{"id":612450,"date":"2026-03-08T00:19:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T00:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/612450\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T00:19:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T00:19:27","slug":"life-outside-the-clubhouse-is-different-for-bruce-bochy-but-hes-still-the-same-ol-bruce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/612450\/","title":{"rendered":"Life outside the clubhouse is different for Bruce Bochy, but he\u2019s still the same ol\u2019 Bruce"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. \u2014 One by one they stopped off to catch up, steal a hug, pay their respects to the big man with the low rumble. Corey Seager, Josh Smith, Kyle Higashioka, Travis Jankowski, Wyatt Langford. Most lingered a little. A five-minute conversation between Skip Schumaker and the larger-than-life figure<\/a> ended with a fist bump.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood to see you guys,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Good to see you, Bruce Bochy.<\/p>\n

The Rangers have moved on without their only manager to win a World Series<\/a>, but if he\u2019s no longer one of them, he remains the same. Also the best manager any Ranger ever had.<\/p>\n

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Related<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

He works for the Giants these days<\/a>, the same organization where he won his first three World Series titles. He\u2019s a senior advisor to Buster Posey, his old catcher, now the team president. Bochy flew in from Nashville this week and will remain with the club through its opening series in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

This summer he\u2019ll fly out to the West Coast once a month and join the club any time the Giants are on the East Coast. Visit the affiliates. Maybe take a closer look at a player the club might be interested in.<\/p>\n

But, in April and May, you can probably find him at his sister\u2019s place on Amelia Island, outside Jacksonville, Fla., casting for redfish.<\/p>\n

Life is . . . <\/p>\n

\u201cDifferent,\u201d he said, looking out from the Giants\u2019 dugout. \u201cReally nice. I\u2019ve had a lot of time with the family, grandkids. I\u2019m not preoccupied all the time. They\u2019ve got my full attention now, for sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in a good place, a really good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly a different place from where he was last fall when I asked if he wanted to come back. He told me then that he did. Their mid-September run, when they climbed to within two games of first after a listless summer, got his juices going. He loves that feeling. Called himself \u201ca competitive S.O.B.\u201d back then.<\/p>\n

But, after the Rangers swooned again, and after meeting with Ray Davis and Chris Young \u2014 the man who talked him off the couch<\/a> to lead an organization that had wandered the wilderness for the better part of six decades \u2014 he thought better of it. The Rangers had Schumaker, a bright, young, ready replacement coveted across baseball<\/a>. At 70, his back and knees hurting, spirit sapped, Bochy was \u201cpretty beat up,\u201d as he put it Saturday.<\/p>\n

On top of everything else, his wife, Kim, wanted him to come home, and he owed her for all the time spent away from his family. On the drive back to Nashville from Texas<\/a>, he told her it was the perfect time to walk away.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how a Hall of Fame career ended.<\/p>\n

Even if he can\u2019t bring himself to say it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll say I\u2019m not looking to manage again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Anything more than that carries the dread of finality. Besides, what would he do if he went cold turkey on baseball? You can only wet so many lines, drink so much bourbon, hit so many golf balls.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which: He got himself a golf simulator because his 8-year-old grandchild, Braxton, wants to play with Papa, as do his sons. He\u2019s probably a 10-handicap, up from 8, but, as previously noted, he remains a competitive S.O.B. He was taking 500 swings a night on the simulator until his back stiffened and his family suspended his privileges.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s in a better place now than he was the last time he was out of a job. He spent three years away from the game after his exit from the Giants. An eternity. He couldn\u2019t stand it.<\/p>\n

Which is why the last three years managing the Rangers meant so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree wonderful years,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing a part of their first World Series win in the first year. It was just incredible how it all happened. The relationships I built with the team, with the clubhouse guys, with the staff, with everybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the things that stay with you forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeing his former players Saturday brought it all back. If the last two years weren\u2019t so good, they don\u2019t take anything away from the greatest season in Rangers history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nothing changes who he was and remains to the players who paid their respects, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so appreciative of what they did for me and the team,\u201d Bochy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just good people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides the personal side of it, here was the other thing about getting up off the couch and coming back:<\/p>\n

The chance to prove he was as good as he ever was.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s what made me feel so good,\u201d he said, \u201cto be three years out, then come back and win a championship. Before that, I was like, \u2018Where am I in this game? Where do I fit?\u2019 You win three with one team and now you\u2019ve done it with another. It validates everything. Makes me that much prouder how it worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pause.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still had it in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Commissioner\u2019s Trophy and a championship banner stand as evidence of his time in Texas, brief as it was. It went so fast, it apparently makes it easy for some to forget. A sportswriter who covered the Giants watched Seager and Bochy embrace before Saturday\u2019s game and wondered aloud about the connection before catching himself. Back in Texas, where the debt can never be repaid, no one would make the same mistake.<\/p>\n

Twitter\/X: @KSherringtonDMN<\/a><\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>Rangers pull catcher Kyle Higashioka from lineup for second time in the past two weeks<\/a><\/p>\n

Since Feb. 25, Higashioka has played just twice and taken seven at-bats in an 11-day span. <\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>3 Texas Rangers observations: More Burger power; Jacob Latz\u2019s starter run hits speedbump<\/a><\/p>\n

Plus, Mark Canha puts together another nice day at camp and continues to challenge for a spot on the roster.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Rod Barajas gets special father-son moment ahead of Rangers-Giants spring training game<\/a><\/p>\n

On Saturday, San Francisco called over 21-year-old catcher Rod Barajas Jr. to exchange lineup cards with his dad. <\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. \u2014 One by one they stopped off to catch up, steal a hug, pay their respects…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,3321,4368,384,4,149,14902,1567,69,3240,17170],"class_list":["post-612450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas-rangers","tag-baseball","tag-bruce-bochy","tag-commentary","tag-corey-seager","tag-mlb","tag-rangers","tag-skip-schumaker","tag-texas","tag-texas-rangers","tag-texasrangers","tag-world-series-2023"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116190693507479169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}