Melvin excited for ‘last stop’ with hometown team

Bob Melvin knows and embraces San Francisco Giants history. He’s part of that history as a former catcher, and he’ll make some more history as the manager in 2024.

Melvin’s sentiments about the organization were unmistakable at the Giants’ annual Play Ball Lunch at Oracle Park before Tuesday’s final spring training exhibition. His connection with the Bay Area is well-chronicled — played at Menlo-Atherton High School and Cal and with the Giants, and managed the Oakland A’s for 11 years — and this is a full-circle opportunity that he relishes.

“To be from this area and to be able to manage the A’s and the Giants, that’s beyond a dream come true,” Melvin said at the event, a fundraiser for the Junior Giants program. It was attended by players, coaches, team officials and fans. “I know we’re all Giants here, but the Bay Area is the Bay Area, and being able to do this and especially come back here and probably do this as my last stop, it’s pretty cool stuff.”

It’s not the first time Melvin has dropped a “last stop” reference when discussing his latest gig; in October, he agreed to a three-year contract. Asked after the lunch to elaborate, the 62year-old said, “I’ve been doing this a long time, and to come back here, there’s no other place I’m going to want to go besides here. As long as they have me. There’s nowhere else I intend to go at all.”

During the lunch, Melvin and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi were interviewed by broadcasters Jon Miller and Mike Krukow, both of whom noted the roster construction was a work in progress that carried into spring training with the additions of free agents Jorge Soler, Matt Chapman and Blake Snell.

“We feel like as a group now, this is the team we’ve been looking for the entire offseason,” Melvin said. “As the spring went along, we got better and better. The feeling in our room when we signed some of these guys and brought them in in the middle of spring, it’s been fantastic, especially toward the end when we knew the group we were going to have.”

Asked which players he suggested to Zaidi to sign, Melvin said, “The guys that he got.”

Melvin revealed that when he joined the Giants in 1986, Krukow pushed him to run up and down stadium stairs, something Melvin continued doing over his career and still does to this day.

“Kruk originally said, ‘Rookie, you’re coming with me. This is what we’re going to do,’ ” Melvin said. “It became a foundation of what I do. I do my thinking before games. I do it in every ballpark. It’s become who I am. I have a lot of stories about Mike Krukow, but he really helped me become who I am in the game today.”