San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Kapler, Giants bask in sunshine, take a little shade
FanFest is a time of renewed optimism, not a time for skepticism and Debbie Downers.
And so it was Saturday at Oracle Park, where the Giants and their fans mingled in the bright sunshine. It rained a bit inside the big interview tent, a few drops smudging my notepad (no, I can’t explain that), but oh, the sunshine radiating from above, and from the fans and Giants.
However!
The Giants spent four of the past five seasons wandering in the nonplayoffs wilderness, and
folks are starting to question whether Farhan Zaidi, president of baseball operations, is really gettin’ it done. His hiring of manager Gabe Kapler was not universally hailed.
“I was not excited or happy when you got hired,” a fan named Jill Feather said to Kapler during the audience Q&A session with Kapler and Zaidi.
Feather told Kapler she was going to look for positives in him, and now she just wanted to hear him say he’s shooting higher than the National League West title he mentioned during his introductory news conference.
Kapler smiled and granted Feather her request.
“I want to like him, I want to like him, I don’t yet,” Feather said outside the big tent. She said she’s been a Giants fan since 2010. “This is my team, I don’t want to dislike any of them. I’m not there yet (with Kapler), I’m hoping I get there. He’s so — and Evan Longoria said it earlier — he’s the anti(Bruce) Bochy, he’s the opposite of Bochy. One of the reasons I love this organization is just the class, and I just don’t feel like he represents that. I love Farhan, so I trust him. Like, he did great with the players.”
The last five years of Giants’ struggles?
“I love them anyway,” said Feather, who lives near Sacramento. “I’m here today, they can’t disappoint me this year. I watch or listen to every game.”
That was it, folks. That was all of the grilling I heard, all of the apprehension I sensed, as thousands of fans wandered the field, ran the bases and posed with their babies and their doggies atop the pitcher’s mound, Mount Bumgarner (sorry, couldn’t resist).
It’s not so much that Giants fans are in denial as they are Springstruck — infected by the condition that wipes out memories of past subpar seasons. Springstruck fans harbor hope or delusion that their team really fixed all the problems and will kill in 2020.
One thing that Kapler can do to boost his stock with skeptical fans would be to chum it up with Hunter Pence. If Zaidi’s signing of Pence was shameless pandering to the sentiment of fans, mission accomplished. He walked the grounds a rock star.
FanFest, for sure, was not a place to break down Pence’s — or anyone else’s — shortcomings, but to bask in the glow of the players and reaffirm The Faith.
“There’s something different about this team and their players,” said Brandie Gomes of Turlock, an adult whose dad, David, started bringing her to games when she was 2. “They love to play the game.”
The Giants also resigned Pablo Sandoval. The Reverend and the Panda.
“I think it’s important to get spirit guys,” said Sue Mayo, who said she thought Kapler was “treated unfairly” at his intro news conference. “Considering that I’ve heard a lot of negativity (about Kapler), he sounds pretty good.” Kapler knows how to reach out to a crowd. He rehashed some of his theme points, such as that the Giants will play with an energy that will leave opposing teams “exhausted.”
Kapler and Zaidi opened up to the crowd. Kapler, asked about his footwear, proudly showed off his Red Wing work boots. So he’ll try to fill Bochy’s shoes with boots. Kapler said when he played for the Rangers and they came to the Bay to play the A’s, he took BART to the Oakland Coliseum. So he’s fearless. Oh, and he had braised short ribs for breakfast.
Zaidi revealed that his favorite baseball movie is “Major League” (in which a team owner tries to lose on purpose, with a team made up of misfits and retreads, gulp!). Zaidi said he is a “pretty tough pickup basketball player, although I can’t shoot much.” He said he works out in the clubhouse gym during games, a habit he picked up while working under A’s boss Billy Beane. When a questioner mentioned that Kapler “underachieved” last year as the Phillies’ manager, Zaidi sprung to his skipper’s defense, saying analytics show that the Phillies played to their talent level. And so the team and the fans marched forward in the sunshine Saturday, with only quick glances back at the past.
“We don’t expect them to win every year,” Mayo said. “But we’d like to.”
“Reset button,” said her husband, Sidney Johnson.
Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostler