Giants' rookies made it big early

SAN FRANCISCO - While some players have to wait years to make it to the World Series, San Francisco catcher Buster Posey has gotten there as a rookie.

What makes it all the more noteworthy is that Posey is a catcher, with all the responsibilities of running a pitching staff as well as those of a middle-of-the-lineup hitter. Posey batted third for Game 1 on Wednesday night but has spent much of the season hitting cleanup.

Posey is just the 11th rookie catcher to take a team to the World Series and the first since Yadier Molina went there with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004, according to the Society for American Baseball Research. Only four of the previous 10 rookie catchers came out on the winning side, most recently Baltimore's Andy Etchebarren in 1966.

San Francisco has another rookie in Game 4 starter Madison Bumgarner.

"We're probably a little spoiled," Posey said. "But at the same time, we understand the magnitude and how lucky we are to be here. It's something you don't take for granted."

Posey is also one of only seven rookies to regularly bat cleanup for a World Series team. He already has set a rookie record with 11 hits this postseason, breaking the mark of 10 that Freddy Lindstrom set for the New York Giants in 1924 when there was only a World Series.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy and Texas Rangers owner Nolan Ryan were teammates for one season, in 1980 with the Houston Astros club that lost to the Phillies in the National League Championship Series.

Now they are on opposite sides at the World Series.

"It's going to be good to see Nolan. I don't know if I'll get a chance to say hello, where he'll be," Bochy said. "This is certainly how you thought it would work out. You didn't think I would be owning a club and he would be managing. I was fortunate to have played with Nolan."

Even though Bochy was a catcher, he never was behind the plate when Ryan was on the mound. Ryan started 35 games that season, and Bochy appeared in only six of those - all after Ryan had thrown his final pitch. In one of those games, Bochy pinch-hit for Ryan in the eighth inning.

Bochy's third season in Houston was the first for Ryan there. While Ryan pitched 27 seasons in a Hall of Fame career, Bochy played 358 games in nine seasons for San Diego, Houston, and the New York Mets.

"He was relentless with his workouts, and that was really at a time where the working out, the weights and conditioning probably wasn't as emphasized as it is now," Bochy said. "That's what I probably got from him as much as anything, you know, how much work you need to put into the game."

Rangers catcher Bengie Molina, who was traded from San Francisco on July 1, joins former Phillie Lonnie Smith as the only players to ever play for both World Series teams in the same season. Smith was traded by St. Louis to Kansas City on May 17, 1985, and won it all with the Royals.