A night before they did make history, Bruce Bochy considered putting his son Brett into a game against the Dodgers. The Giants were blowing them out, and Brett, a September call-up, had been waiting to become the first MLB pitcher to take the ball from his father. As veteran J.C. Gutierrez closed out a 9-0 win, Bochy heard some chirping from the seats behind the Giants dugout.
"I think it was his mother," he said this week, laughing. "She was back there and when I got home that night she barked at me, 'Hey, he's not up here to pick up a free paycheck. Put him in.' She was getting on me a little bit and having fun with it."
Bruce would call for Brett the next day, which coincidentally was Kim's birthday. It led to a bit more celebrating, as Brett completed a long and adversity-filled journey to the big leagues. Undrafted out of high school, he worked his way up as a 20th-round pick, bounced back from Tommy John surgery, and put up good minor league numbers despite not having overpowering stuff.
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Bruce became the eighth skipper in MLB history to manage his son and the first to hand him the ball on the mound. This week, with Father's Day coming up, he hopped on a Zoom call and recalled that emotional day. He said it was a "surreal" experience.
"I was proud of Brett for how hard he worked and the fact he got called up," Bruce said. "But I was nervous for him. I wanted him to do well."
As Bruce paced the dugout, Brett tried to get out of a situation his father had hoped to avoid. In a game the Giants would lose 17-0, Bochy hoped to get two innings out of young lefty Mike Kickham and then turn the ball over to his son in the seventh. But Kickham ran into trouble and Brett trotted in with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth.
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Ironically, in an early spring appearance a year earlier, Bruce had also brought his son into a bases-loaded jam. He smiled this week and admitted the move comes up occasionally when the family gets together.
"But he's got great poise, he was never afraid," Bruce said. "He was an overachiever. He wasn't really a guy that threw 95. He knew how to elevate. He knew how to pitch, but you still want to make it as easy as possible and that was the last thing I did."
Brett made seven relief appearances for the Giants over two years, allowing just two runs. Last year he returned to Oracle Park to throw the first pitch to his father before his final game as manager. The two were supposed to reunite this spring, with Bruce managing Team France in World Baseball Classic qualifying and Brett unretiring to be part of the pitching staff, but COVID-19 scuttled those plans.
Instead, they're enjoying life as part of a growing family. Bruce's third grandchild was born earlier this year, and he's excited for the day when he can tell the next generation of Bochys about a special moment on the field.
"I'll never forget it, the family will never forget it," he said. "I've got some great pictures of me handing the ball to him and they're in my office. It's right there with the World Series trophies for me."
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