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's working his butt off trying to get back. He always works. He's trying to get back and help us. I'm sure it's eating him up not to be out there.
He threw the ball pretty good. He was better the second inning than the first. The important thing was, he was on the mound. I thought he did pretty good.
He threw a ton of pitches. He threw a lot of near strikes, and he wasn't sharp. We thought that was the time to get him out of there.
He's the only player I've ever had who checks books out of my library in my office. This guy can read a book in about 15 minutes I think. He checks them out. He takes the jacket off, leaves the jacket, then puts it back on when he comes back.
He's lost some valuable time and he's lost some valuable experience in there. We don't know if he's quite back to where he was before, even though he's throwing the ball very good.
He's a physical, mental and medical marvel. The unbelievable part is that you don't see any decline. If anything, you see an incline.
He said he'd had enough, ... He had some stressful innings to get through.
He said he could go one more. But you could see he was laboring out there, throwing the ball high,
He's ahead of the pace from last year. Last year, his velocity wasn't nearly as good.
He's a guy who wants to come here and do well. It seems the more you try, the worse it gets.
He said, 'Kid, you're swinging at everything,' ... He said, 'You've got to zone in or out,' which helped me a lot. He said, 'Look outside or look inside because you can't cover the whole plate.'
I don't think the doctor could get out of Chicago. Something happened with the flights.
I don't think that radar gun is right up there. There were some pitches I knew were mid-90s, and they said 87 on the board. I don't know if that's by design.
I don't want to get off on that too much. There's always an adjustment no matter where you go.