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
I think walks are overrated unless you can run... If you get a walk and put the pitcher in a stretch, that helps. But the guy who walks and can't run, most of the time they're clogging up the bases for somebody who can run.
I'm a strong man, and usually I get over hurts and it makes me stronger when I come back.
So I let them be responsible for there particular areas. Then by the time it gets to me that means that there is a problem. I have my eyes open and I need to know something about every department but you don't want to micro manage any particular department.
That's what baseball is all about right there, a matter of will.
I'm not sure where my career is going here in Cincinnati.
Let them police themselves, and then it goes another step past them to my coaches and there a coach that is responsible for a different area and different category on the field.
I have a lot of interests.
When you have an opportunity to take the lead and you don't, most of the time something bad happens.
I love watching American League games, you know what I mean?
On-base percentage is great if you can score runs and do something with that on-base percentage. Clogging up the bases isn't that great to me. The problem we have to address more than anything is the home run problem.
You can tell your uncle stuff that you could not tell your dad. That is kind of the role of an uncle. I feel very much like a father sometimes but sometimes I feel like a teammate.
Well there is always guys that don't get along. Whether that becomes public or not, that is another story. We don't have fights but guys don't get along sometimes. You're in this small building, a bus, you're on a plane, you are in some confined area with the same guys everyday for a long time with a lot of egos.
We'll take them any way we can get them. (The wild pitch) was two runs, basically. We got just enough to win and avoided the sweep.
We'll take it to the end before we make our decision on who's throwing the best and what we need.