Advertisement

Why it’s so hard to take your eyes off the Giants’ Hunter Pence

SAN FRANCISCO – I find myself staring at Hunter Pence, and I’m not ashamed. Maybe a little. So, hey, just between us.

He’s hanging over the dugout rail, eyes wide and deep and unblinking. Please blink. He’s in the on-deck circle, preparing, by the looks of his routine, to slow dance with a turnstile. He’s in the batter’s box, “Endless Love” presumably in his head, then conveying himself – “running” isn’t quite right – to first base, a three-legged buck fleeing a forest fire. He’s in right field, loose and limber, composed, and then the ball flies and, oh hell, the forest is on fire again.

San Francisco's Hunter Pence celebrates in the locker room after the Giants clinched a playoff spot Thursday. (AP)
San Francisco's Hunter Pence celebrates in the locker room after the Giants clinched a playoff spot Thursday. (AP)

You’ve got one ballplayer to watch from batting practice to lights out. Just one of 18. One of any of ’em, anywhere. Give me Hunter Pence, because he doesn’t simply look different than anyone, he plays different than most.

“Sir?”

It’s Pence. He’s wearing headphones around his neck. His hair is swept up in a black headband and sprouting over the top like the furry end of a broccoli stalk. His black T-shirt bears a photo of teammate Mike Morse wielding a light saber and his baseball pants are rolled above his knees. Add a couple side pockets, they may as well be cargo shorts.

Yes?

“That thing I said, don’t just cut and paste it,” he asked, pleaded, demanded, unblinking.

Please blink.

A few minutes before, we’d talked at his locker. I’d asked about the San Francisco Giants’ season, how they’d been 10 games ahead, then six games back, and then pushed the Los Angeles Dodgers until the final days of September.

“I don’t ride any of the waves, man,” he’d said. “You ride the waves.”

I really don’t. Generally I stand on the shore and watch the waves. There are big fish out there.

“We’re just going to keep playing hard until we win the World Series or we’re knocked out,” he’d said.

Now he feared I’d leave out the “or we’re knocked out” part. The Giants play the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night, and here come the waves.

I assured him I’d gotten the whole quote and held up my notebook. See?

“OK, thanks,” he said and spiraled off into some other orbit.

An interesting dude. Interesting, because he answers to himself and to the game and that’s all. He seems to have no concern for what it may look like or where it may fit on a scouting report, because who cares, and because, before a rather dumpy September, he might just have been having the best season of his career, at 31, and because the Giants are relevant again. They beat the Pirates in Pittsburgh behind Madison Bumgarner, then trundle up to Washington for the division series, they’ll be really relevant again.

He’s so above what it looks like. In a game where looking cool rules, Pence hikes up his pants legs and busts his butt on … every … single … play and scarfs kale and rides a scooter to work. He cares so little about cool, it’s … freakin’ cool. Watch enough multi-million-dollar singles trots and you can’t help but fall for the guy humpin’ it to first on a two-hopper to shortstop every day for eight years, because every once in a while it’ll get him on base. And while his offensive numbers took a beating this month, he still hit .351 with runners in scoring position, and led the game in batting with runners in scoring position with two out (.404).

The Giants' Hunter Pence, center, rallies the crowd Sunday in a postgame cheer for the postseason. (AP)
The Giants' Hunter Pence, center, rallies the crowd Sunday in a postgame cheer for the postseason. (AP)

“Well,” he said, “I’ve had a lot of luck.”

And, well, about that September. Pence hit .165, so he had plenty of practice beating out groundballs to the left side, or trying, and he had two extra-base hits – both home runs – in 91 at-bats, and maybe September was a bad time for things to go backward on him. He’s a .194 hitter in 36 at-bats against Edinson Volquez, who has revived his career to the point where he gets the start that could carry the Pirates into the division series.

All that said, did you see Pence in the clubhouse after the Giants clinched, giving the boys the hyped-up what-for? Did you see him on the field with a microphone in his hand Sunday afternoon, whipping AT&T Park into a delirious, frothy love mess?

You couldn’t take your eyes off him either, because he’s just cool enough, just odd enough, just talented enough and just him enough to drag you into whatever’s next. The Giants adore him because, first, he’s very good. But, also, because he never stops. He never stops.

“Full-throttle,” third-base coach Tim Flannery said. “Always full-throttle.”

It’s almost impossible to ask for that anymore. There are too many games and too much ground to cover and too many alibis. Cool doesn’t hurry, dude. But there goes Hunter Pence, rollin’ to first base with the haste and composure of a kid through a basement’s spider webs.

Maybe it doesn’t always win games. But it never loses them. With Pence, it’s not about the right way to play or the other way to play, because that would suggest a choice. He just plays. Then, in the past three seasons he’s averaged 161.3 games, and batted .271 with 71 home runs and 277 RBI in them.

“There are guys around the league you admire from afar, and then you get to play with them,” said Giants starter Jake Peavy, traded from the Boston Red Sox to the Giants in late July. “Last year, for me, it was Dustin Pedroia, Jonny Gomes and Mike Napoli. Hunter’s in it with them. Hunter is that guy this year.

“Obviously it’s interesting the way he goes about things. His style is unique. But his intangibles are off the chart, the ways he helps you win games and the ways he makes you a better teammate. Speed and effort in the game today, for me, are as big as they come. The money they gave him here, he’s underpaid.”

Along comes the postseason, and along come the Giants, and nobody seems to think much of their chances. Angel Pagan, their leadoff hitter, won’t play. Matt Cain won’t pitch. Pablo Sandoval is slumping. The entire offense was choppy down the stretch, including Pence. But Bumgarner just might be the best lefty in the National League not named Kershaw, and the bullpen is sturdy, and anything can happen in a single game, especially one with Pence in it.

“I just keep plugging away,” he said. “We’ll see when the last out is made at the end of the season.”

Yeah, don’t blink.

Check out what's buzzing on the Yahoo Sports Minute: