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
We needed an extra bat. We were a little short, especially with some of the guys being hurt. 'Big Ben' has done an outstanding job, especially coming off the bench. With the rosters expanded, we thought he could help us.
We needed an extra bat, ... We were a little short, especially with some of the guys being hurt. 'Big Ben' has done an outstanding job, especially coming off the bench. With the rosters expanded, we thought he could help us.
We need an extra bat. We are a little short, especially with the guys that are a little hurt, and big Ben has done an outstanding job of coming off the bench.
I know exactly where he's coming from. I continue to work on it myself.
If you rescue him every time, you'll have to rescue him all the time. If you leave him out there, you learn about them or they become a pitcher by coming through. He can say, 'I can handle the situation,' but until you've been in the situation, you don't know if you can handle it or not.
The ball kept coming over the heart of the plate. It was supposed to be outside and it caught too much of the plate. He threw a lot of pitches (105) in a short period of time.
You would think over the course of a winter -- actually three winters, two winters -- that guys would come back strong and healthy, which hasn't been the case. Woody had a little setback with his knee, but his arm is doing well. He's throwing the ball great. Hopefully, Woody will be ready soon. How soon we don't know. We have Wade Miller coming on pretty strong. We just have to pull our belts a little tighter and do what we have to do.
The field's a lot faster than ours. That ball got to him a lot quicker than he expected. We'll try to get him some more time at second base, especially with the split squad coming up here.
I love my daughter, but she had me on couscous and fixed me pastas and made me eat oatmeal every morning and what else, turkey burgers, turkey bacon, and that kind of stuff. So she wants her dad to live a long time, and I do, too.
You don't want to get beat, number one, and you hate getting shutout, number two, and even worse, no hits.
That's the reality of it. Everybody has a big two or three. The health of those big two or three ... there's a lot riding on it.
I'm not a guy that sits around and does nothing.
The only thing that's in my control is to win ballgames and God is always taking care of me.
I love sharing my knowledge of hitting with others. Now coaches and players at all levels can learn my systematic approach to hitting a baseball with more consistency, mental strength and accuracy.