2015 NL Champion Mets Bench Coach: Bob Geren (2012-2015)

Robert Peter Geren was born on September 22nd 1961 in San Diego, California. He was a star athlete in high school, winning the San Diego HS Player of the Year Award. The six foot three catcher, was drafted in the first round (24th pick overall) by his hometown San Diego Padres in 1979.

A year later he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals as a player to be named later in the deal that sent Gene Tenace & Rollie Fingers to the Cardinals. Fingers was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in a huge deal four days later.

As for Geren, it almost took him a decade to get to the big leagues, after spending five years at AAA ball where he eventually was signed by the AL New York club.

He hit .271 at AAA Columbus in 1988 getting three call ups throughout the season. That year he appeared with his family, on the daytime version of the game show Family Feud. His family won the $5000 grand prize.

He spent two years as back up to Don Slaught, taking over as the clubs main backstop in 1990.

On July 1st, he was the catcher behind the plate when Andy Hawkins tossed a would be no hitter, although he lost the game 4-0 due to New York's errors. The game has been erased as a no hitter since baseball rules have changed. That year Geren hit just .213 with 8 HRs & 31 RBIs as the AL New York team finished seventh in the East.

In 1991 Matt Nokes took over as catcher, and Geren hit .219 in a backup role. He was placed on waivers that winter, going to the Cincinnati Reds, Boston Red Sox & San Diego Padre organizations over the next two years.

In 1993 he made his last appearance in the majors sharing time at catcher with Kevin Higgins & Brad Asmus in San Diego. In his five year career he hit .233 with 22 HRs 21 doubles & 76 RBIs in 307 games. He threw out 38% of would be base stealers & had 126 assists with a .992 fielding %.

 Retirement: After his playing days, Geren managed in the Boston Red Sox & Oakland A's farm systems. In 1999 he won the Manager of the Year Award in the California League. He was also a Red Sox minor league roving catcher instructor.

In 2003 he became an Oakland A's coach through 2005 under Ken Macha. In 2007 he became the A's manager and his club never finished above .500 in his four plus years at the helm.

In 2010 the A's finished at 81-81 making the .500 mark. In June 2009 he was fired & replaced by Bob Melvin. After he was fired he was criticized by some of his players for lack of communication skills. Huston Street & Brian Fuenetes were among some of his critics.

In 2012 he was hired as a New York Mets bench coach, replacing Ken Oberkfell under Manager; Terry Collins. He held that position for four seasons, winning the National League Pennant with the Mets in 2015. Geren was known to rely heavily on stats & was praised by the team for the statistical aptitude in which he used. The team was quoted as saying he has a "strong working knowledge of advanced analytics." 

After the Mets World Series appearance, he took a job with the Los Angles Dodgers as their teams bench coach in 2016. His reason for leaving New York was to be closer to his family in Southern California.

Family: Geren and his wife, Pam, reside in the Bay Area suburb of Danville with their sons, Brett and Bobby.