Headed for home
Giants manager Bochy plans to retire after 2019 season
Bruce Bochy surprised his Giants in Arizona with word Monday that he will retire as their manager after this season, his 13th at the helm in San Francisco and the final year on his contract.
Bochy said he made the decision in the offseason. He’s done a good job keeping that secret a secret. At the Giants’ recent FanFest, the 63-year-old skipper gave no indication of any intent to retire. He told me he felt great — he got a new hip in the offseason — and was as fired up as ever to manage.
“It’s what I love to do,” Bochy said. “It’s what I’ve been doing for 25 years, counting the minor leagues . ... If I retired, I probably would go somewhere and manage in retirement.”
Bochy’s first full-season managerial job was in 1990 with the Class A Riverside Red Wave. A return to Riverside isn’t an option for Bochy, since the Red Wave folded after that season, but there would be plenty of other minor-league teams that would welcome Bochy if he’s looking for a
retirement gig.
What such a team would get, and what the Giants will get in Bochy’s last rodeo, is a man with a deep feel for the game’s strategies and rhythms, an abiding respect for his players, and a relentless positivity that helps his team grind through the long season.
Reporters joke that if you asked Bochy about a starting pitcher who just lost his pitching arm, he would respond with a signature, “He’ll be fine.”
And Bochy, apparently, will be fine. Despite some heart issues in recent years, he said at FanFest that his health is great. His new hip will allow him to be pain-free and to exercise more and lose weight. He’s even tried paddleboarding.
If Bochy does look for a managing job next year — minor league, Little League, whatever — he packs a solid resume: 24 seasons as a bigleague manager (12 with both the Padres and Giants), four National League pennants (the Padres lost the 1998 World Series), three World Series titles (Giants in 2010, ’12, ’14), and a reputation as a solid, sage and steadying presence in the dugout and in the clubhouse. Knowledgeable baseball people say he has punched his own ticket to the Hall of Fame.
Ten managers in history have won at least three World Series titles, and the other nine are in the Hall. If Bochy goes to the Hall, unless the Giants win at least 91 games this year he would be the third manager in the
“Other managers or head coaches who are up there in age, they’d tell you the same — it’s passion that drives ’em.” Bruce Bochy
HOF with a losing career record, currently 1,926-1,944. (Connie Mack and Bucky Harris had losing records.)
Why is Bochy stepping down? It could be as simple as his explanation to his team and to the media: “It’s time.”
The changing of the game itself could be a contributing factor. Analytics have swept major-league baseball, and the Giants recently hired an analytics-driven president of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi. But Zaidi is not strictly a cyberbot, he is believed to have respect for Bochy’s baseball wisdom and leadership, and insiders say Bochy’s retirement is not the result of Zaidi cleaning house of the old-schoolers. Also, Bochy is not anti-analytics.
It could be as simple as Bochy not feeling up to the task of managing through a long rebuild, as the Giants struggle to rebound from a steady downturn since their 2014 World Series title.
As much as Bochy seems well equipped to handle baseball’s hard times, it’s like the late Bill Rigney said, “The wins never feel as good as the losses feel bad.”
Two springs ago, Bochy told The Chronicle’s John Shea, “Without question, it’s probably the major variable you look at (in deciding whether to retire) — do I have that chance to win? That’s the priority. When I go to spring training, do I have a legitimate chance to win?”
Whatever the reasons for his announcement, Bochy’s love of the game and the skipper job is undimmed. As he said last spring, “I still enjoy this as much as I did my first year.”
At FanFest, Bochy said, “I can’t tell you right now (how long he’ll manage), but it’s what I love to do. I think you look at other managers or head coaches (in other sports) who are up there in age, they’d tell you the same — it’s passion that drives ’em. There’s nothing like getting to the postseason, winning the championship. The feeling is so hard to describe, but when you’ve been there, you just get so hungry to get back there even more.”
Now Bochy has one last chance to do just that.