Man is a thinking reed, but his great works are done when he is not calculating and thinking.
D.T. Suzuki
Less than a week after the San Francisco Giants won this year’s World Series, I arrived at the Orlando Cepeda statue just outside of the Giants’ ballpark in San Francisco. Bruce Bochy had said he would try to meet me there at 11 o’clock, but wasn’t sure, given how crazy his schedule was just then. But at three minutes to the hour, there he was, ambling across the street toward me, flashing me a quick, easy grin, as if we met every week at that time, though in fact we’d only talked a few times before.
It amazed me to take in just how much Bochy is always the same, outwardly for sure, and in many ways inwardly, whether his team has just won eight straight or lost eight straight. He was in a good mood, sure, but walking with him on the way to his office at the ballpark, I felt absolutely no sense of him glorying in the moment, none of that look-at-me triumphalism that so often shows up front and center in sports.
Years ago, Bochy was managing the San Diego Padres when former A’s general manager Sandy Alderson was CEO of the Padres. The Giants, looking to replace Felipe Alou, decided they were interested in Bochy, and Alderson gave them permission to talk to Bochy. Some individuals would carry a grudge about the ambivalence that move showed, and maybe Bochy does deep down; but when I asked him about Alderson this past season, for my book Baseball Maverick, coming out next spring, he laughed at the notion that he had anything but deep respect and admiration for Alderson and showed not the slightest flicker of bitterness. He’d long since moved on from feeling any sense of being slighted, if indeed he ever had felt that.
Bochy’s secret weapon, the way I see it, is his love of walking, which is why Wellstone Books is so pleased to be publishing A Book of Walks by Bruce Bochy next year, a little book that will encourage people to get out and take long strolls or quick power walks or any kind of walk that works for them. Walking is not only a great way to keep the body fit, it also helps clear the mind of mental clutter.
I’ve been reading Eugen Herrigel lately. He was a German philosophy professor who lived in Japan between the wars and spent years studying archery with a master, and wrote the influential Zen in the Art of Archery. For Herrigel the major challenge was to let go of certain habits of mind, to learn not to overthink. Bochy is certain one day to be voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame because he thinks possibilities through like a chess player, but also because he finds a way to back off of thinking and rethinking, as many baseball field managers do, so that he can be alive to the nuances of a moment. He believes he is able to maintain this balance, even during the high intensity of October games, in part because he finds a way to ease his mind with regular long, thoughtful walks.
I think his little book will help anyone who reads it to find a little more balance and it just might lead to improved quality of life as well. Sarah’s grandmother Dora made a point for many years of getting out for an hourlong walk in Bavaria every day, even in the snow; she recently turned 100. My parents are in the their 80s, but still try to get out for short walks whenever they can.
Walking does a body good. Share your own experiences of walking below – or recommend specific walks you love – in the comments section below. And if you have any observations on Bruce Bochy, share those, too.
– Steve Kettmann, co-founder, WCR
Steve’s earlier blogs:
Thanks to a Bank Teller for Being Human
Remembering Those We’ve Loved and Lost
Were You Kind to Someone Today?