He loved job from beginning
Bruce Bochy found his true calling in 1989.
Retired after a nineyear career as a bigleague backup catcher, Bochy began his real career. The Chronicle sat down with Bochy recently to talk about his rookie season as a manager, with the shortseason Class A Spokane Indians. Q: How did your managerial career start? A: In 1987, I broke my hand on Opening Day (with the Padres). It was a pretty rough year, the hand never really healed up, and that’s when I
started thinking, maybe it’s time for me to start another chapter and get into managing, which is what I knew I wanted to do.
So the next year, I became a playercoach for a TripleA affiliate in Las Vegas, and that’s when I knew it was time for me to get on this side. (The Padres) gave me that opportunity the next year in Spokane, in rookie ball. I wanted to start at the bottom.
I just fell I love with it. Man, I was having the best time. I wasn’t even thinking about managing in the major leagues, I would have done it in the minor leagues the rest of my life, that’s how much I loved it. I just really found my passion, and I was really happy where I was.
I loved it. I loved taking the buses with the kids, hopefully helping impact them, teaching them the game of baseball, and really, how to carry themselves. I remembered my first manager in professional ball, Billy Smith, how much he impacted me, and I wanted to try to do the same with these kids. It was a lot of fun. We ended up winning the championship that year, which made it even more fun. Q: You didn’t mind the lifestyle downgrade from bigleague luxury to riding buses in the bush leagues? A: We had a bus driver. I’ll be honest, we had some long trips, going from Spokane to Boise (seven hours) or Everett to Salem (four hours). Our bus driver, I could see his head nodding sometimes, so I’d get a little nervous. Q: So you’d talk to him? A: No. My way of disciplining a player if he missed curfew or did something wrong, I made him sit in the front seat beside the bus driver and talk to him, make sure he stayed awake.
Great memories. My pitching coach wound up being my general manager (when Bochy later managed the Padres), a guy named Kevin Towers (he died in 2018). He was from Medford, we ended up playing Medford in the championship series, that was Oakland’s affiliate. We had a heck of a series.
I know it’s all about being in the major leagues, but those times in the minor leagues are special memories. Because, really, you probably get a little bit closer, you wind up spending a lot more time together. Between my family and my coaches, we all became a real closeknit family. Q: You had a small coaching staff, I’m guessing? A: We had a pitching coach (Towers) and another coach, Tom Brassel. One trainer. Really, you do have to do it all, it forces you to learn all aspects of the game.
I was the only one that could throw batting practice, so I threw the whole batting practice every day. Towers had a bone chip, so he couldn’t throw strikes. Brassel had “the thing,” he couldn’t throw strikes. So I threw 40, 45 minutes every day, plus early hitting.
That’s just what you did, and I loved it. It was probably the best thing for me was to start down there, and really learn about not just the game, but the players, dealing with different situations. We had a kid who got homesick, ended up leaving. These are things that I had never had to deal with. Each experience helps you in the future. Q: Was your family with you in Spokane? A: They came up (from San Diego) when school was out. My boys would travel with me, on the bus, I tried to make up for lost time by taking them with me on the road. Our oldest, Greg, was 10 (Brett was 1). Sometimes he’d batboy, he’d get out and shag. It made up for lost time. We’re all very close now. I think that’s a big reason we are, because we spent time together on the road. Q: What was your biggest challenge in handling players that season? A: Probably more than anything, just reeling ’em in and keeping their focus on the field. Young kids, they’re having fun, and you want them to have fun, but you gotta do all you can to become the best player you can be. And sometimes they don’t realize that this is their opportunity, they need to take full advantage of it. That’s your job as a coach or manager, to help them, and hopefully to inspire them.
And trust me, the money in the minor leagues, especially at that time, wasn’t what kept you going. That first year, I made $20,000. So I wasn’t in it for the money. Q: Do you ever run into players from those minorleague teams? A: It’s really cool when I have an old player from the minor leagues that comes by to see me. What’s really neat is to see how much they appreciate what you did for them. Unless they kept something from me, they were always very grateful for what I did, or what the coaches did for ’em.
Funny story, I was in Colorado. I was taking Dave Groeschner, my (Giants) trainer, to a fishing spot that Goose Gossage owned in Leadville. We had a day off. I got pulled over for speeding. They had a speed zone, it was 55. I didn’t see the sign. This policeman pulled me over, he reminded me of Barney Fife. Gets my license, calls the dispatcher.
Well, the dispatcher was a cop who had played for me in Riverside (Bochy’s second season managing). He told the cop who pulled me over, ‘Whatever you do, do not give this man a ticket. This man did so much for me.’ So I got off. Q: When you guys won the championship in Spokane, did you have a big celebration? A: We did! We had the Champagne, everything, yeah. We got rings. It was a big celebration.
I still have pictures from those (early managing) years in my office at home. Still have all those rings (three championships in four minorleague seasons). It’s pretty cool. They bring back good memories, so I cherish ’em.