Bruce Bochy had waited all his life to manage a big league game when General Manager Randy Smith tapped him as the next Padres manager in October 1994. Baseball’s owners, however, were not waiting for the end of the ongoing strike to ramp up for the 1995 season, so a 39-year-old Bochy’s first task was to oversee a spring training filled with replacement players.
Not exactly the ideal spot to be in for a rookie manager, the youngest in the National League.
“So I’m in an awkward position at that time because I’m expected to manage these replacement players,” Bochy recalled, “and I don’t want to lose credibility with my players, who I knew a lot of.