ARLINGTON — The last time an MLB team won back-to-back World Series championships, Evan Carter had yet to be born.
Carter, the Texas Rangers' rising star who helped the club win its first World Series title four months ago, was featured in a brief and unassuming social media post in which he says hello to fans from Globe Life Field, says he's excited about spring training, and signs off with "Let's run it back."
That's the plan, but it won't be easy.
It was 2000, and Bruce Bochy was managing the San Diego Padres. The New York Yankees, the last team to repeat, won their third consecutive championship.
"It's not easy to do," said Bochy, who has won four World Series titles, including three with the San Francisco Giants and 2023 with the Rangers. "It took a lot of years to get this one, and they've had some really good teams. They've been very close here. But now the challenge is to make sure that guys stay hungry, and I don't have any doubt about that. We saw it last year, how tough they were, and the resiliency of this team."
The competitive edge, or hunger, as Bochy called it, is only part of the equation for a team to repeat. Bochy won three titles in five seasons (2010, 2012, and 2014) with the Giants but never in back-to-back seasons.
"I've had conversations with quite a few of [players]," he said. "The talk is it's a new year. We've got to get ready and try to do this again. So I'm looking forward to it. I really am. I don't think you can ask for anything more than having a chance to go back to back. It's incredible when teams do that. I don't care what sport you're in because it's just not easy to do."
Bochy isn't worried about his team's competitive edge coming off a title.
"I don't worry about [that], as far as staying hungry, wanting to win, those types of things. I just don't see that [being an issue] with these guys," he said. "What they did at the end and how determined they were; I think that's always going to stay there."
Here are Bochy's three keys for a repeat:
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