Bob Melvin has plenty of his old baseball cards. They’re easy enough to find. He played in the major leagues in the 1980s at the height of the hobby’s junk wax era.
But there’s one card that is as precious to him as a T-206 Honus Wagner. He is always looking to replenish his supply. When an autograph collector asks him to sign one, he’ll sometimes ask if he can keep it. It’s No. 41 in the 1988 Topps set and it depicts Melvin crisply in focus, wearing San Francisco Giants road grays, standing in the batter’s box at Shea Stadium, awaiting the next pitch.
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The figure behind him in the on-deck circle is blurry but instantly recognizable to Giants fans of that era. Those wide, black stirrups are a dead giveaway.
“Yep,” said Melvin, his voice swelling with pride. “That’s me at the plate and Matt Williams on deck.”
Melvin does more than embrace the absurdity. He revels in it. He was a second-string catcher who hit .233 with 33 home runs in parts of 10 big-league seasons. There’s no earthly reason why he should be hitting in front of Williams, his teammate in San Francisco from 1986-88, who would go on to sock 378 home runs in a Hall of Fame-adjacent career in which he was a five-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger. Williams is the only player in major-league history to hit a home run in the World Series for three different teams. He was the major leagues’ most dangerous power hitter in 1994 and was on pace to break the single-season home run record when a strike in mid-August brought the season to a halt.
But cardboard doesn’t lie. There’s a reason why Melvin has trouble keeping that 1988 Topps card in stock.
“Every year when I get one, I put it in his locker,” Melvin said. “You know. Just in case he lost the one I gave him the year before.”
Williams, reached by phone, howled in mock outrage.
“He is never going to stop giving me s— about that baseball card,” Williams said.
For the first time since 1988, the two men will have Giants cards in the same team set again. The Giants hired Melvin to become just their sixth manager in a four-decade span of almost unrivaled dugout continuity within the industry. One of Melvin’s first moves was to bring along Williams, who served as his third base coach the previous two seasons with the San Diego Padres and for three seasons with the Oakland A’s from 2017-19.
It’s a welcome homecoming for two men who grew up with Northern California ties — Melvin is from Menlo Park and played at Cal; Williams was born in the High Sierras and grew up in Carson City, Nev. — and lived out their dream while playing home games at Candlestick Park. That dream ended abruptly for both of them. Melvin was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for catcher Terry Kennedy after the 1988 season. Williams didn’t see it coming before the 1997 season when a rookie GM by the name of Brian Sabean traded him to Cleveland for a package of players that included future National League MVP Jeff Kent.
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“I remember it vividly,” said Williams, who would go on to play on pennant winners in Cleveland and Arizona. “I had a house in Paradise Valley (near Phoenix) with a pond out back. I had it stocked with bass and I’m just sitting out there fishing when I got this call from Brian letting me know I’d been traded to the Indians. That’s the business of baseball. It turned out to be a fantastic trade that worked out for the Giants and worked out for me. But when you’re the person getting traded, it’s never fun.
“You’re showing up every day and trying to play as hard as you can and trying to win every game and then the business side hits you in the nose. But you understand it’s part of the game and as a player. You’ve got to move on and play to win regardless of what uniform you’re wearing.
“Now, for me, it feels like I’m coming home. Back in those days, I was just trying to stay in the big leagues, just trying to help our team win and play well. I never would have imagined we’d be sitting here talking about it today. It’s a full circle and I’m ecstatic about being part of it. I’m ecstatic about being able to work with guys I know and trust to make our team the best it can be.”
Williams was the third player taken in the 1986 draft and he made his debut as a 21-year-old less than a year later, but his path to big-league stardom was far from linear. He hit .198 over his first three seasons while riding the shuttle between Triple A and the Giants’ roster. He was introspective and hard on himself. When you feel like the game is swallowing you up, you’re not much of a social butterfly. Ask Melvin how he and Williams formed a lifelong friendship during those three seasons in San Francisco and he’ll acknowledge that they didn’t. All of that happened years later.
“We didn’t really get to know each other until I was the bench coach in Arizona,” said Melvin, who served on manager Bob Brenly’s staff when the Diamondbacks won the World Series in 2001 and Williams was their 35-year-old third baseman. Then Williams was part of Arizona’s ownership group when Melvin was hired to manage the D-backs in 2005-09. Even then, there was something different about the relationship between coach and player or manager and part-owner. It wasn’t until 2017, when Melvin was searching for an experienced third base coach to replace Chip Hale, that he and Williams connected as coaches. Melvin valued the managerial experience that Williams brought from his time with the Washington Nationals, who dismissed him despite a 179-145 record and National League East title in his two seasons.
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“I thought coaching third base would be his forté,” Melvin said. “And he just became someone I couldn’t do without.”
They learned that they view the game through similar lenses. They value the same traits in a ballplayer. They complement each other without parroting one another. They think alike just enough to make daily communication easy, but not so alike as to stifle debate or disagreement.
“When you have a good third base coach for a number of years, I don’t know that there’s a coach on the staff who makes it easier on a manager,” Melvin said. “We have this unspoken language. I’ll just shrug my shoulders and he’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. And I don’t think there’s anybody better at coaching third base. I’ve heard him say more than anybody in my career, ‘The scoreboard will tell you how to play.’ He’s aggressive but he knows the situation. He wasn’t the fastest runner in the world, but he was a great baserunner. He brings the tenaciousness, all the nuances that made him a great player.”
There were times in Washington when that tenaciousness came into question. Just 18 games into his tenure in 2014, Williams made headlines when he benched star outfielder Bryce Harper for not appearing to hustle to first base on a ground ball in a game the Nationals would go on to lose by a run. With the Giants, Williams’ insistence on accountability is expected to be a feature and not a bug. It’s one of the cultural traits that Melvin hopes to instill in a group that spiraled last season in the second half while players including Mike Yastrzemski remarked that they often felt left to their own devices.
The other trait that all good coaches share is an ability to connect with players. With Williams, the Giants aren’t getting an aloof former superstar.
“I’ve stood up there and failed,” Williams said. “I’ve failed again and again. I’ve also stood up there and had success. So the question becomes, ‘How can I help a player find that sweet spot every day where you aren’t too high or too low, or how can they find their way out of a slump, or how they sustain success as long as they can?’ I’ve lived it. I’ve had to learn how to get out of my own way as a player and get back to what I naturally do well.
“I’m living proof that struggles happen to everybody. The bottom line is there’s no substitute for work. There’s no substitute for doing the reps and being available and willing to work every day to be a willing participant: to do what it takes to be a great player, and hopefully, at the end of the season, become a world champion. That’s when this game is a lot of fun.”
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You might not associate “fun-loving” with a player whose nickname was The Big Marine. But Giants announcer Mike Krukow laughs when he thinks back to those times when he’d stand on the mound, probably with a sweaty brow and action on the bases, and his young third baseman would trot over for a visit.
“He’d say something in the Tony Montana voice from ‘Scarface’ and it’d be impeccable, the timing of it,” Krukow said. “He was completely Tony Montana. He’d nail that moment when something had to be said to break the ice. And then if I gave up a rocket to third, you knew he’d make a play on it.”
It was Williams’ superb defense that allowed him to stay in the big leagues while he struggled to make contact. If not for his ability with the glove, he probably doesn’t get the experience he needed to turn a corner and become one of the game’s top power hitters. Ask Williams what kind of impact he wants to make on Melvin’s coaching staff and the first thing he mentions is stressing the value of defense.
“It always starts for me with the defensive side of the ball,” Williams said. “That’s how you keep yourself in games. If you look at championship teams, they’re the ones who don’t beat themselves. As the infield coach, that’ll be my sermon every day: ‘There will be games when you go 0-for-4, but you can catch it and do the little things to contribute.'”
Williams looks forward to working with Casey Schmitt, who has all the tools to be a plus defender on the left side of the diamond but will need to prove he can hit enough to carve out regular playing time. He knows all about catcher Joey Bart, a kindred spirit of sorts as a high draft pick who has dealt with major contact issues in the big leagues. He’ll be counted on to guide 22-year-old rookie Marco Luciano, who is currently at the top of the club’s depth chart at shortstop. It’ll help a ton if the Giants sign Gold Glove third baseman Matt Chapman, a favorite of both Melvin and Williams from their time with him in Oakland. If not, it’ll be up to Williams to help J.D. Davis build on the defensive strides he showed at third base last season before tailing off down the stretch.
There’s another component to the job for Williams. Now it feels even more like giving back.
“So many guys helped me with the Giants as a young player,” Williams said. “Mike Krukow taught me how to be a major leaguer. Chris Speier threw me batting practice before spring training started. Can you imagine? There were so many long conversations with Dusty Baker, who was our hitting coach early on, trying to figure out how to be productive as a player. That’s what veterans do. I had a lot of help for sure, and also from (GM) Al Rosen, who could have left me in the minor leagues forever. But he kept giving me chance after chance.”
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Even if it meant enduring a lot of tough nights in the bottom third of the order — sometimes hitting behind the backup catcher.
“He always says I was hitting eighth and he was pinch hitting for the pitcher that day, which might have been true,” said Melvin, imagining that Topps card in his mind. “I tell him it doesn’t matter to me. The picture’s worth 1,000 words.”
It’s a moment in time that isn’t too difficult to pin down. Shea Stadium helps to reduce the possibilities. A quick search of the box scores revealed that photo had to be taken in 1987 on either May 16 or 17. In both games, Roger Craig batted Melvin sixth … and Williams seventh.
“Oh my God, that’s fantastic!” Melvin replied via text after learning the results of the box score sleuthing. “You made my day. He might retire now.”
“S—!” Williams texted. “I will never live this down.”
There’s more. Melvin had three hits in one of those games. And in the 10th inning, he drew a rare intentional walk. But lest these bragging rights threaten to get out of control, we should set the record straight. The Mets didn’t walk Melvin to pitch to Williams. He had been double-switched out of the game an inning earlier.
“You had to say that, didn’t you?” Melvin texted. “If (they had walked me) to pitch to Matty, my life would be complete.”
(Top photo of Williams with the Padres: Alex Gallardo / Associated Press)
