Dusty: I’ll manage to win Series someday

WASHINGTON — In Nationals manager Dusty Baker’s mind, it is not “if ” but “when.” He will win the World Series as a manager. Someday. Somehow.

“There’s not much I’ve missed in life,” Baker, whose Nationals lost the decisive Game 5 of the NL Division Series 9-8 to the Cubs on Thursday night, said earlier in the series. “Missed being big man on college campus because I signed [with the major leagues] out of high school, and loving grandparents because they died before I was born.

“I know there’s a championship coming. I know it’s already written. All you’ve got to do is believe it and then act it. The way I look at it, hey, I always told you, if I win one, I’ll win two. That’s how I look at it.”

Baker, 68, won a ring as a player with the Dodgers in 1981. He managed the Giants to the World Series in 2002 — and lost to the Angels. He has more wins (1,863) than any active MLB manager, leading Bruce Bochy by 10. A three-time manager of the year who now is directing his fourth team, Baker knew win, lose or draw he was going home (“I was born in Riverside, California,” he said.), ultimately not to face the Dodgers in the NLCS, but to contemplate another Nationals season without a playoffseries win.

True, they have not lived in the shadow of the curses of the Billy Goat or the Bambino. But the franchise — which began as the Montreal Expos in 1969 before moving to Washington in 2005 — now is 1-for-6 in postseason series and 0-for-4 since the move.

“I don’t think it’s on too many guys’ minds because most of them weren’t here,” Baker said Thursday about the feeling of breaking through. “You can’t put that pressure on you.”

Just keep trying. There will be a ring eventually.

“What keeps me going is I love what I’m doing. I love competition. In our world, people always want people to quit, and I hear it all the time,” Baker said.

“What keeps me going is the quest for excellence, the thrill of competition, plus there’s a few things that I want to accomplish in life. And until I figure out why the lows of losing don’t match the highs of winning, then I’ll probably be a manager for a while. Not a long while, but a while.”