Dusty Baker was a very good over his career, but as a manager he is Hall of Fame worthy. In 18 years as a player he hit .278 with 242 homeruns and 1,013 runs batted in, while also being a two-time All-Star. Baker also won a world title with the Dodgers in 1981.
The 76-year-old from Riverside, California was been named the Manager of the Year three times (1993,1997,2000) and a World Series Champion in 2022 with the Houston Astros. He also sport a 2,183-1,862 record as a skipper.
Baker was named as the manager for the Nicaraguan National Team last year and although the team did not win a game in the tournament they played plenty of teams tough. Nicaragua was a walk-off win by the Netherlands from notching their first ever victory in the tournament.
You had a lot of turnover from the series with Cuba on your roster. ¿What did you do to get this team ready for this tournament in such a short time?
It’s tough getting ready for the tournament because the turnover that we had was basically three infielders and a handful of pitchers. The infielders hadn’t been in spring training that long and they only played probably a handful of games. And one of the main things that happened is at this time in spring training nobody would have played longer than five innings. But they’re asked to play nine right away in this tournament and people will get tired. Well, we our players go from low innings to nine innings and we’re the only team didn’t have a day off and play hard some of the teams that had days off. Seems like that kind of hurt us too.
You’ve played a lot of good teams tough, how has Nicaraguan baseball come along since the last World Baseball Classic?
First, I’m not really sure because I wasn’t here and I was mostly watching on the team on TV sometimes. I was watching, mostly at that time teams like The Dominican Republic, USA, Venezuela. You know, the better teams at that time, Japan. And so I was training in Florida. And so I’m hoping that we’ve come a long ways and hoping that my staff and myself, you know, some quality and possibly some improvement not only for now, but in the future as well.
Career highlights and awards:
- 2× All-Star (1981, 1982)
- 2× World Series champion (1981, 2022)
- NLCS MVP (1977)
- Gold Glove Award (1981)
- 2× Silver Slugger Award (1980, 1981)
- 3× NL Manager of the Year (1993, 1997, 2000)
- Legend of Dodger Baseball