Bochy’s Farewell Season
Bruce Bochy, manager of the San Francisco Giants, announced that he will retire after the 2019 season.
Most notably, he led San Francisco to three World Series titles in 2010, 2012, and 2014.
This will be Bochy’s 13th year managing the Giants after taking over the reins in 2007, and his 25th consecutive season managing in the big leagues.
“It’ll be 25 consecutive years without a break, I think that’s what I appreciate,” Giants Catcher Buster Posey said. “Just the relatively short amount of time I’ve spent in the big leagues or in baseball compared to him, you understand just the grind and the toll of a professional season.”
Before taking over in San Francisco, Bochy was in charge of the San Diego Padres from 1995 to 2006, having instant success earning the 1996 National League Manager of the year and leading them to the 1998 World Series. Overall in 12 seasons under Bochy, the Padres had five winning seasons and won four NL West titles and one NL pennant.
In 2007, he replaced Felipe Alou, becoming the new manager of the Giants on a three-year contract. After two straight seasons of 90+ loss seasons, Bochy rebounded his team in 2009 with an 88-74 record.
In game 162 of the 2010 season the Giants claimed the NL West title over San Diego and the team Bochy deemed as “castoff and misfits” defeated Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Texas to win the 2010 World Series.
2012 might be Bochy’s best season as a manager, leading the team to win the division with a week left in the season. Once in the playoffs, the Giants won six straight elimination games just to reach the World Series. From there, the Giants needed only the required four games to take down Detroit, winning their second title in three years.
The 2014 season saw the Giants entering the playoffs as the second wild card team and facing an uphill climb as they were on the road against Pittsburgh in the winner-take-all game. From there, the Giants were still looked at as heavy underdogs against Washington and St. Louis, despite Bochy’s recent success. Facing off against the Kansas City Royals in the World Series, Bochy managed the entire series as a chess match against Ned Yost in order to win in seven games.
“He’s always been able to work with whatever team he has,” shortstop Brandon Crawford said. “Whether that’s managing the bullpen or guys on the bench, just knowing when to plug in the right player at the right time, that’s what helped us win the World Series.”
Bochy’s tenure as manager of the Giants has seen a bunch of milestones. From Barry Bonds hitting his 756th home run, Tim Lincecum’s back-to-back Cy Young awards in 2008 and 2009, Randy Johnson’s 300th career win, Matt Cain’s perfect game in 2012, no hitters from Jonathan Sanchez, Lincecum, and Chris Heston, and of course, the three championships.
Bochy’s success alone is up there with the all-time great managers. All other managers with at least three World Series rings have made it to the Hall of Fame.
As for the upcoming season, Bochy is certain to win his 1,000th game with the franchise at some point early in 2019 (he’ll enter with 975 wins) and will look to improve upon his 50.2 winning percentage. Bochy, with a career record of1,926-1,944 wins needs only 74 more wins to hit 2,000 for his MLB managerial career.