I was always held to be responsible because I was the oldest of five. No matter what happened in my family I was always in charge and always at fault. Being a manger is like being a father where your dad is the ultimate last word and disciplinarian.
We knew what we were getting with Juan. We've seen him do it so much against us. We did it a couple of times last year. I keep pointing out that you have to have the personnel to do something like that.