Tim Flannery couldn’t wait for the Giants’ home opener to raise
a World Series banner. Mere hours after the spirited third base
coach returned to his home in North San Diego County during the
winter, he ran a Giants flag up the pole in his yard.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.
Tim Flannery couldn’t wait for the Giants’ home opener to raise a World Series banner. Mere hours after the spirited third base coach returned to his home in North San Diego County during the winter, he ran a Giants flag up the pole in his yard.
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“Just to let the neighbors know,” said Flannery, who spent 23 years as a player, coach and broadcaster in the Padres system. “There’s no doubt in people’s minds that we’re Giants now.”
Long after Flannery and manager Bruce Bochy came north to San Francisco in 2007, they still had to deal with the perception that they were Padres in orange and black clothing.
Now the Giants are World Series champions, and among the many hands that went into their title run, the Padres contributed two of them — conveniently wrapped around their own throats. If not for the Padres’ 10-game losing streak from Aug. 26-Sept. 5, the Giants wouldn’t have won the NL West on the final day of the regular season.
It made for an uneasy homecoming for Flannery, who spent less than a month at his Leucadia home. Bochy bunked down for just a few weeks at his home in Poway, too. He and his wife, Kim, are planning a permanent move to the Bay Area.
“We’re looking at places right now,” said Bochy, who played on the Padres’ 1984 pennant winner and managed the ’98 club to the franchise’s only other World Series appearance.
“You know, when I came to San Francisco, it was pretty much done for me. Tim might be a little different because he was drafted and spent his whole career in San Diego.”
Flannery clapped imaginary chalk dust from his palms.
“It’s black and white, cut and dried,” Flannery said. “We’re Giants. I had nice experiences down there, but it was all to prepare me to be a San Francisco Giant.
“This is a different level. Just look at the history of this franchise, and now it’s an amazing feeling to know we’ll always be a part of it.”
The entire NL West will take aim at the Giants this season, but the Padres figure to be more motivated than the rest. Right-hander Mat Latos, who dominated the Giants before losing the regular-season finale, made news when he scribbled, “I hate SF” on a series of baseballs that he autographed for charity.
Latos has more pressing matters to worry about. His rough spring continued when he allowed four runs in the first inning Friday night against the Giants in front of an orange-dominated crowd at Peoria Sports Complex. Rookie Brandon Belt made himself an instant fan favorite with a run-scoring double off the left-field wall; Emmanuel Burriss followed with a two-run single.
There isn’t much talk about the Padres repeating their 90-72 record from last year, mostly because the cash-challenged club traded star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to the Boston Red Sox for prospects.
Then again, there wasn’t much talk about the Padres at this time a year ago — and they ended up leading the NL West for 148 days. So the Giants aren’t taking them lightly now.
“I’m a firm believer in pitching, and they have pitching,” Bochy said. “They have a good bullpen and good young arms. That keeps you in games, and the more you stay in, the more you win.”
Even Jonathan Sanchez, who boasted in August that the Giants would pass San Diego and win the division, said he expects the Padres to be better than most people expect.
“I was right, but they always have my respect,” said Sanchez, who outdueled Latos to win that Oct. 3 season finale. “Everybody they have is hard to hit. I pitched against them six times. I beat them once. The game I had to win, I won it.”
New Giants shortstop Miguel Tejada was among the Padres players who slumped off the grass at AT&T Park after being eliminated last year. He said he felt terrible for weeks because the Padres acquired him in July to push them to the postseason, and the team fell short.
“I know those guys. They’re dangerous, man,” Tejada said. “I played my last game against San Francisco. It’s a little strange for me when I signed here. But you start meeting everybody, and I’m not thinking about that anymore. I’m orange and black.”
That’s a message Flannery is sending on high.
“Don’t forget, I surf,” he said. “I need a windsock or something up there to tell me which way the wind is blowing. Might as well be a Giants flag.”
— Story by Andrew Baggarly, San Jose Mercury News
