Dusty Baker Team Quotations

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'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.

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.

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.

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,

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.

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.

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.

It's very intense. It's probably intensified more since Tony and I came here. When you play 18 times against a team that's had a long-time rivalry, and my former manager and my former confidant, that just increases things.

This is the youngest team I've had, which is what I've been yearning for really for years now. The younger the team, sometimes the more mistakes, but the more open and willing they are to be taught how to play. It seems like the older players are set in their ways.

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.

You can sort of tell that teams are here, or teams are improved. Watch the winter deals they make ? the maturity of the young players.

You can't put your finger on it. The last couple of years we've played them tough. That's not the team you want to play every day.

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.

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.

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.

One good memory I have here is in 2002, we beat the Cardinals to go to the World Series. They've had some great teams here. They usually have a lot of speed. I'm curious to see what happens. Sometimes you change stadiums, change atmosphere, and it changes things.

We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to our fans to put the best team we can on the field to try and win because people want to see us win,

We owe it to ourselves and our paying fans to put the best team we can on the field. We'll do the best we can every day.

Everyone in town and the whole team knows what's at stake.

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).