A new era of Giants baseball was supposed to begin Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
After 13 seasons managing the club, Bruce Bochy stepped away and Gabe Kapler was hired to lead the next generation of Giants. After four seasons in Madison Bumgarner’s shadow, Johnny Cueto was supposed to fill the role of staff ace and take the ball on Opening Day.
Hunter Pence was supposed to make his triumphant return to his old club, Buster Posey was supposed to become the seventh player in franchise history to make 10 Opening Day starts at the same position and Alyssa Nakken was supposed to debut as the first female coach in baseball.
It could all still happen this year, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, Opening Day has been indefinitely postponed.
Where to turn your attention when you can’t look forward? Backward of course, to Opening Day memories of the past.
Some are recent: “My first Opening Day was pretty exiting of course,” said Brandon Crawford, who has started at shortstop for the Giants in each of the last eight openers. “And then there’s the one with Bumgarner’s couple of home runs, a crazy pitching duel in LA, and some others.”
Some are in the distant past: “The one that sticks out for me was when I was with the Indians and it was April 19, 1980,” broadcaster Duane Kuiper said.
Then there are others you might not know about: “Opening Day in 2000 was among the most memorable days of my baseball life,” Kapler said.
Let’s turn back the clock 40 years to 1980, when Kuiper’s Indians hosted the Toronto Blue Jays.
With 61,753 fans in attendance at Cleveland Stadium, Kuiper started the game at second base for the Indians. He finished in the clubhouse.
“It’s the only time I ever charged the mound,” Kuiper recalls.
With hard-throwing left-hander Balor Moore on the mound for Toronto, Kuiper took a fastball high and tight that sailed behind his head in the bottom of the eighth inning. He remembers falling to the ground and shouting at Moore to throw the ball over the plate.
“He did the one thing that you can’t do and he made a motion for me to come out,” Kuiper said. “So in front of 62,000 people, I’ve got to go out. I’ve got to go out whether I want to or not, I’ve got to go. Buck Martinez was the catcher and I almost got away from him.”
When you get the signal, there’s no time to wait around.
“I didn’t do the Yasiel Puig where I bounced around and yelled at him,” Kuiper said. “I got up and I went.”
Kuiper was immediately ejected from Cleveland’s 8-1 victory, but said he never paid a fine for charging the mound.
“I got hit a lot, Nolan Ryan hit me three times,” Kuiper said. “But the thought of me going out there trying to charge him, that would not happen.”
Three years later, the play-by-play voice of the Giants was out at second base when his broadcast partner Mike Krukow also had to leave an Opening Day game early.
This decision was made by the manager, not by the umpires.
“1983, I was going to open the season for the Giants,” Krukow said. “I had been traded in December of ‘82, went to spring training and there were a lot of high hopes for the Giants. They had a great run in 82 and I had been traded to the Giants in the offseason for Joe Morgan and Al Holland and it wasn’t that popular with Frank Robinson.”
Robinson, the manager, apparently wasn’t thrilled when general manager Tom Haller wanted to rip up Krukow’s existing contract and hand him an extension before he even threw a pitch for the Giants.
Krukow said he didn’t have a great spring, but was told he would start on Opening Day against the San Diego Padres at Candlestick Park anyway.
The night before the game, he went to see The King and I, starring Yul Brynner at a San Francisco theater.
“I’m out there on the mound and before I could throw the first pitch, I hear ‘Will you please welcome warmly, the international acting star, here to throw out the first pitch of the 1983 season, Yul Brynner.’ “ Krukow said.
Krukow was impressed by Brynner on stage and impressed by his showmanship on the field, too.
“So here comes Yul Brynner and he comes out and he gets the ball and he bows and he waves his hand and all of that was awesome,” Krukow said. “He nails it.”
And then?
“Then it came time to throw the ball and I think it was the very first time he had ever attempted it in his life,” Krukow said. “Because he threw about a three-hopper that just barely got to the left-handed batter’s box.”
A half hour later, Krukow had another visitor greet him at the mound.
“Whap, whap, whap, anyway, an inning and a third later, I’ve got four runs in and guys on base and here comes Frank Robinson,” Krukow said. “He walks out, he crosses the first base line and it’s clear he’s going to make a pitching change.”
Krukow’s day was over, but there was still time for one more blow.
“He walks out to me and sticks his hand out and as he does when I put the ball in his hand, he says, ‘Yul Brynner had better stuff than you did.’ “ Krukow said.
Nearly 30 years later, Crawford made his first Opening Day start for the Giants, the team the Foothill High product grew rooted for as a child.
“I’m sure I would’ve been excited no matter what team I was on, but being a Giants fan growing up, being the Opening Day starting shortstop was a dream come true,” Crawford said. “I’m sure I had the standard butterflies in my stomach up to the first pitch (because I still get them every Opening Day right around the national anthem).”
Crawford said he doesn’t remember much about the game –it was a standard matchup between the Giants and D’backs in which Paul Goldschmidt homered off Tim Lincecum– but he does remember his first ground ball.
“I booted the first ground ball to me,” Crawford said. “Aaron Hill hit me a pretty hard 2-hopper on Arizona’s (then) parking lot infield dirt and it handcuffed me.”
Ryan Theriot, the Giants’ veteran second baseman at the time, shared a few words of wisdom.
“As soon as I got in the dugout that inning, Ryan Theriot told me, ‘Well, pressure’s off now. You don’t have to worry about the Gold Glove anymore,’ “ Crawford said. “At a time where I was probably pretty mad at myself, that actually made me laugh and relax a little bit.”
Nine years into his career, Crawford has won three Gold Gloves.
For those in search of a positive Opening Day memory for the Giants, don’t turn on MLB Network on Thursday. The channel is airing the Dodgers’ 4-0 win over the Giants from 2013 when Clayton Kershaw threw a shutout and also hit a home run. Later in the day, viewers can see Madison Bumgarner homer twice against the D’backs on Opening Day, 2017, but they’ll also be forced to watch Mark Melancon’s first game –and first blown save– with the team in a tone-setting 6-5 loss.
The Giants are putting their faith in Kapler to help orchestrate a turnaround this season and when Opening Day finally arrives, perhaps he’ll share his own memory with the 2020 Giants.
Two decades ago, a then 24-year-old center fielder arrived in Texas after being traded following his rookie year with the Tigers.
“I was pretty motivated to make a favorable impression on my teammates, on Johnny Oates, our manager who had given me the start in center field on Opening Day and on the fans who had lost Juan Gonzalez in the trade,” Kapler said.
Gonzalez, a two-time MVP who hit more than 400 career home runs, was beloved by Texas Rangers fans. Kapler, a former 57th round draft pick, who hit 82 career home runs, chose a good day to have a good day.
“Growing up in Southern California, then playing in Detroit’s minor league system exclusively in the eastern half of the US (and in Detroit of course), that day was my first experience with a fantastic group of passionate baseball fans in the state of Texas,” Kapler said. “I homered in my first two at bats and we beat up on the White Sox.”
Players, managers and broadcasters know that from their own experience, not every Opening Day goes according to plan. On what was supposed to be Opening Day in 2020, we understand that better than ever.
———
©2020 The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)
Visit The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.