NEW YORK — Major League Baseball’s Players’ Weekend isn’t just for the guys taking the mound or stepping into the batter’s box. The managers get into it, too, meaning that for three games against the Rangers, Bruce Bochy will go by "Boch."
It’s what the Giants manager is called up and down the organization, from his bosses to his players to low-level employees. Bochy got his nickname by simply chopping the “y” off his last name, but if he were in charge of choosing the nicknames this weekend, he would reverse course. For years, Bochy has added the “y” (or a similar sound) to names in pre-game and post-game media scrums.
A partial list: Eli Whiteside was "Whitey"; Hector Sanchez was "Sanchy"; Justin Maxwell was "Maxy"; Brandon Hicks was "Hicksy"; Trevor Brown was "Brownie"; Eduardo Nuñez was "Nuney"; Roberto Gomez was "Gomey" (not to be confused with Miguel Gomez, who was "Go-Go"); Will Smith is "Smitty"; Alen Hanson is "Hanny"; Steven Duggar is "Duggy"; Kelby Tomlinson is "Tommy," or, sometimes, "Tommy Ball."
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Bochy said one of his personal favorites at the moment is "Holly," for Derek Holland, who will go with “Last Name” for Players’ Weekend, a tip of the cap to a botched ESPN graphic earlier this season.
“It’s out of habit that I do that,” Bochy recently said. “It’s common in baseball, but with me, it’s really common to put a ‘y’ at the end of their name. Maybe it’s because my last name is Bochy? It’s out of habit more than anything.”
There are other favorites, of course. Bochy used to call 6-foot-3 outfielder Roger Kieschnick "The Big Kiesch," and this year, he took great pleasure in belting out "The Big Snelt" when asked about 6-foot-6 rookie D.J. Snelten.
Brandon Crawford always is "Craw," Madison Bumgarner always is "Bum," and Brandon Belt occasionally is "Belter." Buster Posey is … well, "Buster."
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Sometimes there’s a bit more flair. Bochy referred to Hunter Pence as "Full Throttle" back in the day, and this year, he dropped "The Flying Frenchman" on Chase d’Arnaud, who said he’s only about 3 percent French.
Perhaps one day the Giants can just slap Bochy’s nicknames on the backs of their jerseys. For now, here’s what they’ll go with for Players’ Weekend:
Belt: BOB
Blach: THE PREACHER
Bumgarner: MAD-BUM
Crawford: DJ BC RAW
d’Arnaud: CHEETAH
Dyson: PSSST
Duggar: DUGG
Hanson: EL CHAMAQUITO
Hernandez: CAZADOR
Holland: LAST NAME
Hundley: HUNDO
Longoria: LONGO
McCutchen: ZOOM
Melancon: MEL
Moronta: EL TIBU
Panik: J.P.
Pence: UNDERPANTS
Posey: BUSTER
Rodriguez: D-ROD
Smith: SMITTY
Slater: MAYOR
Strickland: STRICK
Suarez: ANDY
Watson: TONE RANGER