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 for three days against the Rangers, Bruce Bochy will go by Boch.
It's what he 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.
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 said recently. "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.
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Brandon Crawford is always Craw, Madison Bumgarner is always Bum, and Brandon Belt is occasionally Belter. Buster Posey is … well, Buster.
Sometimes there's a bit more flare. 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 three 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
