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
You've got to be able to keep them in sight. If they get out of sight, it makes it tough.
You've got to admire him for not quitting. When you're hungry, you can find a way to do things. He was going to have to go to work or play ball.
You've got guys studying video and there's some things that you see, some things that you have to put into play, ... Of all the things that I see, they're beating him with the fastball, which is a no-no. And sometimes he doesn't track the ball. Those are some of the things he has to work on.
These guys are getting a chance to play that they wouldn't ordinarily have. If nothing else, they're impressing us and everybody else who has seen them. In order to have a good team, in order to have a good organization, you have to be deep in certain positions.
All day it was just a matter of us cutting down on the walks. It seemed like every time we walked someone, they scored.
You can stress, but guys still have to react and do it on command,
You can sort of tell that teams are here, or teams are improved. Watch the winter deals they make ? the maturity of the young players.
And he has to work on his base stealing. We were told that when he gets thrown out, he shuts it down. He'll be fine. He left with a good attitude and thanked us for the amount of playing time that he got.
The main thing is for us to dwell on the solution and not the problem. Just be more alert and more advantageous of all situations, not create advantageous situations for them with mental and physical errors.
The main guy will get the majority of the playing time. Is that 60 percent? Is that 70 percent? Is that 51 percent? I'll talk to them. Quite frankly, that's a fortunate situation to have three quality guys. It's not a problem; it's a fortunate situation.
...the ending's gonna be great. That's what I'm convinced of.
You can't put your finger on it. The last couple of years we've played them tough. That's not the team you want to play every day.
You can score a lot of runs a lot of different ways. We had almost everything today but stolen bases.
I am more convinced now than ever. I'm more determined than ever.