© Ed Szczepanski | 2018 Sep 30
Hunter Pence and Bruce Bochy shared some of the best years of their professional careers together.
Pence joined the Giants midway through the 2012 season, two years after Bochy had helped lead San Francisco to their first ever World Series victory since the franchise moved from the east coast in the 1958. Pence would help Bochy and the Giants win two more over the next three seasons, but it was something that Bochy said days after Pence joined the club that he believes changed the trajectory of his entire career.
“You know, it was exciting to come get into a playoff push to be a part of the group over here,” Pence told Murph & Mac Monday. “But my first impression, we had like two games at home, I’m just kind of figuring out the lay of the land…First game in Colorado, he gives a huge speech, like we have this meeting. And up to that point in my baseball career, usually if you had a meeting, it was always like getting yelled at and it was never encouraging.
“He put together these movie clips, and he had this whole message. It was like this race car movie, and how the guy got afraid when he got into a crash, and so he wasn’t the same. Then he runs into the same issue, steps on the gas like the same way he did when he crashed really bad, but that was the right move even though it went wrong. And basically, his message was like: Who cares if we mess up, step on the gas.
“It was the first time I ever was like freed from the fear and ‘you’re not good enough, and you need to play harder and you need to be tougher.’ It was the first time I was like, inspired and encouraged to just go for it, who cares if you mess up.
“And that message in and of itself changed the course of my career. And you know, and I could never thank him enough for just that simple message. And being the first one ever to do that for me. Keep your foot on the gas and that’s the way you played. You played all out.”
Listen to the full interview below.