SANDOVAL EAGER TO SEE MANAGER BOCHY
Infielder hasn't seen his former skipper since the end of 2019 season
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. >> Breaking from a rambunctious Sunday morning conversation in Spanish with Jorge Soler, Pablo Sandoval grabbed the bat from his locker and began to make his way toward the clubhouse door and on to the batting cages for his morning hitting routine when a reporter interrupted him midstride.
Sandoval didn't have time to talk, he said. That is, until he learned of the subject of the conversation.
“Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,” Sandoval said. “I want to see Boch. I want to give him a hug. Congratulate him about last year. And thank me for all the support and advice he gave me to get back to the field.”
Yes, Sandoval was happy to make an exception to talk about the manager with whom he won three World Series and spent the first 10 years of his career. When his new manager, Bob Melvin, asked him about making the hour-long trek to Surprise for their exhibition against Bruce Bochy's Rangers, again Sandoval was glad to oblige.
“I told him I would love to go because we've got a great relationship,” Sandoval said. “It's special to have a manager for 10 years in your career and still have the communication, the relationship with him. He called me son.”
Despite their bond, Sandoval said the last time he saw Bochy in person was at the end of the 2019 season, when Bochy stepped away from the Giants.
Now back in the manager's seat — and a newly minted World Series champion for the fourth time — Bochy heard from Sandoval this offseason, when the 37-year-old was beginning to spread the word that he was back in shape and attempting to make a comeback.
Sandoval said he also had an outstanding offer from the Rangers to come to camp as a non-roster invitee, but he chose the Giants over Bochy.
“I was sending workout videos to him too,” Sandoval said. “He was excited. He was happy to see me back in shape and happy to love the game again.”
Melvin, who overlapped with Bochy on the other side of the Bay for Bochy's final nine years in San Francisco — and two of his World Series titles — said
he had a “really good” relationship with his counterpart, with whom he's been known to share a bottle of wine.
“I don't have anything for him today,” Melvin said. “Won a World Series; he can give me one now.”