Teammates and coaches remember Buster Posey, who retired at the end of the 2021 season and is being celebrated by the team and fans this weekend.
Former Giants catcher Buster Posey peers from the dugout late last season. Teammates and coaches remember Posey, who retired at the end of the 2021 season and is being celebrated by the team and fans this weekend. Buster Posey, who the Giants are honoring this weekend, filled these roles and more during a career that spanned from 2009 to 2021. If he were a nicer guy but a lesser ballplayer, the ballclub might not be so quick to celebrate him.
That’s just it: Posey didn’t disappoint the fans. He didn’t always generate a clutch hit or record a tough out, but he didn’t have to. The Giants and their fans implicitly believed in Posey.Tim Flannery, third-base coach We were playing the Rockies when Buster was a rookie. I forget who their pitcher was, but he had thrown 11 wild pitches that season. I told Buster, “You’ve got to get a bigger secondary lead.” So the pitcher throws, and Buster stops halfway down the line. I said, “Buster, you’ve got to get back to third after every pitch.” He snapped at me and said, “You can’t have it both ways.” I realized, “This is probably what fuels this guy.
The playoffs are what jumps out. He commanded a pitching staff which had various levels of experience, and he did it so well. For me personally, it was having to face Jason Heyward in the National League Division Series. That was his competition for Rookie of the Year in 2010, and I had the opportunity to pitch while those two dueled in the box. Buster’s game-planning vs. Jason trying to guess and plan himself.
After we drafted him, we knew that we had a chance to be pretty good pretty quick. Making him the everydaycatcher was one of three big things Brian Sabean did. With Bob Quinn after the 1992 season, he got Dave Burba, Mike Jackson and Bill Swift for Kevin Mitchell. Then there was the Matt Williams trade before the 1997 season. Then trading Bengie Molina to make room for Buster really impacted some guys. But everybody who came to us — Tim Hudson, Jake Peavy, Ryan Vogelsong — fell in behind Buster.