As one who traffics in the petty and the bitter lanes of life’s highways quite frequently, it brings me joy to say this, and I urge you all to join me:
I am just so gosh darn happy for Bruce Bochy and his World Series championship with the Texas Rangers.
No anger. No lash-out. No “WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN” howls to the heavens. No grumbling and mumbling about current Giants executives.
This is about the guy they call “Boch,” and this is about when good things happen to good people.
You may be more evolved than me, but when I would say “I wish you nothing but the best!” to an ex-employer or ex-girlfriend, there may not have been total sincerity. Generally, when there’s a breakup, there’s a degree of ill will.
With Boch, the way he treated people, the way he handled himself, the way he rolled down Market Street amid confetti — pure class, and purely worthy of our good wishes.
Now, as for Farhan Zaidi…I understand many of you may not feel as generous.
You all see Bochy’s World Series triumph as the ultimate indictment of an over-reliance on analytics, as the ultimate indictment of Zaidi’s judgment, and the ultimate triumph of Bochy’s baseball “gut instinct.” Of course, it’s more complicated than that. Much of that complication comes from the fact that the Rangers spent $500 million on Corey Seager and Marcus Semien and the Giants will be haunted by the phrase “somewhat break even” until they go deep into October sometime soon.
After all, no matter how you want to assign blame, the fact of the matter is that once he got the keys to the building, Zaidi was not going to keep Bochy in the manager’s office. That’s how these things work. Zaidi gets to choose “his guy,” for lack of a better phrase. How they went about it behind the scenes is a matter of some differing viewpoints, but it is my well-founded belief that, at best, there was a “gentleman’s agreement” for Bochy to step aside and let Zaidi bring in his own guy.
If you don’t believe me, I present Exhibit A: Bochy accepting a job as the manager of the Texas Rangers.
They call that “circumstantial evidence” in law school, sports fans. And there is more smoke to that fire, but let’s fast-forward to 2023.
Unfortunately, despite a miraculous 107-win blip, Zaidi’s guy didn’t produce any deep October runs in a four-year stint. Again, blame can be assigned many places, and the roster Zaidi assembled is a good place to start.
Now, Farhan has a skipper much more rooted in traditional baseball running the show, and a skipper with deep Bay Area roots, so we give Farhan 2.0 a chance and see what happens this winter.
Back to Boch.
When Bochy took the job in Texas, I confess I winced. Sports history is littered with decorated coaches attempting comebacks that end in less than glorious circumstances, as I was just saying to the legend George Seifert in his Carolina Panthers windbreaker.
The Rangers lost 94 games in 2022. MLB is not the NFL, where 50% of the playoff field swaps out. Yes, the Rangers brought in Jacob deGrom. But he got hurt right away and the American League was thought to be the province of Dusty Baker’s Astros, or Aaron Judge’s Yankees. Not the woeful Texas Rangers, without a trophy in their history.
But ol’ Boch wrote down the lineups and Seager had a career year and so did Adolis García, and Bochy’s starting five ranked top-eight in innings pitched (the Giants were 30th) and seventh in starter ERA. They won 90 games and, lo and behold, got into the “tournament,” as some now call it…
And then Bochy’s team was the calmest. And Bochy’s team caught the ball the best. And Bochy’s team won 11 consecutive road games.
And it all looked so gosh darn familiar, and it’s been four years since he left, and all good things must come to an end, and next thing you know you’ve got goosebumps and you’re applauding in front of your TV on the first night of November.
I don’t know what Bochy would have done with Farhan’s rosters and platoons. I don’t know that Bochy would have won 107 in 2021, for gosh sakes. I’m past it. I’m looking forward to Bob Melvin, and hopefully Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Marco Luciano and Pat Bailey and Logan Webb and maybe a big ol’ trade this winter.
So instead, I choose to embrace Boch and his historical triumph and his big ol’ noggin wearing a 2023 WORLD SERIES CHAMPS hat as proof positive of his golden touch in running a ballgame and writing a lineup and making a pitching change and staying cool. Only Casey Stengel, Joe McCarthy and Connie Mack have won more than Bochy’s four World Series. Come on, man. That’s crazy.
It’s Farhan’s nightmare, for sure. What were the odds that Bochy would go win a Fall Classic for the Texas Rangers? Good ol’ Boch. Way to go, man.