Dusty Baker Guy Quotations

I'm not a guy that sits around and does nothing.

One of the hardest things in this game is a fallen star. When a guy accepts the position that he's in in his career, it makes it easier on a manager and coaches and very beneficial to the guys on the team.

I don't doubt that this guy is smart enough to do anything that he really wants to do. I don't know if he was quite pitching to the ballpark . . . and if you ask him he probably wouldn't tell you anyway.

I have learned from hamstrings that when a guy says he feels good, you give him a couple extra days. Invariably, you top a ball and have to beat it out. It happens every time.

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.

He doesn't fool around out there, does he? He gets the ball and throws it. This guy learned how to put different pressure points on the ball to make the ball move. This guy is the best I've ever seen.

He expects the ball to be hit back to him and he gets in good position. He reminds me of a guy I used to play with, Fernando Valenzuela . They expect the ball to be hit back at them and they practice it. Perfect practice makes perfect results.

He'll get it; he'll learn. But I'd rather have that fire than I would a guy that you have to light his pilot light to get fire. You don't want to put that fire out. But instead of a raging fire, you want him to channel it like a torch.

He loves to compete, he loves the game. He studies. I don't know anybody who studies that much in baseball. This guy is one of the best guys I can remember having on my team.

What do I want to find out for? ... I know already. I'd be foolish to try to find out at this point, right? I mean, this guy is going to hit until he can't even walk.

He's as hard-working a guy as I've ever seen. He wants to do very, very good. Seems that no matter what he does, he still has the hunger and enthusiasm of a rookie. With that nature, that'll take him to great heights. I haven't been around him that long, but he appears to be a guy who's never satisfied with where he is.

He's had that from time to time. That's the first time he's had it this year, but when a guy comes to you and says his back is really tight, you can't leave him in there. It's just unfortunate that it happened tonight at the end of this trip, a bad road trip.

He's been working with Tony Gwynn in the winter and you can't find a better guy than that to work with. He works hard, he appears to be an outstanding teammate. I think he'll be an excellent catch for us.

Ordinarily, they'd be in charge of catching kids their age and the young guys. Now they're on the fast learning curve. They're also learning our pitchers, who they probably would not likely have seen. They're also learning the other hitters in this league. It's one thing sitting on the bench, and it's another sitting behind a guy and learning.

Stealing isn't just speed. Most of it is knowing the pitcher and knowing what a guy does. He might dip his head before he goes to the plate or he might drop his hands slightly before he goes to the plate or his feet are narrow when he goes to first or he might slide-step.

I was very pleased to see Woody. He looked like he was doing pretty good. He didn't look like a guy who was operated on. It shows you what modern medicine can do. They told us when Woody went in, there was a good chance he wouldn't have much swelling because he didn't have much swelling on his shoulder.

You know how I feel about the guy -- I love the guy. I would've loved to have played with him, and behind him. I've enjoyed watching him here with us. He's one of the few guys I've had who has earned the right -- and you know he's not going to abuse the right -- to call his own shots. This guy is a pro. You don't know he's around. He never boasts or brags.

You hate to have a guy have back problems, then he starts changing his arm angle and compensating for it and you end up hurting something else. His teammates, they really convinced me he had had enough.

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.

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.

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.

You're always hoping for a no-hitter when a guy goes that deep in a ballgame. We figured it'd be Eckstein who would break it up. He's a good little ballplayer. It's hard to corral him.

You're always hoping for a no-hitter when a guy goes that deep in a ballgame, ... We figured it'd be Eckstein who would break it up. He's a good little ballplayer. It's hard to corral him.

This guy is in great shape -- this is the best shape I've seen him in. Our trainers went down and checked on him. They saw him this winter. He's doing pretty good. He hasn't played baseball for awhile so we still have to break him in slowly.

They say you come to the ballpark and you'll see something you haven't seen, and I haven't seen that before when you hit the guy on the helmet with a double-play ball. They get a run out of that and another run on the two-out base hit.

They say come to the ballpark and you'll see something you haven't seen before. I haven't seen that before, you hit a guy in the helmet on the double-play ball.

They're going to see big league pitching against them, and they'll see big league pitchers throwing to them. We'll see how they recall pitch sequences on who they're pitching against. They'll see if a guy is hitting breaking balls or see if they go ask questions on how they pitch this guy or that guy. Does a guy hit this -- what are his strengths or weaknesses. They have to pay attention because they're big in this equation.

It seems like whenever you walk a speed guy like that late, it hurts you.

It seems like whenever you walk a guy late like that, especially a speed guy, he ends up scoring. We had some opportunities early, but Drew drove in both runs with two two-out hits to beat us, and that's the name of the game.

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.

It's the same with pitching. You talk to Greg Maddux and I'm sure he has a game plan, but he also sometimes can feel when a guy is looking inside or if a guy is looking for something else or it depends on which pitch he takes and how he takes it. Some guys get it early, some guys get it late, some guys never get it.

I've got a fine system, ... Short of that, you're weakening yourself and the team if you take this guy or that guy out of the lineup.

I had Bo. I know Bo has good stuff, especially if he's healthy. He said his arm is good. The guy knows how to pitch. He can throw every day, he'll never complain, you won't know he's around. He was a pleasure to have on my team. He's looking for an opportunity, and that's what will give him an opportunity.

He's the guy who's doing it the most correctly. That's why he has Gold Gloves. To me, and he may not like it, but I point to him all the time as the way to be. It's not his personality to accept that, but I single him out, which I don't do that often. I say, 'Hey, this is how you want to go about your business. This is how you want to perform. This is how you want to work on fielding, hitting, bunting, everything.

He's in the running. This guy has a semi-microscopic ERA.

I don't know if anybody is going to pitch that long. That's No. 1. He's a great competitor, a great guy and a great teammate.

He's the only player I've ever had who checks books out of my library in my office. This guy can read a book in about 15 minutes I think. He checks them out. He takes the jacket off, leaves the jacket, then puts it back on when he comes back.

He's a guy who wants to come here and do well. It seems the more you try, the worse it gets.

The guy is a stolen base man. You know he's gonna run, you just don't know when he's gonna run. So, you just got to do a better job of keeping him off the bases.

The guy can pitch, but we had an opportunity to beat him today, just like we had an opportunity to beat him in St. Louis and he gets off the hook. He wasn't sharp early, he hung some breaking balls we hit hard, but we didn't find any holes.

The frustrating part is you still have memories of how great a player this guy is.

The main guy will get the majority of the playing time. Is that 60 percent? Is that 70 percent? Is that 51 percent? I'll talk to them. Quite frankly, that's a fortunate situation to have three quality guys. It's not a problem; it's a fortunate situation.