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
He'll tell you like it is. They told me Marquis was done when I was with the Giants four, five years ago. It's really a no-lose situation for us.
Henry did what he's supposed to do, get him back on track.
He'll get it; he'll learn. But I'd rather have that fire than I would a guy that you have to light his pilot light to get fire. You don't want to put that fire out. But instead of a raging fire, you want him to channel it like a torch.
He needs to pitch. Even though he has the skill and ability, he needs the innings. He needs to be in certain situations. He's missed more than a couple years here on and off. He needs the endurance. He needs to be in there with bases loaded with no outs and be in all kinds of situations and adverse situations. The main thing is we want him healthy, too.
He needs to hit. We want him to start hitting, and all our pitchers from now on will go as normal.
He needs a little bit of craziness to be himself. I just didn't want him to bruise his leg.
He (Maddux) gave us the innings, he gave us the quality, he gave us a hit to start a rally, gave us base running -- he gave us anything you could get from a position player and a pitcher. We needed it badly.
He loves to compete, he loves the game. He studies. I don't know anybody who studies that much in baseball. This guy is one of the best guys I can remember having on my team.
He moves the ball around and works the ball on the outside part of the plate. He throws two or three different speeds off his fastball and keeps you off balance.
He means a lot to us and a lot to the city and the organization. He's earned it, and it couldn't have happened to a finer guy.
He came up a little sore. I think it was his shoulder. They said he's OK.
What do I want to find out for? ... I know already. I'd be foolish to try to find out at this point, right? I mean, this guy is going to hit until he can't even walk.
We're in the process of making that decision right now. It's not about Kerry as much as it is about us (and) where we are, realistically.
We're in the process of making that decision now. We'll have an answer in a couple days.