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
One of the hardest things in this game is a fallen star. When a guy accepts the position that he's in in his career, it makes it easier on a manager and coaches and very beneficial to the guys on the team.
It hurts us not to play Friday night games. We got home late Thursday from Puerto Rico and had to play a day game the next day on the 12th. We can get home at 1 o'clock not fall asleep until two and have to be back up at eight while the other team has been here. They are in bed before we even get home.
He's done well for me. What he's done has excited me. He's going to the fall league and was thinking about Puerto Rico.
His velocity appears to be up, his location was good. I'm sure he's not happy about not covering first base. He's been working on it, and we've been making him very conscious of it, but the way he falls off, I don't know, it just looks like he has a lapse or something. Other than that, he threw the ball good.
He's got a good tempo, good rhythm going, great control, great movement. When things are going good, you don't worry about why they're going good -- you just keep on going good. It's like surfing -- you ride it to the beach instead of worrying about when you're going to fall off.
We hung a slider and Albert doesn't miss sliders too much. He doesn't miss pitches up in the zone.
We hung a slider and Albert doesn't miss sliders too much, ... He doesn't miss pitches up in the zone.
We certainly don't need to start having this now.
We're going through a real tough stretch now. We've got to find a way against two tough pitchers the next couple of days to try and get out of this.
I've seen some greats leave the game. You never want to see them leave and you'd rather see them leave on their terms and leave on top. It's not over with yet. You don't know if somebody is going to offer Sammy a job here soon or what is going to happen. But Sammy has been one of the great players of the game for a long time and a guy who meant a lot to Chicago and a lot to the game. ... I just hope he gets a job somewhere.
I've never heard anybody booed in St. Louis.
I've never seen or heard of an assault with a belly. ... That's a tough sell in court -- assault and battery with a belly.
I've never seen him that wild. Anybody is capable of losing their control. He doesn't lose it that often. I don't think I've seen him blow one ever. We'll just take it and savor it.
It was very symbolic. It seems likes we get in that situation and we don't get anything. It's very frustrating. We had a great chance to win that game.