Yeah, I’m reusing the headline I wrote on the Giants homepage, but it’s too perfect not to. On Tuesday at AT&T Park, there was a stir the likes of which I haven’t seen the height of the Barry Bonds home run chases. Boxing champion Manny Pacquiao appeared as part of the first Filipino Heritage Night of the year, and he drew attention like a rock star wherever he went.

In addition to a huge media contingent, from boxing magazines and Web sites to HBO to local Filipino newspapers. channels and sites, the crowd was swelled by an extra 11,000 tickets sold just for Filipino Heritage Night. That translated into a nice $50,000 check presented by the Giants to local Filipino groups.

Last year, the first Filipino Heritage Night smashed all records for tickets sold to one of these special group nights, with over 5,000 tickets purchased. The Giants even had to issue vouchers for the commemorative T-shirt because they ran out. This year, the giveaway was an extremely cool Pacquiao bobblehead, which is now a hot item on eBay. There was also a special T-shirt with Pacquiao’s nifty Nike logo in orange on sale at the ballpark. You can see Amy Gutierrez wearing the shirt in this video:

Before Pacquiao entered the field for the ceremonial first pitch to a HUGE ovation, there was a nice dance performance by the very colorful Likha Pilipino Folk Ensemble. Because people were rushing around in preparation for Pacquiao’s entrance, they kept walking in front of the camera, so this video is very short and features a jump-cut in the middle, but you get the idea:

Plenty more Heritage Nights and special group events are planned, including a second edition of Filipino Heritage Night, with a cool Filipino-themed Giants T-shirt, on Sept. 16.