WASHINGTON -- The Giants’ three-game series in Washington this week marks the first in which Bruce Bochy will be managing at a ballpark for the last time.

And for Bochy -- who will retire after his 25th managerial season, a career that includes a 13-year tenure with San Francisco that featured three World Series titles -- this stop is a little special.

“This is where I probably started,” Bochy said before Tuesday’s series opener, “to really have that passion and desire to play baseball.”

Born into an Army family, Bochy spent a sizable chunk of his childhood just across the Potomac River in Northern Virginia. His first Major League ballgames came in the late 1960s, cheering on the Washington Senators at RFK Stadium, about 2 1/2 miles northeast of Nationals Park. His formative experiences on the diamond came playing youth ball in Bailey’s Crossroads, Va., a suburb five miles down Columbia Pike from The Pentagon.

Bochy even remembers hustling as a paperboy for the long-defunct Evening Star newspaper, trying to enlist new subscribers: the best sellers were rewarded with free Senators tickets.

He never won.

“That’s why I said it was fixed,” Bochy quipped. “‘Cause I got a lot of customers.”

Of course, Nationals Park is also connected to the last of Bochy’s World Series triumphs. In 2014, the Giants won Games 1 and 2 of the National League Division Series here. The latter was an historic 18-inning contest decided by Brandon Belt’s homer into the second deck in right.

In this trip, Bochy said he’s most focused on connecting with old friends who still live in the area, many of whom were once teammates.

“I’m amazed how many of them are going to come out for the game,” Bochy said.