Presented by VETERANS PLUMBING.
This Day In Sports…September 18, 2019:
San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy nabs his 2,000th career victory, an 11-3 triumph over Boston at Fenway Park. Bochy managed his final game with the Giants 11 days later and totaled 2,003 wins at that point (he had already announced his retirement during the offseason, although it wasn’t on his own terms). Bochy clarified a month later that he was merely hitting the “pause button” and taking a sabbatical. And in October, 2022, he came out of retirement and took the Texas Rangers job.
Bochy then moved into the top 10 in managerial wins in baseball history by notching his 2,041st victory early in his first season with Texas, passing Dodgers legend Walter Alston. But that was just a footnote to the 2023 campaign, as Bochy guided the Rangers to their first World Series championship with a four games-to-one domination of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Bochy’s a lock as a Baseball Hall of Famer, if only by virtue of his postseason legacy. He’s one of only six managers in history with four World Series championships, leading the Giants to titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014, plus the one with the Rangers. The first series crown with the Giants was also the first for the team since it moved to San Francisco in 1958. They had to beat the two-time defending National League champion Philadelphia Phillies before toppling the Rangers in the Fall Classic, and they did it with a group Bochy affectionately called “a bunch of castoffs and misfits.”
Bochy also managed the San Diego Padres from 1995-2006 and led them to a World Series appearance in 1998. That was another historic achievement—Bochy was born in France and became the first European-born manager to reach a World Series. No better voice than the late Tony Gwynn to explain Bochy’s effect. In an L.A. Times interview, the Padres great said, “He’s not the type to rant and rave or kick over a [food] spread after a game, but the fire comes out. This is a veteran team that generally doesn’t have to be reminded about what’s at stake or what we should be thinking about, but Boch has a very good sense of timing as to when to call a meeting and when not, when to snap and when not.”
Bochy’s playing career was pedestrian, but he was known for being a great clubhouse presence—that’s probably why he lasted in the majors as long as he did. Bochy, a catcher, played 358 games spread over nine seasons for the Astros, Mets and Padres, batting .239. He’s now in his third season as Rangers manager at the age of 70—the club is 4.5 games out of an AL wild card spot with nine games to go.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
