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
It embarrassed me into learning how to get the signs,
You learn the hard way then. We had a long discussion last night. The thing about temperament, which you guys don't believe, but I was very similar. You have to constantly work on it as a person.
I think he can become a very good player. He can hit, he can run, I think his power is coming, especially when you're strong in the lower half -- that's where the power comes from. You have to learn how to do it, how to use it without abusing it and losing what got you here which is base hits.
I have learned from hamstrings that when a guy says he feels good, you give him a couple extra days. Invariably, you top a ball and have to beat it out. It happens every time.
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.
The one outing doesn't necessarily put him in there or delete him from it. He'll have quite a few more outings before we make a decision. We'll evaluate him on his progress. He said he learned from it and it won't happen again. He was upset at himself at how he pitched.
He doesn't fool around out there, does he? He gets the ball and throws it. This guy learned how to put different pressure points on the ball to make the ball move. This guy is the best I've ever seen.
Ordinarily, they'd be in charge of catching kids their age and the young guys. Now they're on the fast learning curve. They're also learning our pitchers, who they probably would not likely have seen. They're also learning the other hitters in this league. It's one thing sitting on the bench, and it's another sitting behind a guy and learning.
My point is not only about teaching and having the ability to learn but also the ability to retain so you don't have to tell them the same thing over and over again, ... It's like a teacher. When you give them a test, you don't know what that student knows. How do you give a test here except on the field? Roger Craig told me, 'Never assume that they know. You can assume they should know, but there's no guarantee.'
If you don't see them, you're not going to learn how to hit them.
I like a lot about him. I like his speed, like his attitude, he switch-hits, he plays all outfield positions, he asks good questions, he's hungry to learn and he enjoys playing.
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.
I like his approach. Anybody who can hit the ball up the middle and to the opposite field is going to hit. He'll learn how to hit with power. If he can hit balls to right field, he has power.
We hung a slider and Albert doesn't miss sliders too much. He doesn't miss pitches up in the zone.