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
Be more specific of who you are talking about. Yeah, I talked to Walk. We got it straight.
I had to talk to one of my players, because we needed some luck. I talked to the luckiest guy I know on Earth --Kirk 'Woody' Rueter. I called Woody and said, 'Woody, I need some of the Woody luck.' He said he sent it to us.
You talk to him, and he's in a hurry. We're in a hurry to have him, but we don't want to do anything to set him back. I talked to him the other day, and he said that's the best he's felt after he has thrown. We want to continue on that same progress.
It's something we talked about. Again, the decision is up to the player. There's quite a bit of pressure on these guys, especially the guys from Latin America more than anybody because of the magnitude and importance of baseball in those areas.
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 talked to him the other day, and he said that's the best he's felt. We want to continue on that same progress and not have an interruption of any kind.
I talked to him last night and this is the first time he's been in a playoff situation. I just told him to go enjoy it.
I talked to him. He's tired of it, too. You could tell he was a little distraught about the whole thing. He wants to pitch. He wants to pitch with nothing wrong.
His main thing is he's trying so hard he's not swinging at strikes. They're not getting him out, he's getting himself out. I've talked to him about it. When they come in the zone, he's not far from it. It's like fishing. You got to get that first one in the boat, everything is cool after that.
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.