Giants home opener brings baseball back to the bay

SAN FRANCISCO

The crack of the bat. The pop of the glove. A bright spring afternoon. It all added up to a perfect day Monday, one marking the return of Giants baseball to AT&T Park.

Under red, white and blue bunting, streamers flittering in the breeze, fireworks and a military jet flyover, the Giants began their 2017 home baseball season Monday afternoon awash in sunny skies and the hopeful affection that every Opening Day ushers in.

“Happy Opening Day,” smiling fans greeted each other as if it was a holiday.

“Good to see you. How’ve you been?” season-ticket holders said when they arrived to see familiar seatmates from seasons past.

Pomp and circumstance were the order for the first of three games against the Giants’ National League West rival Arizona Diamondbacks. It made no difference to fans that the Diamondbacks are in first place and the Giants in the cellar.

“It’s early,” said Robert Cuellar of Cupertino, attending his second home opener. “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”

The Giants got a much-needed strong starting pitching performance Monday to notch a 4-1 win. Matt Moore, who entered the game 0-1 with a 5.06 earned-run average, allowed just one run in eight innings to lead San Francisco.

Moore also provided the offensive oomph, as it were. In the fourth inning with the bases loaded, Moore hit a squibber that brought in three runs, with the help of two Diamondbacks errors on the play. Diamondbacks pitcher Taijuan Walker fielded Moore’s hit, but threw past catcher Jeff Mathis at the plate, allowing Brandon Crawford to score. As Mathis threw away the return, Joe Panik and Jared Parker both scored.

Giants fans had a scare when fan favorite Buster Posey was hit on the helmet by a Walker pitch in the first inning. The All-Star catcher was immediately removed from the game and was being observed for concussion symptoms, manager Bruce Bochy said after the game.

Earlier, a full house of fans watched performance artist David Garibaldi create a painting of Giant legend Willie Mays on the field before the game, then listened as three cast members from the musical “Hamilton” performed the national anthem.

Monday marked the 135th Opening Day for the Giants, dating to when the team was in New York. It was their 18th season at AT&T Park.

The day started out chilly, windy and overcast - shades of Candlestick Park - but turned into perfect baseball weather by first pitch, cotton candy clouds hovering over the palm trees beyond left field.

Strangely, though, there seemed to be a sickness throughout the crowd. The illness caused several kids to miss school and adults to skip work.

Santa Rosa sixth-grader Garrett Baer, 12, left school Monday morning with a mysterious affliction.

“I signed him out with a fever,” quipped his grandfather, Ernie Dittner. “I didn’t say it was baseball fever.”

Garrett’s parents were OK with that: “We are those parents who let our baseball-obsessed 12-year-old kid skip school for opening day,” said his mother, Amy Baer.

He attended the game courtesy of his season-ticket holding aunt and uncle, Angie and Justin Walling, attending their second Opening Day.

“We got the bug,” Angie Walling said. “It’s so much fun. It’s a little bit of a drive, but it’s worth it. We connect with people we make friends with in the same area.”

With his newly acquired Giants wall calendar in one hand and a huge orange Hulk fist on the other, Garrett was working on his Opening Day checklist: hamburger, ice cream sundae, candy, caramel corn and other assorted tasty options.

Fifteen-year-old Nolan Johnston of Santa Rosa also came down with a bug Monday. His step-grandmother, Petaluman Cindy Thomas, “guilted his father” into letting Nolan call in sick to school for the outing.

It was a pretty successful day for him. He got Diamondbacks slugger Paul Goldschmidt’s autograph before the game.

Sitting behind them was a group of four CalFire firefighters who have spent the last three home openers together. Mike Van Loben Sels, Brian Estes, Mike Parkes and Dave Russell are making it a habit.

“We get together every year,” Van Loben Sels said. “It’s our little tradition.”

Estes, wearing a Dodger cap, joked that his three Giants friends “bring me along and protect me.”

The foursome were part of Monday’s sellout, another tradition at AT&T.

This season, the Giants have the largest number of season ticket holders in franchise history with 31,000. The stadium seats 42,129.

The Giants also enter the 2017 home campaign with the longest consecutive regular-season home sellout streak in the National League, 514, including 489 regular season games and 25 post-season games.

Fans visiting the stadium this year will find a remodeled Fan Lot, the popular miniature baseball field for kids behind the left field bleachers. During the off-season, it was updated and repositioned into a mini-AT&T Park, including a pint-sized brick right-field wall with arches and a manually operated scoreboard.

While Monday was calendar day, there are 40 other special events planned for this season - at least one of special interest to Sonoma County residents.

On July 22, the Giants will celebrate the work of Sonoma County’s own Charles M. Schulz with a 50th anniversary celebration of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” The promotion includes a special-edition Charlie Brown sound chip bobblehead.

Also this year, there are several new menu items to complement the traditional hot dogs, peanuts and Crackerjack. Highlights include:

The first fully organic menu from The Organic Coup. It includes a crispy fried chicken sandwich with seasoned cabbage slaw, tater tots, chicken tenders and organic caramel popcorn drizzled in chocolate.

CREAM, which stands for Cookies Rule Everything Around Me, will offer a variety of fresh-baked ice cream cookie sandwiches.

The SF Soup Company will open its first location at the park, featuring its Ladle & Leaf concept of freshly made soups and salads.

The Giants continue the homestand with two more games against Arizona before a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies.