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
We were one of the better teams in the league on the road. That's usually the toughest part of the equation. We need to play well at home and establish home-field advantage and superiority.
Carlos was awesome last night. It seemed like he was having fun and it seemed like the team was having fun. I'm sure he's glad he went.
Carlos was awesome. It seemed like he was having fun, his team was having fun. I'm sure he's glad he went. It's huge. It's probably bigger than the Sox-Cubs rivalries.
Some of it has to do with the fact that we have a strikeout pitching staff. I always liked my teams at the top of the league in defense and double plays. Any time you can get two outs on one pitch, it's a lot less pitches for your pitchers. A lot of times, it gets you out of the inning out of trouble.
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.
It hurts us not to play Friday night games. We got home late Thursday from Puerto Rico and had to play a day game the next day on the 12th. We can get home at 1 o'clock not fall asleep until two and have to be back up at eight while the other team has been here. They are in bed before we even get home.
He can wait 'til Monday. The Padres are the team he's had his most success against.
He likes being with the team and we like having Kerry around,
He went that long on a team that's not playing well without being re-signed. I'm sure it came through his mind. Whenever anybody gets fired, it's tough.
We were a lot closer before I got here. When you play 18 times against teams that have been long-time rivalries, and then it's against my former manager and my confidant before I came here, it increases things.
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.
I'll talk to them all together and come up with something before we leave from here. This is a team thing. It's not an individual thing. That's how I'll treat it, as a team thing.
I'll think about it when the time comes. My thing is if I can keep it simple, don't distract my team, and if the team wins, everything else takes care of itself.
It has gotten more intense since Tony and I got here. Me and Tony were a lot closer before I came here. But when you play 18 times against teams that have long-time rivalries, that just increases (any friction).