ARLINGTON, Texas — As Bruce Bochy watched Bob Melvin move from one National League West team to a different this winter, he shared the identical commentary as many Giants fans who remembered their beloved former captain making the identical move a decade earlier.
“He may have mentioned that I follow some of the places he's gone,” Melvin said Friday before his Giants opened their series against Bochy's latest club, the Texas Rangers, quoting a few of his predecessor's words when he took the job in November.
“More than anything, it was just, 'Hey, I'm happy for you to be home. Go get her.'”
Bochy left the Padres in 2006 and commenced a 13-year reign in San Francisco the next yr, winning three World Series championships. After years as a manager across the bay, Melvin took over the Padres in 2021 and followed the identical path as Bochy on the coast just two years later.
It wasn't the primary time the 2 baseball lifers had walked parallel paths, but typically they ended up in opposite dugouts.
By meeting this weekend at Globe Life Field, Melvin, 62, and Bochy, 69, added one other venue and one other pair of uniforms to their long history.
“Bob and I have managed against each other a lot over the years,” Bochy said. “We've been at it for a long time.”
“I managed against him back in Arizona. I may have even seen him somewhere in Seattle,” said Melvin, recognizing a pattern. “So we've been doing this together for a long time.”
Bochy began his managerial profession in San Diego in 1995, when he was 40 years old. Melvin was 41 when he was named manager of the Mariners in 2003. Decades later, the 2 men are still within the business and now occupy the highest two spots on the list of most successful energetic managers.
Bochy's 2,123 wins rank him seventh all-time; Melvin's 1,547 rank twenty fifth. Next on the list, also from the NL West, is Bud Black, who’s greater than 400 wins behind Melvin.
Excluding their playing days, when each served as backup catchers for rivals within the NL West, the game's two most experienced coaches have faced one another 154 times within the regular season through this weekend. They have been intra-league rivals twice, intra-league opponents twice and regular opponents quite a few times.
In the 18 years they shared two of the 30 coaching chairs within the majors, Melvin defeated Bochy 84-70, including a 28-25 margin within the 10 years they faced one another within the annual Bay Bridge Series.
“It's always cool to be on the same field with him, in the opposing dugouts,” Melvin said. “But I try not to say, 'OK, I'm coaching against him.' I try not to face him. I try to do my thing with our team. The cool thing was that the A's and the Giants and the Bay Area always had a little more momentum.”
When asked whether there can be a further duel against his former club on this yr's encounter, Bochy answered with reservations.
He processed most of his memories of his time in San Francisco last yr when he traveled there for the primary time.
“You know what, it's always nice to see old friends,” Bochy said. “Time has flown by. I've been here a year and a half. Last year we played in San Francisco. I'm going to meet up with some of the guys. Those were great memories. I had some great friendships there and some still exist.”
The Rangers had a 69-47 record after they got here to Oracle Park last yr and won the World Series, adding a fourth ring to Bochy's collection. More than a 3rd of the best way through the season, nonetheless, injuries and poor performance have left them in the identical position because the Giants, hanging around .500.
“I think it's fair to say” that there are parallels between the 2 clubs, Bochy said. “Both are trying to get on track, to get on a good run or to achieve some consistency. … we're both trying to win games. Both teams haven't quite found their rhythm yet.”
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