Bochy never knew if he would manage in the majors, he said, but he knew from the start that the job was made for him, whether or not he advanced.

“My first year, I said, ‘This is what I should be doing,’” Bochy said last Wednesday on the bench before his 2,000th career victory that night. “I loved it. Not that I thought I was any good at it, but I wanted to get better at it.”

Bochy was born in Landes de Bussac , France; his father , Gus, was a sergeant major in the United States Army. The family — with three boys and a girl — moved often, including spending about three years in the Panama Canal Zone. Bochy would play sports with his brother Joe, older by three and a half years, and Joe’s friends.

“Our father believed that listening was a great leadership skill, and you didn’t want to be a follower growing up,” said Joe Bochy, who is also retiring this year from a scouting job with the Giants. “You wanted to hang around people smarter than you so you could learn.”

Gus Bochy grew up as a switch-hitting shortstop and filled the home with baseball broadcasts on Armed Forces Radio. He made his sons catchers because they were slow; he would joke that they inherited their lack of speed from their mother, Rose, who once filled in as coach for the Little League team and ran drills when Joe was gone.

Bochy reached the majors with Houston in 1978 , then played briefly for the Mets in 1982 before five seasons with the Padres. He played in two postseason games : in the 1980 National League Championship Series, when the Phillies’ Pete Rose knocked him over with a forearm to the face at the Astrodome (Bochy got right up), and in the 1984 World Series at Tiger Stadium, when Bochy singled in his only at-bat.

That appearance came in the last inning of the series, a sentimental gesture from the Padres’ gruff manager, Dick Williams. Bochy had a gentler personality, and General Manager Jack McKeon — who was also a longtime manager — kept him in the organization after his final season in the minors in 1988.