Bruce Bochy Puts a Cherry on His Cooperstown Sundae with His 4th World Championship

Tonight, manager Bruce Bochy led the Texas Rangers to the franchise’s first World Series Championship in the 63-year history of the franchise. The 68-year-old Bochy, in his first season with the Rangers, won his 4th World Series title in the last 14 years, an incredible record when you consider that he managed only 11 of those 14 years in a league with 30 teams.

Bochy won three World Series titles with the San Francisco Giants, in the even years of 2010, 2012, and 2014. After the 2019 campaign, Bochy decided to retire and it didn’t seem like he would ever serve in the dugout again. However, last October, Rangers’ General Manager Chris Young convinced Bochy to take one last ride.

This was arguably the finest managing job of his career. The Rangers lost 102 games in 2021 and 94 games in 2022. The team, to be sure, invested in winning, signing free agents infielders Corey Seager and Marcus Semien in the 2021-22 offseason and starters Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom this past offseason, but deGrom barely pitched before being shelved for the season with Tommy John surgery.

Young also made a move to get Jordan Montgomery and future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer for the stretch run, but Scherzer missed the last few weeks of the season and most of the playoffs.

Bochy’s Rangers led the American League West for most of the season but slumped badly in August and early September, losing 16 out of 20 games. After that woeful stretch, Texas won 12 out of 16 and had a 2.5-game lead in the division with just 6 games to go in the season. However, the team lost 4 of their last 6 games to finish the season with a 90-72 record, putting them tied with the Houston Astros. Under baseball’s new postseason format, there are no tiebreaker games. The Astros had the edge in the season series, making the Rangers the Wild Card team.

But being wild is something Bochy knows well. His Giants were one of the two Wild Card teams in 2014, won a one-game playoff, and then proceeded to take their third World Series title in five seasons.

In 2023, Bochy took his team on an incredible road trip, first sweeping the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg in the Wild Card Series, followed by a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles in the Division Series, which included another two wins on the road.

In the ALCS, the Rangers took on Dusty Baker‘s Houston Astros in a matchup of two skippers who faced off against each other countless times during their decades in the National League. The road team won all seven games in the series, with the Rangers taking the pennant in Game 7.

And, tonight, the Rangers finished off a 4-to-1 World Series win against the Arizona Diamondbacks, winning all three games in Phoenix. All told, incredibly, the Rangers won 11 straight games on the road to complete their unlikely journey from Wild Card to World Champions.

After the game, Bochy reflected on the incredible journey he had just completed in a bit over 12 months, recalling the call he got from Young to return to the dugout.

“It’s unreal. I was sitting on a recliner there in Nashville just enjoying myself when he called me, and, I’ll tell you what, I am so honored to ride with these guys. They inspired me with how resilient they’ve been but to get this call and be a part of this, I know how blessed I am. I can’t thank these guys enough.”

— Bruce Bochy, Texas Rangers Manager (Nov. 1, 2023)

Bochy is now only the 4th manager to win four or more World Series titles, joining Hall of Famers Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel, Connie Mack, Joe Torre, and Walter Alston. To have achieved this in playoff formats with 8, 10, or 12 teams is truly remarkable.

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Cooperstown Cred: Bruce Bochy

• Managed the San Diego Padres (1995-2006), San Francisco Giants (2007-19), Texas Rangers (2023)
• Career as Manager: 2,093-2,101 (.499) in 26 seasons
• 2,093 career managerial wins are the 10th most in baseball history
• 2nd manager ever to manage in MLB for 25 consecutive seasons
• Won 4 World Series with Giants (2010, 2012, 2014) & Rangers (2023)
• Led the Padres to their 2nd World Series appearance ever (1998)
• Led the Padres to four of the franchise’s five postseason appearances
• Only manager to win 900+ games with two franchises
• 1996 N.L. Manager of the Year

(cover photo: USA Today/Kim Klement Neitzel)

This piece was originally written on the date of Bochy’s last game with the Giants (in September 2019). It has been updated in the hours after Bochy’s 4th World Series Championship. Most of the rest of the piece is as it was one year ago.

Bruce Bochy: Early Life and Playing Career

Bruce Douglas Bochy was born on April 16, 1955, in Bussac-Forêt in southwest France. His father, Sgt. Major Gus Bochy, was stationed there with the U.S. Army at the time. As a military brat, Bochy’s childhood included stops in the Panama Canal Zone, South Carolina, northern Virginia, and Melbourne, Florida, where he attended high school.

Bochy’s father often had his family (3 boys and a girl) listen to baseball broadcasts on Armed Forces Radio. He made his sons catchers because they were slow, joking that they had gotten the “slow” gene from their mother Rose.

Bruce, who was the third of Gus’ four children, had a 9-year Major League Baseball career as a backup catcher for the Houston Astros, New York Mets, and San Diego Padres. The 6’3″ backstop was known in baseball for having one of the game’s largest cap sizes, with a size measurement of 8​¹⁄_8.

With the Astros in 1980, Bochy was a part of a notable play in Game 4 of the legendary NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies. With a tie score in the 10th inning, two outs, and Pete Rose on first base, Greg Luzinski doubled to left field. On the throw to home plate, Bochy bobbled the ball just a split second before Rose knocked him over. With that go-ahead run scoring (and another after that), Philadelphia won the contest 5-3 (and the next one) to advance to the World Series.

Bochy had just 881 career plate appearances in his 9 MLB seasons; he hit .239 with 26 home runs. Interestingly, three of Bochy’s 26 career taters were game-enders, including the only walk-off blast ever given up by Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. In another piece of trivia, Bochy also took future Cooperstown inductee Steve Carlton deep five weeks before his home run off Ryan. These home runs occurred in 1985, the year that Ryan and Carlton were battling for the all-time strikeout lead.

Bruce Bochy’s Managerial Career Begins

Bochy, as a backup catcher, had lots of time in his MLB career to think about game management and strategy. In 1989, he was hired by Padres General Manager Jack McKeon for his first managerial job (in the Northwest League with the Spokane Indians). He would manage for two seasons in the California League (Riverside and High Desert) and one in the Texas League (Wichita), where he won the 1992 title. After those four minor league managerial gigs, Bochy was tabbed to coach third base for the big club in San Diego under new manager Jim Riggleman.

Riggleman’s two seasons as the Friars’ skipper were quite miserable, with 117 wins against 174 losses. Riggleman didn’t really get a fair shot. In the summer of ’93, owner Tom Werner commanded his new General Manager, Randy Smith, to trade some of the team’s best assets. First baseman Fred McGriff was dealt to the Atlanta Braves, while third baseman Gary Sheffield was shipped to the Florida Marlins. Future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn was the only star to remain. Gwynn’s run at a .400 batting average (he finished with a .394 BA) was the highlight of the strike-shortened season in San Diego.

The Padres’ fire sale did yield some valuable returns. Future Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman came back in the Sheffield deal, while a trade with Colorado brought back starter Andy Ashby in exchange for veterans Bruce Hurst and Greg Harris.

During the off-season of the player strike, Riggleman was let go, and Bochy was named the new Padres manager for 1995. From Tom Verducci’s piece about Bochy, the 39-year-old coach was the only candidate considered by Smith. Smith called Bochy the “best managerial prospect in the game.”

In his second year after taking over the managerial reins, Bochy led the 1996 Padres to 91 wins, an N.L. West title and back into the playoffs for the first time since 1984, when he was Terry Kennedy‘s backup catcher. The Friars were swept in the NLDS by the St. Louis Cardinals, but that didn’t change the fact that it was 2nd most successful season in the Padres’ 28-year history.

1998: The Padres get Back to the Fall Classic

The Padres regressed in 1997 (to 76 wins) but rebounded in a big way in 1998. Bochy and the Friars were the beneficiaries of another fire sale, this one executed by the ’97 World Champion Marlins. In December 1997, second-year GM Kevin Towers acquired ace starter Kevin Brown from Florida.

With Brown leading the rotation, Hoffman anchoring the bullpen, and a career season from left fielder Greg Vaughn (50 HR, 119 RBI), Bochy’s Padres cruised to 98 wins and an easy N.L. West title. In the playoffs, the Padres defeated the 102-win Houston Astros in 4 games in the NLDS and then the 106-win Atlanta Braves in a 6-game NLCS. The win over the Braves, the two-time defending N.L. pennant winners, was notable in that Bochy’s Padres defeated a team with three future Hall of Famers in their starting rotation: Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz.

The World Series didn’t go quite as well. Facing Joe Torre’s New York Yankees, who won a whopping 114 regular season games, the Padres were swept in 4 games.

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1999-2006: Final Years in San Diego

The magic of 1998 was not replicated by Bruce Bochy’s 1999 San Diego Padres, thanks to another payroll-cutting exercise by team management. Ace starter Brown became a free agent and signed with the Friars’ rivals 100 miles north, the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team fell to 74 wins and would not have another winning season until 2004 when they won 87 games to finish 3rd in the N.L. West.

In 2005, San Diego finally returned to the postseason, winning the West despite only 82 wins. To even get those 82 wins was quite an accomplishment, considering the team was outscored by 42 runs. The Padres were swept in the NLDS by the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Padres won 88 games in 2006, winning the West again, but lost in the NLDS for the second year in a row to St. Louis. After 12 seasons in San Diego, with the blessing of GM Kevin Towers, Bochy chose to leave the Padres. He signed a three-year contract to be the manager of the San Francisco Giants on October 26, 2006.

2007-09: Early Years in San Francisco

Bruce Bochy took over the Giants in a transitional phase for the franchise. After 8 consecutive winning seasons under Dusty Baker and Felipe Alou from 1997-2004, the team fell to 75 wins in 2005 and 76 in 2006. Bochy’s first campaign in the Bay Area was the same as the last for star left fielder Barry Bonds. Even at the age of 42, Bonds was the Giants’ best offensive player, but that wasn’t saying a whole lot; the rest of the position players didn’t hit much at all. On a squad with a team ERA of 4.19, the Giants won just 71 games.

Bonds wasn’t brought back for the 2008 season, leaving the Giants with nobody who could carry an offense. The team’s OPS was .703, 2nd worst in the N.L. Combine that with a 4.38 staff ERA, and you have a formula for a 70-win team. Still, there was one large, shiny bright spot in 24-year-old starting pitcher Tim Lincecum, who won the N.L. Cy Young with an 18-5 record and a 2.62 ERA. The 170-pound “Freak” would become a Bochy favorite.

Lincecum won another Cy Young in 2009, and, with Matt Cain emerging as an ace in his own right, the Giants improved to 88 wins, leaving them just 4 games shy of the postseason. With the exception of his 22-year third baseman (Pablo Sandoval), San Francisco still didn’t have much in the way of offense, scoring the 4th fewest runs in the league. Still, with Lincecum, Cain, and a 20-year lefty named Madison Bumgarner, a September call-up, the Giants had the foundation for a playoff-worthy starting rotation.

2010: First Ever Championship in San Francisco

One of the remarkable things about Bruce Bochy’s 25-year managerial record is that he never had a wealth of big stars to work with. When looking at his roster compared to the others in the postseason parties, Bochy’s was never the one you would bet the farm on. Still, the 2010 Giants did have two top rookies, catcher Buster Posey and Bumgarner.

The 2010 Giants won 92 games, and the N.L. West; that was five fewer wins than the 97 logged by the two-time defending N.L. champion Philadelphia Phillies. The Giants and Phillies each won their respective NLDS series fairly easily, setting up an NLCS matchup in which Charlie Manuel‘s Phils were heavily favored.

Lincecum was still solid but didn’t pitch at a Cy Young level in 2010. Philadelphia, meanwhile, had future Hall of Famer Roy Halladay leading their rotation. The 33-year Cy Young winner was coming off a no-hitter in his first-ever postseason start, Game 1 of the NLDS against the Cincinnati Reds.

Halladay and Lincecum squared off in Game 1 of the NLCS, and, in what would be a Giants’ trademark under Bochy, it was a bit player who was the offensive star. Journeyman outfielder Cody Ross, a late-season acquisition, hit two home runs off Halladay, helping the Giants to a 4-3 win. In Games 4 and 6, it was shortstop Juan Uribe who was the hitting star; the 31-year-old Dominican hit a walk-off sacrifice fly in Game 4 and a tie-breaking, 8th-inning home run in the decisive Game 6.

In the World Series, the Giants were matched up against the Texas Rangers and one of baseball’s biggest stars, Josh Hamilton, who would be the A.L. MVP (.359 BA, 43 HR, 128 RBI, 1.044 OPS). The Rangers made it to the Fall Classic by defeating the defending World Series champion Yankees.

The Giants won in 5 games, with Lincecum winning the first and final tilt. Bumgarner, just 21 years old, established his postseason mettle by tossing 8 innings of scoreless ball in Game 4. The hitting hero was the team’s backup shortstop, 34-year-old Edgar Renteria.

It was the first-ever World Series title for the Giants in San Francisco and the franchise’s first championship since 1954 when the team was in the Polo Grounds.

2012: Encore Performance

The 2011 San Francisco Giants won 86 games, missing the postseason by 4 wins. In what would become an every-other-year tradition, the team returned to the playoffs in 2012. The Giants won 94 games, and the N.L. West crown, thanks largely to a breakout MVP campaign from Posey (.336 BA, .406 OBP, 24 HR, 103 RBI, 171 OPS+).

In what was a normal situation for Bruce Bochy, his team was the underdog in the first round of the playoffs. The Giants faced off against Dusty Baker’s 97-win Reds. Cincinnati won the first two games of the series, making every game an elimination game for San Francisco. Thanks to five scoreless innings from Bochy’s outstanding bullpen crew and an unlikely 10th-inning error by Reds’ third baseman Scott Rolen, the Giants won Game 3 by a 2-1 score. The Giants then proceeded to torch the Reds’ starting pitchers in the next two games, leading to a 3-2 series win.

In the NLCS, the Giants again needed all available games, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in a full seven tilts. Continuing the tradition of journeyman stars, the hitting stud was 36-year-old second baseman Marco Scutaro, a mid-season acquisition from Colorado. Scutaro hit .500 with a 1.140 OPS in the seven-game series.

In the World Series, the Giants were up against two of the game’s biggest stars, starting pitcher Justin Verlander (the 2011 MVP and Cy Young winner) and third baseman Miguel Cabrera (the 2012 MVP and Triple Crown Winner). So what happened? It was the Giants’ third sacker (Sandoval, the Kung Fu Panda) who stole the show, hitting two Game 1 home runs off Verlander and another off reliever Al Albuquerque. The Game 1 victory set the tone for what would be a 4-game sweep and second title in 3 seasons.

2014: Third Title in Five Years

Bruce Bochy’s Giants had another World Series hangover in 2015, falling all the way to 76 wins, but were back to play in October 2016, getting into the playoff party as one of the Wild Card teams. This was the second season in which Major League Baseball established a “play-in game” between two Wild Cards.

As I’m sure all readers will remember, 2014 was the postseason in which Bumgarner established himself as an October legend. In the Wild Card game in Pittsburgh, Mad-Bum tossed a 4-hit shutout in the Giants’ 8-0 shellacking of the Pirates. In the NLDS, the Giants were underdogs again against the 96-win Washington Nationals, who had the best record in the league. Thanks to an 18-inning 2-1 win in Game 2, the Giants prevailed in 4 games.

In the NLCS, against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Giants only needed 5 games. Continuing the Bochy tradition, it was a 31-year-old backup first baseman (Travis Ishikawa, a mid-season pickup) who delivered the signature blow, a 3-run walk-off tater in the decisive Game 5. The NLCS win set up a World Series matchup against the Kansas City Royals, in the playoffs for the first time since 1985.

The Giants and Royals split the first 6 games, with Bumgarner giving up just 1 run in 16 innings in San Francisco wins in Games 1 and 5. It was Game 7 in Kansas City in which Bochy showed how well he knows his pitchers. Veteran starting pitcher Tim Hudson, an All-Star in a season in which he turned 39 years of age, was the elimination game starter. Hudson had won 214 MLB games but, on this night, had the shortest of short leashes. After giving up just 2 runs in 1.2 innings, Bochy lifted the veteran for left-hander Jeremy Affeldt, who delivered 2.1 innings of scoreless ball.

In the bottom of the 5th, Bochy went to Bumgarner, two days after the 25-year-old lefty had tossed a complete game in San Francisco. What Mad-Bum then did is refuse to give up the ball. He delivered 5 scoreless innings, all while the Giants were clinging to a 3-2 lead. After the first four innings and 52 pitches, Bochy certainly could have gone to closer Santiago Casilla. The 34-year-old veteran, after all, had a 1.70 regular season ERA and had tossed 7.1 scoreless innings in the postseason. It didn’t matter. Bochy knew that he could ride his young horse to the finish line. Mad-Bum pitched a scoreless 9th, stranding the tying run on 3rd base, to earn the longest save in postseason history.

Overall, Bumgarner went 4-1 with that Game 7 save and a 1.03 ERA in 52.2 postseason innings in 2014. In so doing, he likely sealed the Cooperstown case for his manager and created an October legend of his own.

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2015-19: Bruce Bochy’s Final Years in San Francisco

After a playoff-free 2015 season (the every other year thing starting to become a pre-assumed reality), the Giants returned to the playoffs in 2016, earning the 2nd Wild Card spot in an 87-win season. For the Wild Card game, the Giants flew to New York to take on the defending N.L. pennant-winning Mets. The winner-take-all all game featured the 6’4″, 242-pound Bumgarner against the Mets’ 6’6″, 240-pound Noah Syndergaard.

The big hurlers matched zeroes for 7 innings, but Mad-Bum did it with fewer pitches, allowing him to toss a complete game shutout while the Giants scored 3 runs in the top of the 9th against Mets closer Jeurys Familia. The runs came courtesy of a three-run blast from yet another journeyman, 28-year-old backup third baseman Conor Gillaspie.

The magic finally came to an end, however, in the N.L. Division Series. Up against Joe Maddon‘s 103-win Chicago Cubs, the Giants finally met their match and fell 3 Games to 1.

The 4th Game, in San Francisco, ended in a manner wholly inconsistent with Bochy’s brilliant postseason managing. The Giants had a 5-2 lead coming into the top of the 9th inning. Starter Matt Moore had delivered a 120-pitch gem, giving up just 2 runs in 8 innings. In the 9th, five different Giants’ relievers combined to give up 4 runs to fall behind 6-5. The manager who so often pushed all the right buttons couldn’t find the right option this night. Cubs’ closer Aroldis Chapman struck out the side in the bottom of the 9th to send the Cubs to the NLCS and, eventually, their first World Championship since 1908.

Bruce Bochy would never manage in the postseason again. The 2017 team was truly awful, going 64-98, with the ’18 and ’19 editions not much better, winning 73 and 77 games, respectively.

In 2019, which seemed likely to be the last season of his managerial career, Bochy won his 2,000th career in a mid-September matchup against the Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston. Even in a stadium where he hardly ever managed, the knowledgeable Red Sox fans showed their appreciation by giving Bochy a rousing ovation. Still, not all stories have happy endings. Bochy’s career ended with the Dodgers sweeping three games this weekend at Oracle Park.

Bruce Bochy’s Last Rodeo in San Francisco

On September 29, 2019, at Oracle Park, the 64-year-old Bruce Bochy managed the 4,032nd game of his career, one that was seemingly his last. Bochy, having skippered the San Diego Padres for 12 seasons and the San Francisco Giants for 13, is the only manager other than Hall of Famer Connie Mack to hold a Major League Baseball managing job for 25 continuous seasons. Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 straight campaigns; as the owner of the team, he didn’t have to worry about being fired.

On the field, Bochy’s final game didn’t go well; the Giants lost 9-0 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. That didn’t change the affection that the San Francisco faithful felt for their longtime skipper on the day of his last rodeo.

“I just hope I made the right decision. I don’t want to be sitting around next summer wishing I was still managing. I want to be sure this is right.”

— Bruce Bochy, to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (Sept. 27, 2019)

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Prior to 2020, the previous calendar year in which Bruce Bochy was not the manager of a California-based Major League Baseball club was 1994. This was the year in which Phil Rizzuto, Leo Durocher, and Steve Carlton were inducted into the Hall of Fame; it was the year that the World Series was canceled due to a player strike.

In 1994, Bill Clinton was in his second year as President of the United States, and O.J. Simpson led the LAPD on a long, slow chase in a White Ford Bronco. The NBC hit show Friends was in its first season; 47-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in the movie True Lies with Jamie Lee Curtis, 9 years before he would become the governor of the Golden State.

In 1994, cellular telephones were wired directly into automobiles, people sent faxes rather than emails, and computers used floppy disks for storage. This was the world we lived in the last year before 2020 when Bruce Bochy didn’t helm an MLB team in California.

Of course, Bochy decided that he needed one final ride in the dugout. He signed a three-year contract with the Texas Rangers in October 2022 and, just over one year later, won his 4th World Series title.

Is it Inevitable that Bruce Bochy will Make the Hall of Fame?

This is an easy yes to the question posed here, in spite of the fact that Bochy’s career record is under .500. After all, the longtime Padres and Giants leader is one of only 11 managers in baseball history to win over 2,000 games. The other 10 all have plaques in Cooperstown. Only 12 skippers have been entrusted to manage teams in at least 25 different seasons.

Of the others, only Gene Mauch and Dusty Baker managed 25 or more teams and are not in the Hall. Mauch, like Bochy, also had an under-.500 record (1,902-2,037). The obvious difference between is the two is Bochy’s four rings to Mauch’s none. As for Baker, he finally got the October monkey off his back with the Astros’ World Series title last fall.

Of course, Bochy’s four World Series championships are by far the biggest credential in his favor. Only 10 MLB managers own at least three rings, and only five others have won four. Again, the others are all in the Hall of Fame. And what about Bochy’s five pennants? There are actually 16 skippers who have appeared in at least 5 Fall Classics and the other 15 all have plaques in that wonderful museum in upstate New York. The side-note here is that two of those managers (Fred Clarke and Frank Chance) were inducted as players.

Is there any precedent for a manager to make the Hall of Fame with more losses on their ledger than wins? Actually, the answer is “yes.” Connie Mack, who conducted more than one fire sale of his Athletics as owner-manager, won “only” 3,731 games against his 3,948 losses for a .486 winning percentage.

In addition, Bucky Harris has a career 2,158-2,219 W-L record (.493). Harris, who managed 6 of the 8 teams in the American League during his 29 years in the dugout, won two World Series and three pennants. Harris, as the manager of the New York Yankees in 1947 and ’48 (the team won the Fall Classic in ’47), was the bridge between the Joe McCarthy dynasty and the Casey Stengel dynasty.

What are the Odds?

It’s amazing when you think about it, what Bruce Bochy’s Giants did in 2010, ’12, and ’14 and what the Rangers did in 2023. There were 8 teams in the 2010 and 2012 playoffs, with 10 in 2014, and 12 in 2023. The Giants had the 5th best record in Major League Baseball in 2010, tied for the 4th best record in 2012, and tied for the 8th best in 2014. The Rangers tied for the 6th best record in 2023.

In none of the three championship seasons could one say that the San Francisco Giants were the favorites. And yet they won all three times. What are the odds of that? Well, in 2010 and ’12, they were one of eight teams to make the playoffs, so, forgetting about the relative strength of each team, they should have had a 1-in-8 shot each year. To win both years is a 1-in-64 proposition. In 2016, the Giants were a Wild Card team, giving them a 50/50 chance to even have that 1-in-8 chance. All told, the odds are 1 out of 1,024 that a team would win 10 consecutive postseason series (counting the ’14 Wild Card Game as a “series”). Try flipping a coin and see how long it takes you to get 10 consecutive heads or tails. Actually, don’t do that; you’ll waste an entire day.

In today’s playoff system, with 12 teams competing for the World Series (8 teams before 2013), it is harder than ever to navigate the postseason tournament and consistently win. It’s easy to give managers too much credit for success and too much blame for failure, but that’s the nature of sports. It’s a fact that Bochy is revered by his players. It’s also a fact that he accomplished something that only one other skipper has accomplished during the Wild Card era (since 1995): only he and Joe Torre skippered three teams to the World Championship in a five-year period of time (Torre, of course, won 4 rings from 1996-2000).

“I’ve always felt that talent is going to win you games, but great chemistry can win you championships. I really feel that’s a big part of our culture in San Francisco and what’s helped with our success.”

— Bruce Bochy, in Sports Illustrated (March 20, 2019)

Bochy won three World Series titles despite not having any players who hit more than 26 home runs and only one (Posey) who drove in over 90 runs. As we’ve seen, the Giants’ titles constantly featured star performances by also-rans and never-has-beens. Posey and Bumgarner are the only two players on these teams who have any chance at a future Hall of Fame plaque, and Mad-Bum’s star has fallen significantly in recent years, making him a major long shot without an unlikely career renaissance. That’s a remarkably low amount of star power for a team that navigated three playoff derbys all the way to the finish line.

Conclusion

Having been assigned to cover the Cactus League while I was working for ESPN, I met Bruce Bochy in March 1997 during spring training. I was working with Baseball Tonight analyst Dave “Soup” Campbell, a former player, great guy, and great friend. Soup and Bochy knew each other well from Bochy’s playing days in San Diego; Campbell was an analyst for the Pads during those years. Anyway, when we first saw Bochy early on a March morning in Peoria, Arizona, I immediately noticed Bochy’s presence, charisma, mustache, and, yes, his rather large noggin. And, of course, his deep bass voice.

Bochy, Campbell, and I spent 15-20 minutes chatting, and, even though I was the “unknown” to Bochy as a 29-year-old producer, the Padres manager could not have been nicer. I met Bochy a few more times in the ensuing years as the Coordinating Producer of Up Close from 1998-2000. He was one of those baseball lifers who had a way of making a behind-the-scenes person feel like an old friend, even if he understandably couldn’t remember your name.

This is how Bochy made his players feel. Whether you were the star of the team or the 25th man on a 25-man roster, Bochy was a player’s manager. He was also a player’s manager who was a master tactician during the game.

Joe Maddon, whose 5 years as manager of the Chicago Cubs ended on the same day that Bochy’s tenure with the Giants ended, has known Bochy for decades, dating back to the days when Bochy was a minor league manager and Maddon was a roving instructor.

“He’s kind of like a man’s man. He’s got a little John Wayne in him, and I think his players have always respected how he’s always stuck up for them. The game will be lesser because he’s not managing anymore, but I wish him well. He’s a really good man.”

— Joe Maddon, in Sports Illustrated (March 20, 2019)

It’s unknown as to when he’ll be eligible for an Eras Committee ballot for the Hall of Fame. The rule for a manager who is 65 years of age or older is that they need to be retired for at least six months before being eligible for the ballot. If Bochy retires again after serving out his three-year contract with the Rangers, he’ll be eligible for the ballot in December 2026 for possible induction in the summer of 2027, when he will be 72 years old. Whether it’s that year or three-to-six years hence, it’s inevitable that Bruce Bochy will have a Cooperstown plaque in his future.

Thanks for reading. Please follow Cooperstown Cred on Twitter @cooperstowncred.

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