Raising the 2012 World Championship Flag - San Francisco Giants

source: MLB.com/YouTube
L to R: Sergio Romo, Angel Pagan, Hunter Pence, Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Ryan Vogelsong

MLB's 2015 season begins tomorrow. Two years ago today, the 2013 season began with raising the 2012 World Championship Banner at AT&T Park. A repeat of this ceremony to raise the 2014 World Championship flag will take place at the Giants' home opener versus the Colorado Rockies on Monday, April 13.

For all Giants fans like me that feel 8 days is too far away, here's an encore of the video. So comforted to know all 6 players are on the 2015 Opening Day roster.

Play ball!

My Favorite Highlights of SF Giants' 2014 Post Season

source: SFGiants.com
L to R: Madison Bumgarner, Pablo Sandoval, Buster Posey, Hunter Pence

Without a doubt, Madison Bumgarner dominated the 2014 post season. Without him, San Francisco does not get a third World Series title in 5 years.

But the humble Bumgarner will tell you as well as all Giants players and management, they credit their success as a team effort.

For example, 3rd baseman Pablo Sandoval batted .366 with 26 hits. Right fielder and media darling Hunter Pence batted .333 with 22 hits. If Bumgarner hadn't overwhelmed with his cyborg like statistics: 52.2 innings pitched, 7 appearances, 6 of them starts (including a complete game shutout), a stingy 1.03 ERA, Pence or Sandoval would have been a shoo-in for World Series or NLCS MVP.

Pitching, defense and "small ball" were the key components for the Giants to capture World Series titles in 2010, 2012, and 2014. In the photo for this blog entry, 3 of the 4 players - Bumgarner, Sandoval, and Posey have played on all 3 championship teams. None are yet at the age of 30. Pence, with 2 World Series rings, is the oldest at 31.

So I'll close out with my favorite highlights of the San Francisco's 2014 post season run to the World Series.

NLCS, Game 5, bottom 9th inning.
Left fielder (natural 1st baseman) Travis Ishikawa hits a 3-run walk-off home run to win the National League pennant. See October 17 blog entry.



World Series, Game 7, top 3rd inning.
Rookie 2nd baseman Joe Panik dives for a smash off Kansas City's Eric Hosmer. Not only does Panik stop the ball, he flips the ball from his glove hand to shortstop Brandon Crawford to force out baserunner Lorenzo Cain. Crawford is then able to relay a strong throw to 1st baseman Brandon Belt. The initial call of safe at 1st base is overturned and changed to a double play. The momentum the Royals had gathered until the double play suddenly ended.



World Series, Game 4, bottom 5th inning.
Giants are down 4-3. Royals center fielder Jarrod Dyson makes an awesome diving catch in shallow center field off Giants batter Juan Perez. Hunter Pence, on 3rd base knows Dyson is going to have a hard time making a strong throw to home plate after the diving catch. Pence tags up and scores to tie the game 4-4.



World Series, Game 4, top 6th inning.
Score is tied 4-4. Brandon Belt fields a ground ball hit by Kansas City's Nori Aoki. Belt touches 1st base, then throws to Crawford who relays a strong throw back to Belt to complete the 3-6-3 double play.



Wild Card Elimination Game, top 1st inning.
A do-or-die game and the first playoff game for the Giants, Brandon Crawford's grand slam home run at PNC Park to start the game sets the stage for another successful run to a third World Series title in five years.



Honorable Mention, Michael Morse. NLCS Game 5, bottom 8th inning and World Series Game 7, top 4th inning.
His home run in NLCS Game 5 ties the game at 3-3 versus the St. Louis Cardinals.
His RBI single in World Series Game 7 allows Pablo Sandoval to score and break the 2-2 tie in the top of the 4th inning, ends up being the final score and enables San Francisco to win their third World Series Championship in 5 years.



Special thanks to G4MarchMadness for the terrific YouTube videos.

Back-to-back slams, Hunter Pence

*UPDATE: Evan Gattis of the Atlanta Braves takes over as having the longest home run of 2013. He hit a 486-foot home run against the Philadelphia Phillies in Citizens Bank Park.

As of tonight, the San Francisco Giants are in a tie for last place in the National League West. Post season hopes gone. And extremely unlikely they'll repeat as World Series Champions. But there's a hard working, even harder playing Giant who has played in ALL 132 games of the 2013 season to date. His name is Hunter Pence. He plays right field.

Hunter's consecutive game streak almost ended in last night's game against the Colorado Rockies. Rockies batter Michael Cuddyer crushed a hard, deep fly ball Pence tried to catch, running full speed. Here's the video:

After a few minutes, Hunter got up, understandably dazed. Still wobbly, he jogged back to the team dugout. Remarkably, he only had the wind knocked out of him and played the rest of the game. Tonight, sans cobwebs, the wall slam a semi-distant memory, Hunter does the slam again. With a bat. 476 feet over the fence. And now the longest home run of the 2013 season. Watch and admire:



Wow, perhaps Hunter should slam into walls more often.

*UPDATE: September 27, 2013. As no surprise to Giants fans, Hunter Pence wins Willie Mac Award. Named after former Giants great Willie McCovey, the award exemplifies the spirit and leadership McCovey showed consistently throughout his career. Former recipients include Matt Cain, Buster Posey, Ryan Vogelsong and 2-time winners Mike Krukow, J.T. Snow, and Bengie Molina.