For us French, the 2023 World Series have a special flavor. A man returned from retirement wins the title that makes him enter the legend of American baseball. Bruce Bochy is 68 years old, he was in Germany in 2022, he had just managed the French team for the World Baseball Classic Qualifiers after several missed appointments due to COVID. The Texas Rangers think of him to manage the team for the 2023 season. He accepts. The American adventure resumes after his exemplary career in team management adorned with three World Series with the Giants.
« I was retired in Ravensburg, Germany, a year ago, and I was telling myself that I missed this game. I never made a single phone call, but one day Chris Young, the Rangers’ general manager, called me to ask if I wanted to come back. Suddenly, I was there, and that’s how it all started again, » explained the manager, just minutes after adding a new prestigious line to his record.
The season was average (90 wins), the Rangers finished tied with the Astros at the end of the season before the Wild Card games. And then the winning machine kicked in, with young players and a few gems like Swezter, Garcia, or Seager. A few 20 games later, here they are winners, with at their helm a young retiree who found the words, the strategies, the energy to bring success to Texas.
Bochy, as a player, was a catcher, he always watched the game in front of him, unlike his teammates. He always felt what needed to be done for the pitcher. This is evident in his management, especially in pitching. Indeed, he decides who pitches, for how long, and does not hesitate to take out a pitcher after two bad at-bats. The rotation of pitchers was one of the keys to success in these finals with a brilliant alternation of left-handed and right-handed pitchers. He is a coach in the image of Joe Torre (manager winner of the World Series with the Yankees from 1996 to 2000), that is to say that he uses his players without worrying about the next match, without worrying about the players’ susceptibility. He is in the victory, in the match, he watches the players and the game (does not spend his time looking at stats sheets in front of him), he reacts and manages. This requires having explained this strategy to his players in advance and not being afraid that starters might lose their place if they get injured, for example. He enters the club of managers above the rest, there are only 7 in the entire history of baseball to have won at least four World Series.
So, what about tomorrow? Will he re-sign with the Rangers? Will he decide to go out through the big door of victory? Will he decide to coach the French team again? If we talk about finances, his retirement is assured, if we talk about the adrenaline of winning, he can still taste it. If we talk about the year too many, it will not tarnish the rest of his career. So we bet rather for a new round in MLB for 2024.
The next World Baseball Classic will be in March 2026. He will then be 71 years old, it may be time to think about another manager for the French team. By the way, Keino Perez is currently doing a rather very good job.
Following the contest organized on social networks, the winner is Valentin Lefbevre. He wins a drawing by Frabrice Tribes of Bruce Bochy signed by the latter. Congratulations to him for finding the correct result of the 2023 World Series final.
