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
Very well could be. He's a lot better than people think right now. He's doing outstanding.
You'd think he's left-handed when you watch him throw. He's one of the best athletes I've been around. People are surprised when they see him run. This guy can fly.
The Angels are a team that doesn't quit. They have a fundamentally sound team defensively, offensively, good team speed, good young bullpen that nobody knows that much about, ... And young pitchers, which is to their advantage, and most people don't know that much about them.
I'd like to get it done, most definitely. I'm sure he'd like to get it done. We'd like to keep him here, and he'd like to stay here. They're not called negotiations because people agree right off the bat. Sometimes these things take a little time.
We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to our fans to put the best team we can on the field to try and win because people want to see us win,
It's possible. I was there in L.A. and I was booed by 50,000 people every day. The next year, I hit 30 home runs and I made the Dodgers All-Time team. Performance changes everything. I've been on both sides.
The only people I ever felt intimidated by in my whole life were Bob Gibson and my Daddy.
We'll mix and match and do what we can. We owe it to ourselves and our paying fans to put the best team we can on the field. People want to see us win. September is right around the corner. There are probably some guys who will get called up. We'll do the best we can every day.
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.
Some people get better looking as they get older. Maybe he's one of those guys.
I talked to him the other day because he was pressing a little bit already. I told him to just relax. It's the same game he played in Venezuela. We have to eliminate the pressures of the amount of people and TV and radio, simplify things and say, 'Hey, man, it's baseball.
I always tell people to just watch him, be like him.
The easiest time to hit is when you first get there because nobody knows you. After that, you've got to make adjustments. Once you get around the league, 'You don't like this, you don't like that. You chase this ball.' That's when it becomes interesting once people have a book on you.
You wish they weren't so passionate sometimes. It's hot out there. It's summertime. That's when people lose their tempers.