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 believe that when the wind's blowing in. When the wind's blowing out, I don't care about the height of the bleachers. When the wind is blowing in, I think the height of the bleachers has had an effect.
There have been times in my career when they couldn't find anything and it still hurt, and there were times when there wasn't anything and it was something. We hope it ends up nothing, like it's been.
It says a lot for experience. He's not doing any more than what his Hall of Fame career has indicated.
We're going to give him as much playing time as possible this week, so we can make up our mind. I'm sure when you get to this point in your career you consider all the possibilities, and I'm sure he's doing some evaluation of his own abilities. So, yeah, these are important days for him.
The only thing that's in my control is to win ballgames and God is always taking care of me.
Everyone has a budget, I don't care who you are.
I'm not sure where my career is going here in Cincinnati.
You're playing against guys who are younger than you, so you can set them up. You get to a certain point in your career and you almost know what's coming. You learn to trust your feelings. Hank Aaron told me you don't become a great player until you learn to trust your feelings.
You never see anyone lose two guys on one play. But nobody cares if Lee's hurt or not except us and the people in Chicago and the people who know him. We'll just have to adjust and just keep on adjusting.
The money doesn't make you play. You play for the love of the game. A lot of times you see money change people. But I don't see anything changing him, and if it did, his dad would take care of it. They're good and humble people. He's still their son.
My thing is I've got work to do. I do my job. If we win, everything will take care of itself. That's how I live. If I'm approached, then we'll deal with that. But right now, I can't be worried about that.
It's not about Kerry as much as it is about us. It's about where we are realistically and where he is now and to find out, when that time comes, the severity of whatever is in there. If it's nothing, we're pleased. If it's something, then we'll take care of it and give him ample time to rehab so he can start the season on time next year.
I'll just take the same. Everybody asked if last year was a career year. I don't believe in career years. Once you do it once and find your formula, you should be able to do similar. He knows what he's doing now. He has an idea. He knows how to make adjustments quickly. He's very consistent. He recognizes very quickly what the opposition is trying to do to him and he knows his own limitations.
I'll think about it when the time comes. My thing is if I can keep it simple, don't distract my team, and if the team wins, everything else takes care of itself.