Why Giants, Pence fit `like a perfect puzzle piece'
SAN FRANCISCO >> Before the festivities on Saturday, when he becomes the 55th person with a plaque on the Giants' Wall of Fame, Hunter Pence will watch their game against the Dodgers Friday night from his perch in the Apple TV+ broadcast booth on the third deck of Oracle Park.
Pence's effervescent personality makes him a natural fit behind the microphone and will assuredly make for a number of memorable moments during Saturday's pregame ceremony. But it's possible the public never would have met the Pence they know and love without his trade to the Giants midway through the 2012 season.
“San Francisco kind of helped me be OK with who I am,” Pence said this week on 95.7 The Game. “It did feel like the perfect fit, like a perfect puzzle piece fit. Everything I did was a little bit quirky, a little bit awkward. Honestly I feel like the city of San Francisco is very hyper creative, very open minded, very into a little bit of uniqueness. That's what a lot of my friends will say, you're just unique out there, Hunter. I think that I felt very welcomed.”
When the Giants acquired Pence from the Phillies at the 2012 trade deadline, he had already established himself as one of the majors' best outfielders. He'd earned his first two of four eventual All-Star nods and been the centerpiece of a major deadline deal the previous year, sending him from Houston to Philly.
But in San Francisco, Pence flourished.
He wore his socks high. He wiggled at plate. He provided heroics on the field.
Off the field, he surfed. He rode his scooter to the ballpark. He endeared himself as a quirky goofball in a city full of them. Then he helped bring those goofballs two World Series titles.
“It was celebrated that I was a little bit different,” Pence said. “I just align a lot with this city.”
Pence spent four-plus years in Houston and parts of two seasons in Philadelphia before arriving in San Francisco.
“It was just different,” Pence said. “In Texas for sure, I was kind of in a shell a little bit. In Philly, (it was) kind of similar. I definitely think it helped heal me and helped me come out of my shell, just this environment.”
Pence said he maintains the same San Francisco condo that he owned during his eight seasons here, from 2012-18 and 2020, and that he hopes to make a permanent move to the Bay Area with his wife, Lexi, whom he met here.
At least one piece of him will be immortalized outside Oracle Park on Saturday.
Pence will be the 55th person honored with a plaque on the Wall of Fame, but he'll be the first to have it presented in an on-field ceremony before a game. Festivities are set to begin at 5 p.m. ahead of the 6:05 p.m. first pitch.
Pence has shown no problem with commanding a crowd. The first 20,000 fans on Saturday will receive foam fingers in a throwback to Pence's “Yes! Yes! Yes!” speech on the final day of the 2014 regular season.
The Giants snuck in as a wild card that year, then barreled through the Pirates, Nationals and Cardinals on their way to their second World Series title in three years, prevailing over Kansas City in seven games. Pence hit safely in 15 of his 17 games that postseason — an .875 overall OPS — and during the World Series batted .444, scored seven runs and drove in five more.
It was the 2012 World Series run, after Pence was acquired in a trade at midseason, that provided him his favorite memories.
That team staved off elimination in each round before reaching the World Series and doing away with the Tigers in a four-game sweep. They won three straight elimination games to advance out of the NLDS, then did it again in Games 5, 6 and 7 of the NLCS against St. Louis.
Pence recalled the team plane ride home from St. Louis after winning Game 5, 5-0, behind 7⅔ shutout innings from Barry Zito.
“Zito pitched an absolute gem,” Pence said. “I remember being on the flight coming back and us being like, the Cardinals must be so pissed to be flying back right now. Welcome back to San Francisco, and oh by the way, good luck with (Ryan) Vogelsong and (Matt) Cain.”
The next game, Vogelsong surrendered a single run over seven innings. They knew they had the series — and the World Series — won then. Starting with that Game 5 in St. Louis, the Giants won their final seven games of the postseason.
“When we got the last out, running in, at that moment, there was just so much momentum. We felt unstoppable,” Pence said. “The fans were like shaking the fence in right field. They broke it down. It was like halfway leaning down. They were going so nuts, just chanting, `Vogey! Vogey!'”
It didn't take Pence long after arriving in 2012 to figure out the experience he was in for.
“I remember I walked into a restaurant and people were putting up their cameras,” Pence said, recounting one of his first days in San Francisco after the trade. “They were kind of filming it or whatever, and some fan stood up and said `Let's-GoGiants!' And everyone started standing up and clapping. I was just like, did not expect that. Had not had anything like that ever happen. But that energy of that 2012 team was something else.”