Davey Johnson and Dusty Baker Were Teammates Now Competitors

Davey Johnson and Dusty Baker were teammates with the Atlanta Braves in 1973.  Johnson hit 43 home runs that season to set a record for second basemen.  Baker hit behind Johnson in the batting order.

"He was a very smart hitter," Baker said.  "He was even smarter when he came back from Japan (Johnson spent the 1975 and 1976 seasons in the Japanese League as a teammate of Sadaharu Oh)," Baker said.  "He knew how to set up pitchers.  He taught me that.  Sometimes he'd get on the plate to make them think he was looking for a ball outside.  He could back off the plate to make them think he was looking inside, when he was really looking outside."

"That year in particular he was as smart a hitter, I'd ever played with," Baker said.  "He got on a role.  His thinking was on par every day.  He was tired.  He was tired as a dog going after that record.  He was a fun guy to be around.  I was a kid then.  He was my locker partner.  He was always laughing.  Davey would crack himself up," Baker said.

"Davey is a smart guy.  He knows it.  Davey was using print outs before the computer was real big," Baker said.  "He was his own man."

Johnson was looking at statistics recently.  He discovered that the Reds and Nationals had roughly the same number of pinch hit at bats but the Reds pinch hitters had 30 more pinch hits.

"Thirty more hits and the one thing that you try to do as a manager to win ballgames is to match up your pinch hitters against the opponents bullpen," Johnson said.  "Dusty and I had a lot of fun we had.  The conversations we had with Henry (Aaron that Baker mentions all the time).  The only time he got mad at me was when I turned his stereo down. I was very fortunate to play with him.  We had fun in Atlanta, we just didn't have enough pitching.  I loved Dusty.  He was a great teammate.  He's done a great job managing.