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'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.
Big Z had trouble feeling the ball. He couldn't feel it in his fingers. We were hoping to get five innings out of Z and then go to the bullpen.
I've always been a big believer that the general manager, who is my boss, he should be signed before me. That's how it impacts me. One down and maybe one to go. Or I should say, hopefully one to go.
I was hoping they might be able to, but they won't.
It depends on how he feels and what they say, a combination. We're just hoping it turns out to be nothing. He'll do as much as he can tolerate.
I'm hoping we don't need him. We'll worry about Wednesday when we get there.
Usually you come right in and face 'live,' but you get into bad habits because you're trying to protect your hands and protect your bats. Basically, this is more for the pitchers the first couple days than the hitters. The main thing is, you hope they can throw strikes.
I don't think it'll be that long. Hope not. He could come rather quickly. He's five, six weeks behind.
I'd like to see him get anything he can get, because he deserves it. I'd like to see him get 100 RBIs. He's been knocking on 99 for a while. I just hope he gets that.
Right now, it's so early that you want to get rid of whatever is in there. I was always told you start the year hurt, it makes for a long year. We're trying to get rid of whatever is in there, get it well, get it subsided and hopefully get on with it.
My hope doesn't need reinvigorating. I had hope regardless.
You hope it's just a minor setback. We have to stay positive and keep our fingers crossed.
You hate to say wait-and-see, but that's how it is, ... We're counting on him big time. At this point, I can't say in which capacity. We're hoping as a starter. If not, we'll do the next-best thing for him and us.
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.