The MLB Giants yesterday at their home opener had a "team wide march from the center field gate to the infield with the team's three recent" World Series trophies, according to a front-page piece by Mark Purdy of the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. There was a "horseback ride across the AT&T Park outfield" by P and World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner, and there also was a "climb up through the right field seats by several Giants to the flagpole for the official banner raising." The idea was for Bumgarner to carry the '14 championship banner "on the horse from the left field warning track to the right field bleachers and then hand off the flag" to P Matt Cain in the first row for the "trip up to the concourse." Bumgarner was "given the choice of opting out." In fact, he went to Giants manager Bruce Bochy to "ask if he thought the whole thing was too goofy," but Bochy "assured Bumgarner it wasn't." Bumgarner's ride, which "covered only 100 of 150 yards across the warning track, occurred after some emotional moments that began when the center field gates opened and the Giants' entire team strode toward the infield" -- with Bochy, P Tim Lincecum and C Buster Posey "each carrying one of the three Series trophies won by the Giants" since '10. The players were then "introduced individually," and Bumgarner "easily received the loudest ovation" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 4/14).
THE FRESH MAKER: Giants President & CEO Larry Baer said teams "need to make something new and different interesting in and [around] the ballpark every year. ... Last year we created the Gotham Club. ... It’s like our speakeasy. You go there and you join; it’s open to season ticket holders. ... Another category will be available to non-season ticket-holders." Baer noted the Giants last year also created the Garden in center field. He said "The Yard" is an "example this year; as you’re parking your car -- there’s the Anchor Steam beer garden, food trucks, Peet’s Coffee. ... We created a new Giants Dugout store. We’re always changing. The way we look at the park is it can’t get static, it has to be a fluid living organism always something new at the park, something to talk about." Baer said there is "going to be a meeting" soon focused on "coming up [with] ideas" for '16. Asked about the debt service on the ballpark being completed by '17, he said, "We’re on schedule. ... People say, ‘Oh, then you’ll have that money to spend on players.’ But we’re going to actually use that to develop the neighborhood around the ballpark. It’s an expensive 27 acres. We’ll use whatever mechanisms, either the borrowing capacity or direct payments to develop the neighborhood" (MERCURYNEWS.com, 4/12).
