On festive day, quelling unease about the season
It was two hours before game time, shortly before the gates opened for the Giants’ home opener, and the only occupants of Section 122 were Brian Sabean and Bobby Evans, the team’s front-office brain trust. Leaving an open seat between them, they studied a few rounds of batting practice and engaged in quiet conversation.
Not far away, Giants President Larry Baer was energetically addressing a large group of stadium ushers, playfully telling them, “Don’t make any vacation plans, you know? In October?”
By the end of Tuesday’s game, with Seattle celebrating a 6-4 win, the skeptics were out in force. “As if the Giants will be in the World
Series,” they lamented. “How are Sabean and Evans going to fix this?”
For the time being, like all sound thinkers in this game, they will wait. There’s nothing more frustrating than a listless stretch of early-season play in any sport, but nothing defines patience — or faith, for that matter — like the ability to recognize and appreciate the 162-game grind.
About all we know for certain is that the home-game scenes will not resemble Oakland’s. Attendance is already a huge issue in the East Bay (just 7,416 fans on hand for Monday night’s game, 9,157 Tuesday evening), and Baer was quick to remind his employees that the Giants have sold more than 27,000 season tickets this year.
On the field, there is no clearcut proof the Giants will be superior, though, at least not yet. The A’s have an exciting corps of youthful players and a stockpile of highly touted minor leaguers. The Giants are all about right now, knowing that if their over-30 players don’t produce a contending season, the future will be about an aging roster, troublesome contracts, a suspect farm system and perhaps a long road back to respectability.
None of which has much to do, incidentally, with Joe Panik. In the heart of his prime at 27, Panik has crafted the Giants’ only significant story line of the early season. He’s a bit of a cult hero these days, although one struggles to pinpoint the cult.
When Panik played for the Giants’ Double-A Richmond, Va., club in 2013, he hit just four home runs in 599 plate appearances. Against all odds, he has hit three in the Giants’ first five games — and if you take away those, the Giants would have gone scoreless over the first 42 innings.
Baseball being a game of eternal mystery, one wonders just how many homers Panik might produce. “I’d say 60, the way it’s looking,” said manager Bruce Bochy, admirably finding some levity during the postgame interviews. Bochy was just glad someone else joined the long-ball party, Evan Longoria, with a two-run shot in the seventh inning.
It seemed desperately important that the Giants actually put together a rally. After Longoria’s blast cut Seattle’s lead to 6-3, Gregor Blanco cracked an eighth-inning double down the left-field line and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Austin Jackson. The crowd came to life, finally, and after a Panik infield single put runners on first and second with a righthanded pitcher on the mound ( Juan Nicasio), a crazy thought came to mind: What a spot for Pablo Sandoval to pinch hit.
It was out of the question, of course. The outburst had taken the Giants straight into the heart of the order, and Nicasio dispatched Andrew McCutchen and Buster Posey to end the threat. One of these days, though, Sandoval will be up there in a clutch situation. He’s looking like his old self — paunchy but hardly grotesque — and adding his spiritual presence to the clubhouse.
For far too long on this gorgeous afternoon, it seemed the most voluminous crowd response would be for Dusty Baker. In a terrific move for the man and the franchise, the Giants have brought back their beloved ex-manager as an adviser to the front office. Baker exudes dignity and pride, and although his departure from the club (after the 2002 World Series) was tinged with controversy, he was a most welcome addition to the parade of pregame notables.
In a development no one could have predicted, the assemblage also included Brian Wilson — in uniform, no less. Resurrecting the magic of 2010, when Wilson struck out the Texas Rangers’ Nelson Cruz to clinch the Giants’ first-ever World Series championship in San Francisco — the Giants asked him to throw a ceremonial first pitch.
What a strange sight: Wilson, last seen at AT&T Park with a preposterous beard, a Dodgers uniform and ill feelings toward the organization, wearing No. 38 and firing a strike down the middle. “Well, now anything can happen,” you thought to yourself. But the day’s true closer was Seattle’s Edwin Diaz, a hero for his native Puerto Rico in the 2017 World Baseball Classic and a man with truly electric stuff.
The inevitable seagulls were gathering as Diaz struck out Longoria and Hunter Pence, then retired Nick Hundley on a harmless pop-up to end the game. Sadly, a good number of fans already had left. The Giants’ most pressing issue is the restoration of faith.