Posey hopes former Giants legends will help usher in a new era

Posey’s hope that former Giants legends will help usher in a new era originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – The Giants will take the field next spring with a new shortstop and possibly a new assistant ace. There will be more fresh faces following Buster Posey’s first offseason as coach, and they’ll be hoping their style of play is more entertaining and leads to some more wins.

But there will also be plenty of changes that most fans never see, including simply swapping out what’s hanging on the walls. Under the previous regime, it was noticeable that many references to the three championship teams were removed from the clubhouse, but Posey and Bob Melvin make it a point to honor the franchise’s history and the plan is to better celebrate those highlights.

But this won’t just be limited to the walls of the clubhouse and ballpark. One of the best players in Giants history is now running the baseball operations department, and he’s hoping a few former teammates will join him in Scottsdale next spring and make themselves at home at Oracle Park.

Posey said last week that he has already spoken to some of the big names, although not all of them will immediately. The Giants know Brandon Crawford wants to take some time off from the game after officially announcing his retirement, but Posey recently spoke with Madison Bumgarner about returning in some role.

“I talked to Bum a little bit. I don’t know if I should say that it was surprising to me that he showed willingness – I think I’m just happy. I’m glad a guy like him might want to give.” “Back to a younger generation of players,” Posey said on a recent “Giants Talk” episode. “And I just think again, you’re talking about someone who has been through fire and someone who is just the ultimate competitor and I think just has a wealth of knowledge to share with young pitchers. And it’s also fun when you’re a player when you see these guys coming into the clubhouse.

“We want to create something where when you get to spring training or even the big leagues, you walk in and see Will Clark or Barry Bonds in the clubhouse (and) it’s fun. Being in the big leagues should be fun, and I think that’s part of it.

Although Posey has all the correct cell phone numbers, the process actually began last year when Melvin returned to his former organization. The manager once walked into the clubhouse as a player and saw that visiting coaches Willie Mays and Willie McCovey had lockers on either side, and in his first year in charge he tried to encourage former Giants to visit the team in the spring and during the season the season. Clark and Bonds in particular were much more visible last year.

It wasn’t long ago that Mays, McCovey, Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda, Gaylord Perry and others visited Scottsdale every spring to sit with big league players and attend minor league camp. Posey hopes his generation can do something similar, although he’s not entirely sure what that will look like. He said his main goal was to simply ask his former teammates how they would like to stick around and go from there.

For most of Posey’s career, it was normal for the Giants to bring not only their Hall of Famers but also recently retired stars to spend four or five days in camp. Posey didn’t understand how significant that was until later in life.

“If you can take a minute and stop and think, ‘These are some of the greatest players to ever wear a major league jersey, let alone a San Francisco Giants jersey, and they’re willing to hang out with me.’ to sit together and just talk.’ Baseball or sit in the clubhouse and chat over coffee,’” he said. “I think the longer time goes by, the more you appreciate it. Maybe you get something out of it, maybe you don’t, but it’s just a cool thing to be able to spend time with great baseball players.”

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