What the Reds Have to Look Forward to With Baker

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

One of the best things (ok, the only good thing) about having Dusty Baker as manager is that the multitude of quotes that make you stop and say WTF?

 

That's right. He's always talking, and most of the times, you just wish he wouldn't. So, here are some of the things Reds fans have to look forward to.

 

“Who have been the champions the last seven, eight years? Have you ever heard the Yankees talk about on-base percentage and walks? . . . Walks help. They do help. But you aren’t going to walk across the plate, you’re going to hit across the plate. That’s the school I come from.”

 

“Everybody can’t hit with two strikes, everybody can’t walk,” Baker said. “You’re taking away some of the aggressiveness of a kid if you’re telling him to go up there and try to work for a walk. . . . It’s like when I see kids in Little League and they make the small kids go up there and try to get a walk. That’s not any fun. . . . Do you ever see the top 10 walking (rankings)? You see top 10 batting average. A lot of those top 10 do walk, but the name of the game is to hit.”

 

And of course on of my personal favorites..

 

“No. 1, I’ve let most guys hit 3-0 (in the count). That’s one reason. . . . I think walks are overrated unless you can run. If you get a walk and put the pitcher in a stretch, that helps, but the guy who walks and can’t run, most of the time he’s clogging up the bases for somebody who can run.”

 

“They're externally humble but internally very confident, ... He does everything easy, kind of slow-moving but at a high rate of speed.”

 

Another personal favorite...

 

"If you have a girlfriend and another one comes along, should you put your girlfriend down because the next girl is just as pretty?" Baker asked. "That ain't right."

(Dusty referring to Mark Grudzielanek after the Cubs signed Todd Walker)

[killthegoat06]

All classics...I forgot just how bad he was. Nice work, Vance!

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

I had a thread here once where we voted on the best ones, but I couldn't find it when I searched for it. These were a few I had archived in another place.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

Gotta add this head scratcher...

 

It's just like fishing. You're going striped bass fishing. You've got birds on top and you follow the birds. Where the birds are, the bait fish are below that. Below the bait fish are the striped bass. That's what you want to do. That's how you want to do your lineup. That way they can't escape. That's how I try to make my lineup out so the opposition can't pitch around this guy or that guy and that guy and can't escape. You try to get them in the crossfire.

[Vanilla Ice]

i can't wait for reds44 to find this thread and blow up at it.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

A few more gems...

"You are damned if you do, damned if you don't. But you can't take away the fact that I've won. For the people who aren't down here doing our job, it's easy to sit up there and type the stuff over the computer. They say, 'Don't stick with your starters as long,' but when you bring in this guy or that guy, it's 'Why did you bring him in?'"

 

Sooner or later, somebody is going to get hurt, and then they are going to blow it all out of proportion... But go back and look at the overall picture. For a guy who is supposed to have run pitchers into the ground, look around and see our track record of how healthy our pitchers have stayed. Who has had healthier pitchers?"

 

People [always] have been trying to bring me down. Very rarely do I hear what I have done. That's OK, that's how it is. Actually, that makes me stronger. It's OK. What are you going to say when I kick somebody's [rear]?"

 

"It depends where he is in the order... If he's in the top one or two, the most important stat is runs scored and on-base percentage. For your third, fourth and fifth hitter, it's RBIs and runs scored. And runners in scoring position, what your average is.

 

You've just got to swing your way out of it. It's not like we're striking out, we're just not hitting the ball as hard as we were and finding any holes.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

I must add this gem...

 

Personally, I like to play in the heat. You know, it's easy for me. I mean it's easy for most Latin guys and easy minority people as most of us come from heat.

 

You know you don't find too many brothers from New Hampshire and Maine and upper peninsula in Michigan, right? I mean, you know, we're brought over here for the heat. Right? I mean ain't that -- isn't that history? Weren't we brought over here because we could take the heat?

[BCVM22]

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r71/bcvm22/sigzeon/maciasbass.png

[Vanilla Ice]

I must add this gem...

 

Personally, I like to play in the heat. You know, it's easy for me. I mean it's easy for most Latin guys and easy minority people as most of us come from heat.

 

You know you don't find too many brothers from New Hampshire and Maine and upper peninsula in Michigan, right? I mean, you know, we're brought over here for the heat. Right? I mean ain't that -- isn't that history? Weren't we brought over here because we could take the heat?

 

When did he say that, I find that really funny for some reason.

[killthegoat06]

I must add this gem...

 

Personally, I like to play in the heat. You know, it's easy for me. I mean it's easy for most Latin guys and easy minority people as most of us come from heat.

 

You know you don't find too many brothers from New Hampshire and Maine and upper peninsula in Michigan, right? I mean, you know, we're brought over here for the heat. Right? I mean ain't that -- isn't that history? Weren't we brought over here because we could take the heat?

 

When did he say that, I find that really funny for some reason.

 

It's funny because dusty said it and it doesn't make any sense.

[killthegoat06]

Gotta add this to the thread:

 

It's like the black box on the airplane. The airplane has a failure. Everybody is going to see later if it was pilot error or mechanical error or whatever. The one thing you learn about life, no matter what job you are in, you're going to have your turn to be in that box.

[RedFlash]

Dusty Baker should really give up this "managerial" thing, and try his hands at COMEDY. I mean, he would kill as a comedian......

 

Oh wait......he was being serious with those quotes.....? :-k

 

Even better, he can be the "point" man in a comedy duet.

[Bote McBoteface]

“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.”

 

By the way, while searching for funny DB quotes, I found this:

 

http://blogs.dailyillini.com/justbaseball/2007/10/17/dusty-baker-is-back-like-griffey-in-slugfest/

 

Not the most interesting thing ever, just echoing the sentiments that Dusty sucks.

[inari]

This has potential to be NSBB's greatest resource.

[killthegoat06]

This has potential to be NSBB's greatest resource.

We should sticky this thread.

[YearofDaCubs]

I'm just glad he's out of town. I was never in my life so frustrated by any manager than I was with him.

[TheGrinch]

I very good friend of mine from High School is a huge Reds fan. After the Reds signed Dusty, he gave me a call and asked "Was he really as bad as you let on he was. You are over a year removed from Dusty, so now can you look back and think that maybe he wasn't that bad?"

 

"...no, he really was that bad."

 

"....damn it."

[UMFan83]

I'm just glad he's out of town. I was never in my life so frustrated by any manager than I was with him.

 

I agree, I never realized how much negative influence one NON player could have over a team. Never in a million years would I realize how bad of a manager Dusty is. I feel bad for the Reds fans that brush off the Cubs fans portrayals of Dusty thinking that the Cubs fans are just bitter because their team sucked during his tenure. But they have to realize that the reason they sucked was largely because of Dusty. He influenced transactions, on the field moves, organizational philosophy, clubhouse attitude, public perception, EVERYTHING. And in almost all of those categories he influenced it very negatively.

[killthegoat06]

I'm just glad he's out of town. I was never in my life so frustrated by any manager than I was with him.

 

I agree, I never realized how much negative influence one NON player could have over a team. Never in a million years would I realize how bad of a manager Dusty is. I feel bad for the Reds fans that brush off the Cubs fans portrayals of Dusty thinking that the Cubs fans are just bitter because their team sucked during his tenure. But they have to realize that the reason they sucked was largely because of Dusty. He influenced transactions, on the field moves, organizational philosophy, clubhouse attitude, public perception, EVERYTHING. And in almost all of those categories he influenced it very negatively.

It's ok. We'll be laughing next year when the reds suck and drop out of contention.

[CubinNY]

Jay your seat is here. Have some seeds and enjoy the show.

 

It's kind of like raising your kid: You don't know if you did the right it until later. . . it's something that is very hard to judge. When is now? It's not secret Bruce is a star of futrue. Who knows he could be a star of the present. I'm very impressed talking to him."

 

Mentioned in same article where Dusty is coveting Lofton.

[cubbyvirus00]

Dusty is a freaking moron. Prolly the worst manager of all time. His only cred is that he went to the WS when Bonds had injected the most steroids in his body.

[MarqPTM]

Any chance Dusty Baker paints caricatures of all the young arms he's destroyed over the years in his Rec Room?

[Outshined_One]

I can't wait until some of the Reds start lashing out at the fans for their struggles and Baker condones it. I've never seen a manager in my life who didn't hold his veteran players accountable the way Dusty did. Guys like LaTroy Hawkins could have gotten away with murder on those Cubs teams.

[BCVM22]

New/old gold for the collection.

 

"I'm big on driving in runs and scoring runs," Baker said. "Guys in the middle should score about close to equal to what they drive in. On-base percentage, that's fine and dandy. But a lot of times guys get so much into on-base percentage that they cease to swing. It's becoming a little bit out of control.

 

"What you do is run the pitcher's count up, that helps," Baker said. "You put him in the stretch, that helps. But your job in the middle is to either score them or drive them in. The name of the game is scoring runs. Sometimes, you get so caught up in on-base percentage that you're clogging up the bases."

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080223&content_id=2385630&vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=cin

 

You can't make this stuff up. Adam Dunn is in his condo/hotel room/whatever in Sarasota, curled up in the fetal position and in tears.

[Bote McBoteface]

New/old gold for the collection.

 

"I'm big on driving in runs and scoring runs," Baker said. "Guys in the middle should score about close to equal to what they drive in. On-base percentage, that's fine and dandy. But a lot of times guys get so much into on-base percentage that they cease to swing. It's becoming a little bit out of control.

 

"What you do is run the pitcher's count up, that helps," Baker said. "You put him in the stretch, that helps. But your job in the middle is to either score them or drive them in. The name of the game is scoring runs. Sometimes, you get so caught up in on-base percentage that you're clogging up the bases."

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080223&content_id=2385630&vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=cin

 

You can't make this stuff up. Adam Dunn is in his condo/hotel room/whatever in Sarasota, curled up in the fetal position and in tears.

 

Wow....