San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Wall of Fame: Former pitchers Cain, Vogelsong, Wilson are honored by Giants.
Matt Cain is a full-time dad for the first time. Ryan Vogelsong visits the Giants’ minor-league clubs as a special instructor. Brian Wilson plays shortstop on an 0-10 softball team, says he has come out of “crossword retirement” and become a home builder in Southern California, which everybody had in the pool, right?
On Saturday, with a throng of fans watching the ceremony along King Street, each of the right-handed pitchers pulled a rope to unveil their new Wall of Fame plaques.
The Giants already had 49 inductees, but Cain, Vogelsong and Wilson are the first from the San Francisco championship era. They won’t be the last. Team President Larry Baer announced the Giants are adding a new qualifying criterion for those who have won three World Series rings with the Giants. That will allow Core Four relievers Jeremy Affeldt, Javier Lopez and Santiago Casilla to be honored.
Sergio Romo already qualified under both of the original criteria of nine seasons with the Giants or five years and one All-Star appearance.
“This is a new era for the Wall of Fame,” Baer said. “When we’re not around anymore, this wall will be able to tell the story of the golden era of Giants baseball.”
A lot of funny stories were told during a ceremony that lasted nearly 90 minutes. Wilson was at the heart of most of those.
Vogelsong was telling a heartfelt tale of Wilson’s uncanny knack for predicting how well Vogelsong would pitch in a game. Vogelsong wanted to say that Wilson was “psychic” but accidentally (maybe) said “psycho.”
Buster Posey recalled the first time he caught Wilson in a spring-training game and asked the reliever what signs to use when a runner reached second base. Wilson shot back, “Nobody is going to get on second base!”
“First guy, double,” Posey said.
Affeldt said he feared the beard because he did not know what was inside it. Manager Bruce Bochy said Wilson drove back to Fresno on a game day right after his first call-up to close out his apartment and did not return to AT&T Park until 15 minutes before the first pitch.
Bochy called Wilson into his office to ream him out and slammed the door for effect — on his own thumb. With his hand throbbing, Bochy commenced the reaming.
Vogelsong revealed that once a month he would find hundreds of hangers stuffed into his locker, courtesy of Cain, who did it to get a reaction. Months after Vogelsong retired he got a package at home from someone named “Matt.” He had no idea which Matt until he opened it and saw 250 hangers.
Jokes aside, the speakers praised the new Wall of Famers for the players and people they were when they wore the uniform. The players in turn thanked the Giants for their careers.
“I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania,” Vogelsong said. “I went to a Division II college in Amish country, so I thank you guys for finding me and making me a Giant.”
The dais was poignant and symbolic.
The three honorees sat on one end. On the other were Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda and Willie Mays; Mays was part of the 1954 World Series team.
Between them was a bridge of executives who welcomed the legends back to the organization and made the ballpark happen, including former managing general partner Peter Magowan, who created a Wall of Fame that will grow with more members of the 2010, 2012 and 2014 championship teams.