Did Globe Life Field roof contribute to Rangers’ Bruce Bochy coming out of retirement?
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Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy recently joined The Hardline on Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket [KTCK-AM] to discuss the Rangers’ standing with a month and a half left in the season, and whether or not he would have un-retired were the Rangers still playing in the 110-degree heat.
Here are some of the highlights, edited for clarity.
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Question: The season just keeps ramping up, you guys have done a great job of fighting off the challengers for first place so far, you have to feel pretty good about where you’re at now, right?
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Bruce Bochy: “I do. If you would’ve said we’d be here in Spring Training, I think we all would take it. Especially in this really tough division here with Houston and Seattle. But just the way the club’s playing has been exciting for me to watch, these pitchers are on a nice roll and hopefully they continue that.”
Q: What does it do to bring a guy like Max Scherzer into the locker room at this point in the season?
Bochy: “Well it sends a message from ownership and front office how committed they are to winning. And that message goes throughout the clubhouse. It sends a sense of confidence, when you acquire somebody with his pedigree, his resume. He’s gonna make other guys better around him, especially the pitchers watching him. How he goes about his business, his way of preparing, the way he hits the mound. We’ve seen it already. Great players just make the guys around them better, as they say, and that’s what he’s done.”
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Q: If you can recall your conversations with Chris Young over the winter, where did expectations and reality meet? Did you ever think you guys would be this far along into contending in Year 1?
Bochy: “Well I’ll be honest when we were meeting in November we were having those discussions. That was C-Y’s vision. I really felt we had a good core on this club, you look at Marcus Semien and of course Corey Seager, Nathaniel Lowe just won a Silver Slugger. What this club needed was starting pitching, and if we got that then this club could make a big jump and contend.
“So yeah, I’m not gonna say I’m surprised about where we’re at, because that was the plan. You go out and you sign Eovaldi and deGrom, Heaney, that makes you a different ball team. That certainly raises the bar on what you’re expecting. And that was the case, we went into Spring Training, we weren’t talking about trying to get better. We were talking about winning, contending, as we should’ve been with the club that we have. So no, I’m not surprised at all.”
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Q: All things being equal, roster being the same, everything exactly the same except for — the Rangers still played outside. Would you have come out of retirement?
Bochy: [Laughs] “That’s been brought up. I will say, I’ve spent some time in Texas, I came up in Houston (I hate to say that. No, all kidding aside).
“But you know what? I don’t know. 110 is 110 [degrees].
“I will say, I’ve found the difference between 95 and 110 … 95 is a nice day, I enjoy walking around a little bit. That 110, man, I thought I was gonna burst into flames.”
To listen to the full interview, click here.
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