This is the 83rd article in Bears Doing Big Things, a weekly column celebrating the stories of notable M-A alumni.
“Baseball is my whole world. It’s everything to me, and it defines who I am every day,” Bob Melvin ‘79 said. Melvin is a former Major League Baseball catcher, longtime coach, and the current general manager of the San Francisco Giants.
Melvin is “as Menlo Park as you get.” At M-A, Melvin was consistently involved in athletics, playing basketball, golf, and baseball. Although Melvin’s career has been solely focused on baseball, basketball was his favorite sport at the beginning of high school. As a part of M-A’s basketball team during the 1978-79 season, Melvin advanced to CCS finals, falling short to Saratoga 113-103 in the highest-scoring matchup in PAL history at the time.
“There was nothing like basketball at M-A,” he said. “Our games were always sold out and the stands were packed, but baseball games were a little different. If you got 50 people at a baseball game it would’ve been a success.”
Entering his junior year, Melvin became increasingly focused on his future in baseball as scouts started to attend his games. “Once college scouts showed up at our games and I realized that I was probably a guy they were coming for, it became obvious that baseball was going to be the sport for me,” he said.
“One game, I tried to drop a bunt down for a hit, and then I popped the ball up and the catcher caught it, which was a stupid thing for me to do. As I was walking back to the bench, I heard one of the scouts muttering, ‘I drove 350 miles to watch this kid bunt.’ I realized it was time to work hard and prove myself,” he recalled.
Melvin’s baseball coach at M-A was Frank Bettencourt. “I am lucky to have known and been coached by him,” he said. “The short story is I’m still in baseball to this day, so he had a huge influence on my career.”
Melvin achieved impressive batting averages of .474 his junior year and .529 his senior year, and also became inducted into M-A’s Hall of Fame for his significant contributions to baseball.
After graduating from M-A, Melvin attended UC Berkeley as a catcher for the Golden Bears, despite being drafted by the Baltimore Orioles that same year. “I had to decide whether or not I was going to sign and go play pro baseball or if I was going to go to school at Berkeley,” he said. “I was 17, and I don’t think I was ready to just leave home and start playing baseball, so going to Berkeley made more sense.”
During his first year at Berkeley, the Golden Bears reached the semi-finals of the College World Series. “College was hard. I was there to play baseball, and trying to get through school in such an academically competitive environment was really challenging,” Melvin said.
Following one year at Berkeley, Melvin was selected by the Detroit Tigers as the second overall pick in the first round of the 1981 MLB draft. “It all happened very fast,” he said. “Before I knew it, I was going to Florida for spring training with the Tigers.”
Entering professional baseball brought challenges for Melvin. “I was always a team leader and one of the best players on the teams I’d been on, and now all of a sudden, I’m in pro ball, and all these guys are the same as me. The competition hits you in the face and I was like ‘Oh now I got some work to do,’” Melvin said.
Melvin worked his way through the rankings as a catcher—from Single-A to Triple-A—of the Minor Leagues for the Tigers. “It’s hard to work all the way up to the major leagues. I was in Triple-A once and got sent down to Double-A, and that felt like the end of the world,” he said. “Once you get drafted, you still gotta believe in yourself and be confident that you will make it to the big leagues.”
In 1985, Melvin made the jump to the Major Leagues with the Tigers. After one season there, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants for three seasons, then played for the Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Chicago White Sox over the span of 10 seasons.
Throughout his Major League career, Melvin navigated numerous transitions and constantly adapted to new environments and organizations. “The first time I got traded was very hard because that was the team I came up with and learned from,” he said. “Once you get traded for the first time you realize baseball is a business, and going to so many different teams just ended up being better opportunities for me.”
Melvin also recalled the unique experience of traveling as a professional athlete. “You just have to get used to it,” he said. “You have a home base, but during the season you’re always on the road. It’s just part of the job.”
Reaching the 1989 World Series with the Giants against the Oakland A’s was a standout moment for Melvin. Although the team lost in a 4-0 sweep, he described it as a “major highlight of my playing career.”
After retiring as an MLB player, Melvin began his career as a coach. In 1996, he started working as a scout for the Milwaukee Brewers where he evaluated and recruited players before becoming a coach in the Minor Leagues.
Shortly after, Melvin was promoted to a Major League coach to become the Brewers bench coach, where he assisted Manager Phil Garner—a former teammate of Melvin’s on the Giants—with in-game decisions.
Melvin spent three years as a Minor League coach, two years coaching for the Brewers’ Major Leagues, and two years as the Arizona Diamondbacks’ bench coach from 2001-02. In 2001, the Diamondbacks won the World Series. “I got into coaching because it was really all about what I knew,” he said. “I thought about doing different things, but baseball really was my main passion.”
Being a bench coach was formative in Melvin’s progression as a manager. “You have to think alongside the manager, have information for them, and learn how to watch the game like a manager,” he said.
Melvin became the manager of the Seattle Mariners in 2003. “I honestly didn’t even think about managing, but Phil Garner always told me I was going to manage, so I think at some point it just became a given that it was in the books for me,” he said.
Following two seasons with the Mariners, Melvin became the manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2005-09. In 2010, Melvin was a special assistant scout for the New York Mets right before acquiring his job as the manager of the Oakland A’s where he served for 11 seasons. “It was an incredible opportunity to be back in the Bay,” he said.
After his success with the A’s, Melvin served as manager for the San Diego Padres for two seasons before transitioning into his current position as the San Francisco Giants manager in 2023. “It’s really a dream come true,” he said. “I think back to when I was at M-A and to think that not only would I play for the Giants but I would also manage the A’s and the Giants is so surreal to me.”
“Every time I walk into that ballpark, it reminds me of when I was a kid going to Giants games. I feel a great sense of responsibility managing the team in my hometown,” Melvin continued.
On game days, Melvin follows a strict schedule that includes preparing the team’s lineups, getting reports ready for players, overseeing batting practice, holding pregame meetings, and speaking in press conferences. “It’s the routine of every day that I love,” he said.
While Melvin is still involved in day-to-day practices, the coach takes on a more direct role in instructing the players and preparing them for games. As the manager, Melvin is more focused on making high-pressure decisions during the game. “I obviously love the competition of the game, but it’s really the interactions with the players and the bonds that you form with the team that are really important,” he said.
Melvin’s career in baseball has taught him important life lessons. “In sports, a lot of times things don’t go smoothly, someone will get injured or have a bad playing day, but baseball has taught me how to deal with failure not only in business but also in life,” he said.
For Melvin, the baseball community is what makes the sport special. “I see everyone leaving the ballpark in all their black and orange and realize that we aren’t just playing a baseball game, we are also entertaining the whole community,” he said. “It’s cool to see how much the Giants mean to the city of San Francisco.”
As for his goal for the future of the Giants: “We’re just trying to win a World Series here in San Francisco. That’s really the ultimate goal and I can’t even describe how much that would mean to me.”
Melvin’s advice to current M-A student-athletes: “Have fun with what you’re doing because sports are really meant to be fun. Who knows how long your career will last, so enjoy it to its fullest, take it for what it’s worth, and know it’s preparing you for the rest of your life.”
