Five star locker shelf full#

I said, ‘OK, I’ve got a year left on my contract. “I flew around more during that strike than I did when we had the regular schedule, because we had meetings in New York and Chicago and Los Angeles with the Players Association and (union head) Marvin Miller, who was one of the most stellar people I’ve ever experienced. But a stint as the Mariners’ union rep during the 1981 players strike had dismayed him. He was 31 and in his prime – Seattle’s career leader at the time in nearly every offensive category.

297 for the Mariners in 144 games, Bochte simply walked away from baseball for a year.

Five star locker shelf full#

To get the full picture you have to go back to 1982, Bochte’s fifth season in Seattle. I don’t think I’d enjoy it, as much as it’s a fabulous event.” …

And so it (the All-Star Game) wouldn’t be comfortable. It was just so shocking to me at that time. Occasionally, they’d probe, and I didn’t know what to say. It was very hard to talk about when I was playing. And I’ve been working with it for 40 years now. It’s hard for me to be around people, because it’s always on my mind. “And it’s been fascinating and disturbing. “Environmental stuff is the easiest way to say it for me,” he said. Simply put – and it’s far from simple – Bochte has devoted his post-baseball life (and much of his life while he was playing) to studying the relationship between humans and the history of the universe. But Bochte politely declined both times, simply because he realizes it would be too difficult to explain what his life has been like since he left baseball after the 1986 season. The Mariners invited Bochte to be part of the festivities when the All-Star Game returned to Seattle in 2001, and again this year. 316 that year, with 16 homers and 100 runs batted in.īochte ranks eighth on the team’s all-time career batting average list, his. Bochte, a left-handed first baseman and outfielder, went on to hit. In 1979, he was the lone Mariners representative when the city hosted the Midsummer Classic for the first time, and got a pinch-hit RBI single at the sold-out Kingdome off future Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry that briefly put the American League ahead.

With the All-Star Game back in Seattle for the third time, Bochte’s name is being invoked often these days. But I diverted paths after my career.” …Īnd therein lies one of the most fascinating journeys of any player in Mariners history. It’s the greatest game ever to be a part of. Their eccentricities and oddities come out. “He had room for people to be themselves, which they foster today. “Lach let the characters come out,” Bochte said. It’s really refreshing.”īochte is “elated” about the pitch clock, which he believes “is going to save the game.” And the ostentatious celebrations for home runs, strikeouts and victories that irk so many old-timers? Bochte loves it, because it reminds him of his time playing for Rene Lachemann, his Mariners manager in 1981-82 – and his favorite. He is savoring the improbable contention of formerly struggling teams such as the Reds, Orioles and Diamondbacks – “and even Pittsburgh was there for a while. Bochte, 72, is an avid baseball watcher at his Petaluma, California, home. SEATTLE – Bruce Bochte isn’t one of those former MLB players who bemoans the modern game and its “look-at-me” practitioners.įar from it.