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
The problems starts when he throws a number of pitches. As long as we minimize his pitches, he says he feels great.
Yeah, I've got a problem with it, but it's modern baseball. On a close play, you're going to do what's most natural to you. ... There's too many things that you can hurt ? fingers, wrist, elbow, shoulders. There's a lot of things that can get stepped on. There's a lot of things that can happen on a head-first play.
I'd like to know what the problem was -- which still hasn't been said. I haven't changed my views or my bewilderment about things.
I've heard it's a greater problem in high school with young kids. Baseball is attempting to clean it up by testing. That's where it starts. It appears to be cleaner now than a couple years ago because of the testing.
I think the main problem was he couldn't feel the ball in his fingers. I guess it's cold, and the ball is a little slicker when it's cold, and he really couldn't feel it. Consequently, he starts trying to drop down, different things to try to command the strike zone, and he had trouble commanding the strike zone.
If someone is doing a good job them you tell them they are doing a good job. If they are not doing a good job then you tell them that too without tearing them down and criticizing them in front of other people. If there is a problem you call them in to the office and you deal with it one on one.
He's had leg problems two or three years in a row. But I've got to play him enough to get him ready, too.
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.