Hey, did you hear that the San Francisco Giants won the World Series? Oh yeah, totally happened. I’m sure you didn’t hear ANYTHING about it on Facebook or Twitter. Here’s one fun Fresno fact that you and your sarcasm detector might not know, though: 17 of the 25 players on the Giants’ World Series roster played for the AAA affiliate Fresno Grizzlies at some point.
Some players we saw a lot of — catcher and clutch home-run-hitter Buster Posey, Game 2 winning pitcher Madison Bumgarner and Game 4 tripler Brandon Belt, for instance. Others, like MVP Pablo Sandoval and unlikely Game 1 winner Barry Zito, we only saw briefly.
It’s hard to argue with the Grizzlies current “Farmgrown” marketing campaign. Just look at the pics below. In some cases these Grizzlies look quite different than the guys you saw soaked in champagne last night.
Since it’s not often we get a major leaguer as famoustalented well-paid as Zito, we thought we’d offer some suggestions of stuff the quirky pitcher could do while he’s in town.
Buy those fields at Granite Park — he’s making $18.5 mil this year, he can afford it — and turn them into the home of the Zito League, a new baseball league where all the pitchers only throw curveballs.
Hit the Fulton Mall with his guitar and spend some time serenading the good people of Fresno.
Get out his camera (yep, he’s also a photog) and do some street photography with Fresno sharp shooter (and Giants fan) Ryan C. Jones.
Go hunting for teddy bears. Did you know that another of Zito’s quirks is his teddy-bear collection? True story. Dude can probably find some cool stuff on the Van Ness Ave. strip of thrift stores.
Decide to stay. The Giants don’t really need him and Fresno would be happy to have him. Heck, someday he could probably become mayor. In the meantime he could get himself a downtown loft, open a wacky boutique and have his own ArtHop show. He’d be a legit downtown Fresno hipster in no time.
We’re just a few days away from The Great Fresno Tweetup 3, when our local Twitter community gathers for a night of baseball, $1 beers, games and networking at the Fresno Grizzlies game. In preparation, The Grizzlies have turned the spotlight to their own outfielder/prolific Tweeter Thomas Neal (aka @TDaddyNeal) for the promo video above.
A things to know now that it’s almost Tweetup time:
You can still RSVP on Twitter with @fresnogrizzlies to get on the list for $5 seats in our “Tweetdeck.” Those include your first Thirsty Thursday $1 beer. Like last year, we’ll have our own beer cart so our Tweeps don’t have to wait in those long lines.
We’re making the Tweetup extra cool for a few local Tweeps. One lucky fan will get to throw out the first pitch, while a few others will get to take the field with Thomas Neal before the game. Watch both @fresnobeehive and @fresnogrizzlies on Wednesday and Thursday for contests.
