On a mellower, calmer Baker: "If I'm good, the team's good"

MIAMI - Manager Dusty Baker was away from the team last week to attend to a death in the family. During that time, bench coach Chris Speier managed the club. Speier spoke about his close friendship with Baker and how their relationship has been solidified with trust built over decades of working together.

Speier commented this time around he has seen a change in Baker's demeanor as a manager. Baker relishes the victories. But Speier noted that Baker now doesn't take the losses as hard as he did when he first started out in managing.

"I know now that Dusty, earlier on, this game wore on him, I could tell," Speier said last week. "This time around, he just seems a lot happier and a lot more at peace and he doesn't take defeat, doesn't take losses, doesn't take down times as hard as he used to. It's really refreshing. Makes us turn the page a lot quicker, too."

On Monday night, the Nationals lost 4-3 to the Marlins. Miami benefited from the Nationals' tough plays in the outfield, an off-line throw to home plate and a mistake on the base paths to solidify the win. In the past, Baker might have gone off after the game or taken those plays with him back to the team hotel and stew all night.

But there was Baker in his postgame meeting with the media in his office at Marlins Park, talking about those plays and explaining how the club would learn from the loss and move forward, calmly and with confident determination.

Baker said before Monday's game that his demeanor is more calm this time around, his 21st season as a manager with his fourth major league club. And he has had a lot of success: Manager of the Year three times, runner-up three times.

Has he mellowed since those early days as a skipper? Yes, because he had to.

"Yeah, it's true. It's true because my health suffered before," Baker said. "No. 1, it didn't do any good. It took a wake-up call for me to realize it didn't do any good. I still don't take them very well. Anybody knows me knows I'm not a good loser. But on the other hand, is it worth getting my emotions up so high that it's counterproductive for my health? That's my No. 1 thing is probably keep my health. If my health's good, I'm good. If I'm good, the team's good."

Baker said he came to this realization not from his family or another coach or player telling him, but through a different, much more critical warning that threatened his health.

"I didn't come to it on my own," Baker said. "God made me come to that realization cause I had a mini-stroke. And a mini-stroke can be followed by a major stroke. So at this point in time, I took the time off. Well, I was given the time off. I was like OK, you regroup.

"Then you realize what's important to you and your family. You come to this realization. It actually helps my productivity in this job. This is a tough job. You see guys in different sports have health problems. This is a tough job, but it is a very gratifying job. This is something I take pride in doing and try to do to the best of my abilities."

Speier said having a leader like Baker rubs off on the team, too. They are calm in the face of a difficult stretch. They have managed their way out of short losing streaks (like the current three-game skid) to build a sizable lead atop the division all summer long. The players are confident they can see this through, in part because of Baker's calm and steady leadership.

"I almost want to say sometimes he's like a brother, an older brother - I have to say older, because he is older," Speier smiled. "From wisdom and experience at times, like an older brother at times, he's like a very close friend and in times of need and in times of questions that I have about like, he's almost like the father. I know he fills that role for a lot of the guys on the team, too."