Bruce Bochy on Sox manager job: ‘I'd listen to anything'

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The White Sox are looking for a new manager, with general manager Rick Hahn saying Monday that the ideal candidate will have recent experience managing in the postseason for a “championship organization.”

That description sure seems to apply to A.J. Hinch and Alex Cora, two of the the last three World Series managers who are both free agents.

But how recent is “recent”?

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Certainly 2011 doesn’t seem so recent, at least that was the thought when Tony La Russa’s name was brought up by USA Today's Bob Nightengale on Monday. But what about 2014? Because the manager who won the World Series that year is open to getting back in the game — and would be open to hearing from the White Sox.

Bruce Bochy managed the San Francisco Giants to three championships in five years from 2010 to 2014, the closest thing baseball’s seen to a dynasty this century. The 65-year-old Bochy retired at the end of last season, but he apparently hasn’t closed the book on the idea of returning to the manager’s chair quite yet.

Now, that’s not exactly someone clamoring for a job. It’s not even something as strong as A.J. Pierzynski saying he’d “absolutely” be interested in the White Sox vacancy. But it’s also hard to ignore Bochy’s resume as a winner of championships, one that’s stronger than even those of Hinch and Cora.

As the White Sox look to make the kind of splashy hire that helps them toward their goal of climbing from rebuilders to contenders to champions, winning experience seems to be the No. 1 priority. And few have more of it than Bochy.

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