The 2014 MLB season has come to a conclusion. The San Francisco Giants claimed their third World Series title in the past five years, which means manager Bruce Bochy now has three championship rings. Among baseball managers throughout history, can we consider Bochy one of the best, if not the best of all-time?
Without a doubt, Bochy is one of the best. In my opinion he's top three, when considering all statistics, behind only Joe Torre and Tony La Russa. Let me explain why before you start whipping out facts from the 1920s.
For starters, Bochy is only one of 10 managers in the history of baseball to win three World Series. The others? Joe McCarthy (7), Casey Stengel (7), Connie Mack (5), Walter Alston (4), Joe Torre (4), Sparky Anderson (3), Miller Huggins (3), Tony La Russa (3) and John McGraw (3). All of those men are Hall of Famers, and he ranks ahead of others in Cooperstown who have won multiple World Series, including Frank Chance (2), Bucky Harris (2), Tommy Lasorda (2), Bill McKechnie (2), Billy Southworth (2) and Dick Williams (2).
And argue what you will, but winning three World Series in this day and age is extremely difficult, especially considering the great parity in the MLB. The last team to win three titles in a five-year span was the 1998-2000 New York Yankees. Before that? The 1972-1974 Oakland Athletics. Since 2000, there have been nine different World Series champions, with only the Giants (3), Yankees (2), Cardinals (2), and Red Sox (2) repeating throughout that time frame. Let's go back to 1930-1944 and check out the parity across the league then: a total of six teams won the World Series over that 15-season span, with the Yankees (7 under Joe McCarthy) and Cardinals (4) repeating. The fact that two teams claimed 11 World Series over the span of 15 seasons shows much less parity. McCarthy won his titles with players such as Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Red Ruffing, Lefty Gomez and others. Bochy's core consisted of Pablo Sandoval, Buster Posey, Hunter Pence and Madison Bumgarner.
Now on to overall playoff record. Bochy is 42-30 (.583) in the postseason during his time with the Giants and San Diego Padres. He's 8-16 with the Padres in the postseason and an astonishing 34-14 with the Giants. Let's put his overall record in perspective.
Bochy is only behind Joe Torre (84 wins), Tony La Russa (70 wins), Bobby Cox (67 wins) and Jim Leyland (44 wins) in career playoff victories. Among managers who have at least 30 postseason games under their belt (28 total), Bochy has the sixth-best winning percentage (.583) behind Joe McCarthy (.667), Sparky Anderson (.618), Terry Francona (.609), Joe Torre (.592), Casey Stengel (.587) and Charlie Manuel (.587). This puts him ahead of the Philadelphia Athletics' Connie Mack (.558 win pct. and five WS titles), St. Louis Cardinals'/Oakland Athletics' Tony La Russa (.547 win pct. and three WS titles), New York Yankees' Miller Huggins (.545 win pct. and three WS titles), Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers' Walter Alston (.523 win pct. and four WS titles) and New York Giants' John McGraw (.481 win pct. and three WS titles). Among the managers who have won at least three World Series, Bochy ranks fourth in win percentage. Bochy has also only managed for 20 seasons, which is fewer than every other manager with at least three World Series rings except Huggins (17).
Bochy joined the Giants before the 2007 season and after two losing seasons (a combined 143-181 record), the 59-year-old has led San Francisco to five winning seasons and three World Series titles. He's amassed a 524-448 record in the regular season after his first two years with the team. During their World Series runs in 2010, 2012 and now 2014, the Giants' top players were Aubrey Huff, Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner. Not to take anything away from these great players, but they aren't your typical household names like Miguel Cabrera, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Clayton Kershaw, and others who have dominated the scene over the years.
"You know, I'm numb, really through all of this," Bochy told reporters after the game, in this MLB.com article. "You're so blessed or fortunate to get in the World Series and to get one, it just doesn't happen that often. To look at this and see that we won three times, I mean, I'm amazed with what these guys did and the fact that we have won three times in five years. It's not that easy. But when you have a group of warriors like we have, I mean, they continue to just amaze you. They were relentless."
Bochy is right. This team is amazing, and one of the more unlikely dynasties in the history of sports, which means a lot of the credit goes to the man in charge.
All statistics were provided by BaseballReference.com.
