Tagged: Mike Murphy

It’s that time

Tomorrow’s Opening Day at AT&T Park, and the Giants have some neat stuff planned for their 50th anniversary home opener.

The gates will open early, at 10:35 a.m., but if you enter between noon and 12:30, you just might receive your Opening Day calendar directly from a Giants player. Two will be stationed at each gate to greet fans and hand out the free calendars.

Lineups will be introduced at 12:51, followed by a moment of silence for Kevin Shanahan (the Giants’ massage therapist who died of cancer last November) at 1:01. Jazz artist Boney James will perform the national anthem, and the traditional Opening Day flyover of two Navy FA-18s will come courtesy of Lts. Adam Smith, Andrew Pearson, Jake Huber and Jeffrey Millar from VX-9 squadron out of China Lake, Calif. Plug your ears for that around 1:04.

At 1:07, the Giants will kick off their tribute to the 1958 team, the first to play in San Francisco. Felipe Alou, John Antonelli, Ed Bressoud, Orlando Cepeda, Jim Davenport, Whitey Lockman, Willie Mays, Mike McCormick, Stu Miller, Daryl Spencer, Don Taussig, Valmy Thomas and Al Worthington will be there, driven around the warning track in 1950s convertibles.

The Giants are keeping secret who’ll be throwing out the first pitch at 1:26, saying only that it will be “a person who has been with the San Francisco Giants family for a long time. The Giants would like to honor the dedication, loyalty and commitment to the club shown by this person.”

My guess (and I have zero inside info here) is that it has to be clubhouse manager Mike Murphy, who is not only beloved but has been with the team since it came to San Francisco in 1958. He was a bat boy for the first two seasons at Seals Stadium and then became a clubhouse attendant in 1960 before being promoted to clubhouse manager in 1980.

First pitch is slated for 1:35, though pregame ceremonies almost always run over. One good omen — the Giants are 6-2 in home openers since moving to AT&T Park in 2000.