Dusty Baker Quotes on Man (15 Quotes)

He's getting more confident, more control of the strike zone, more confidence to throw any pitch in any count. That's what you call progress and what you like to see of the young man.

The things I want to see out of him is baseball experience and work on fundamental instinctive stuff -- running the bases, hitting the cutoff man, knowing when to run. I've heard that when he gets thrown out, he stops running. When you get thrown out, you need to be more daring.

The guy's a stolen-base man. We had him one time on that pitch out in the third and didn't execute properly. We know he's going to run. We just don't know when he's going to run.

There's always speculation about guys on every team. You say, 'Man, this guy looks bigger. But you don't know. And there are some guys who flunked steroid tests, and you had no idea. You see the guys and say, 'No way this guy was on something.' You don't know until somebody is busted.

He said, 'Hey, man, there's a good chance he can relate to you and perform. There's a bunch of talent that's left there, he's only 27, 28 years old.

That's what we're here for is to see. Eventually, I think he'll be a fine No. 2 hitter. I don't know if the time is now or not. Playing shortstop and batting second is a lot for a young man. We're just trying different things.

You get a good setup man and sooner or later someone is going to want him as a closer. You got a good middle guy and you or somebody is going want him to be a setup man. You see bullpen guys move in this game more than any other players.

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.

He's not the type of guy who wants to relive it. He's a private man, very community conscious, and he doesn't want the notoriety. That time of his life was probably hell for him. He's proud of that record, but no man should have to go through what Hank did. No man.

With more night games at home, You get to do 'life stuff,' like go to the laundry, go to the bank, go to the car wash, go shopping, ... Things you don't get a chance to do when you're playing day games. You're always conscious here of oversleeping because you can wake up in a panic, especially if it's cloudy and dark outside, and you're like, 'Oh, man.' Or if it gets sunny real early, you're jumping out of bed at 6 o'clock.

Honestly, I wish he hadn't said anything. I spoke to Michael about it. He said 'Oh, man, I didn't think about it.' He was honest and forthcoming with information. I showed him a couple books I had about strategy and war.

It's a good experience for your confidence, especially for Michael, to feel like you're an All-Star. D-Lee's been an All-Star. When you're on a team like that with other stars, that builds your confidence. 'Hey, man, I'm a star.' I think it's better for Michael in that situation confidence-wise and psychologically than D-Lee.

I've never seen a team lose two guys on one play. We've just got to hold our breath on Lee and hope that everything is all right. He's a strong man, but we just have to pray.

He was more aggressive, he was in the strike zone. He worked quickly, which allowed the players to stay alert on defense. His body language and demeanor was a lot better, which he promised me it would be after our discussion. You like to see a young man do what he says, because talk is cheap. He said what he is going to do and he did it.

That makes it sound like somebody's lying. I went through that a couple years ago, which was untrue at the time, and I'm not going through that. I've never been accused of that. I don't know if Walker was accusing me, but it was kind of general. You need to be more specific and you need to address that person, man to man. That's how I like to treat guys and how I appreciate being treated in return.