Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Giants’ Bochy prepares to exit after respected career.
SAN FRANCISCO — Bruce Bochy once took a bat to a flat-screen TV during a San Francisco Giants team meeting to make a point to his players. It just took a few more swings than he expected because it didn’t break on the first attempt as he had figured.
“It’s not like a regular TV where it shatters, it just went thud,” Bochy recalled.
Such moments of madness were rare for Bochy, who is known more for his even-keel temperament, and that made them all the more meaningful. While his legacy in San Francisco will always be capturing those three World Series titles in a remarkable five-year span, Bochy’s reputation for fairness and having a genuine way of dealing with players has been of utmost importance to him during a decorated 25-year managerial career.
“My hope is they know I care. I don’t always get it right as far as communicating,” said Bochy, who wraps up what has certainly been a Hall of Fame career this weekend. “I know there have been players who questioned how fair I was, too, and that’s going to happen in this job. If most of the guys feel that way (he was fair), it makes me feel good. I appreciate that. That means a lot to me.”
Bochy has spent the last 13 seasons with the Giants following 12 in San Diego, where he guided a Padres club led by Hall of Famers Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman to the 1998 World Series. San Diego got swept by the Yankees. He never got fired along the way, joking he beat the Padres to it when he departed for their NL West rival up north.
A former first-round pick catcher who played nine major league seasons with Houston, the New York Mets and Padres, he opted to announce his retirement plans early in spring training to avoid any distractions for his club considering he faced regular questions about his future. He manages his last game Sunday.
Bochy arrived in the Bay Area just ahead of home run king Barry Bonds’ final season of 2007. He managed Bonds through his successful pursuit of Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record, choosing when to rest the seven-time NL MVP and when to push him amid the daily pressures of chasing the record.
Another Barry, Barry Zito, will never forget Bochy’s respectful approach in telling the left-hander — earning a team-high $18.5 million at the time — that he wouldn’t make the playoff roster in 2010, when the Giants went on to capture their first World Series title since moving West in 1958. They made it an every-other-year thing after that, winning titles again in the even years of 2012 and ’14.
“Such a professional. Boch is so composed. It’s almost like it doesn’t mean anything anymore when guys are yelling, but with Bochy he’s always so composed so when he did get mad or raise his voice — or, take a baseball bat through a flat-screen TV — then you’d listen,” Zito said. “He did that once. It was probably ’08. He had to have very difficult discussions with me about leaving me off the roster in 2010. He was always just so amazing at handling his players.”
Others have noticed from afar how Bochy handles the tough matters.
“We have shared and exchanged ideas and thoughts over the years from a managerial basis,” said Pirates manager Clint Hurdle, who played against Bochy and also managed regularly against him while with Colorado. “Watching from afar, the number of quality, elite players that have gone through here, they all speak glowingly of him on their way out. I don’t know if anybody bats 1.000. He bats close to 1.000. I also think he’s remained true to himself in his core beliefs.”