92ND MLB ALL-STAR GAME

July 19, 2022

Dusty Baker

Dodger Stadium

Press Conference

Q. Dusty, you've seen a lot of the great power hitters of all time. Where does Stanton rank for you and does he remind you of anyone in particular?

DUSTY BAKER: No, he doesn't really remind me of anybody, but he's a great player. He's been a great player for a long time. The way he's looking, the way he's built, I mean, he should be around for an awful long time. I just regret that we have to play him a doubleheader on Thursday (laughter).

But for today, we're on the same side, and you know, the good thing about that game, it was clean, it was quick, and you know, we played a good game. It was fun to manage and must have been fun to watch.

Q. You had mentioned yesterday, frustration not getting to play in this game in 1980 here. With so much history in this ballpark, what did you think about how it showed for this event?

DUSTY BAKER: I tell you, it was great. I've been coming here since I was a kid, and you know, I played here for years. You know, nothing makes up for playing, but I tell you, it was fun sitting in the dugout and seeing the guys, how together they were, especially when everybody knew that we were getting together for a couple of days as a team, and now we go our own direction. I'm just glad that nobody got hurt, and you know, it was a tremendous camaraderie amongst the guys, especially the number of Latin guys that I had. Boy, they are together. They like to have a good time.

Q. A game like this with home runs, a lot of strikeouts, does that sort of showcase what modern baseball has become?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, kind of. But I mean, you're talking about the strikeout, I mean, these guys are throwing 99 to 103 miles per hour. I don't think that's been seen before. We were coming out of there with some gas out of the bullpen, and they were coming out of there with some gas.

You know, you figured that the game was going to come down to the home runs, as big as show men as these guys are. They weren't necessarily trying to hit home runs. They were trying to hit the ball. But there was tremendous pitching on both sides.

Q. A bunch of ground ball outs with shifts, which in the past might not have happened in All-Star Games. Who did your defensive positioning?

DUSTY BAKER: Well, the same guy during the season, Joe Espada, is in charge of our defensive positioning.

Sometimes I agree. Ball up the middle, I agree with, and then the ground ball to second base, I don't agree with. Like they say, the shift giveth and the shift taketh away. But still, I think it giveth more than it takes away.

Q. Knowing how much you appreciate baseball history, how special was it to have Albert and Miguel on the same field?

DUSTY BAKER: Yeah, these guys, I was there when they first broke in. I was in the same division as Albert Pujols for ten years. It was like, oh, man, I hated to see Albert up there. And Miguel, when he first came on the scene and what was he, 19, 20 years old, and I remember Tony Perez telling me what a great player he was going to be. And some of the best scouts in the world are players and former players because they recognize things that most people don't. You know, Tony was right.

Q. Back to the pitching. I noticed that there were seven holds in the game. I don't know that I've ever seen anything like that. And then you wind up with Framber gets the win for you. And then you bring in this guy Clase at the end, and he throws nine strikes out of ten at a hundred miles an hour.

DUSTY BAKER: And cutting.

Q. What's your reaction to all that?

DUSTY BAKER: Our reaction was we were trying to get everybody in the game. First we had like three guys that we weren't going to get in the game because they were All-Stars here before. But they came to me and said, hey, man, like Liam Hendriks says, I want at least one out and I said okay. And these guys want to win. In the case of Soto, he said, "Hey, man, I've got my mom and everyone here from the Dominican." So I try to get guys in games when they are going to be -- you know, when their families are watching or in their hometown, like in the case of France, he's from L.A.

So, it worked out today. Sometimes it doesn't work out but it worked out today.

Q. Is it any consolation to be a winning manager in an All-Star game?

DUSTY BAKER: Yeah, now I'm 1-1. Maybe have a tiebreaker next year, maybe.