10 crazy facts you may not know about players on the San Francisco Giants

When it comes to San Francisco, normality is an anomaly. From the spooky prison cells of Alcatraz, to the rich and numerous cultures throughout the city, the City by the Bay is unlike any other.

The 2015 San Francisco Giants are no different, and it is almost as if they live through the people of San Francisco. Just go around the diamond and it’s obvious that the Giants are a very diverse and fun team to watch because they are all so different in so many ways. Who else is as weird and unorthodox as Hunter Pence? Who else is as country hard as Madison Bumgarner? Who else is as lanky and dorky as Brandon Belt? These oddities are the reasons why we adore them so much.

The amount of personality and diversity on the team is what makes them so special, and this allows the San Francisco fans to relate to the players. Just look at Matt Duffy. So what if he only weighs 180 pounds? He still drives the ball in the gap arguably as good as any other third baseman in the National League.

Much like the previous San Francisco Giants teams in the past few years did, this 2015 team gives the fans hope, and the city of San Francisco is represented by each and every player on that Giants team. Just like every San Franciscan, the San Francisco Giants are wonderfully different in so many ways.

So, what else is weird about them? What are some of the outside the lines stories and crazy facts that we don’t know about them?

“Justin Maxwell’s father was the primary dentist for Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Vice President Al Gore.“

Well, I have corralled 10 crazy facts for the 2015 Giants, but I think we can all agree that there ought to be a whole lot more than 10 with this insane group of guys.

1. Starting pitcher Jake Peavy is legally blind.

-Yes, the man who’s job is to throw a little ball into a small spot is blind without corrective lenses! So, the next time Peavy can’t seem to hit his spots, maybe cut him some slack.

2. Starting pitcher Matt Cain is publicly supportive of same-sex marriage.

–Cain appeared in the “No H8” photo campaign opposing Proposition 8 in California. Cain is married to his wife Chelsea Williams and have a daughter named Hartley.

3. Brandon Crawford is the brother-in-law of U.S. Olympic gymnast Jamie Dantzscher.

–Dantzscher, with her 2000 Olympic bronze medal, is the sister of Crawford’s wife Jalynne, who also was a gymnast at UCLA.

4. Justin Maxwell’s father was the primary dentist for Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Vice President Al Gore.

–Maxwell’s father was in the U.S. Navy, as was his mother, which is how his father became the dentist for many U.S. political leaders.

5. RHP Mike Leake was arrested and charged for shoplifting in a Macy’s in Cincinnati.

–Leake attempted to steal six t-shirts and was required to complete 30 hours of community service and counseling. Apparently his million dollar contract was not enough to afford $100 for some shirts.

6. RHP Sergio Romo did not receive any scholarship offers from any four-year university.

-Out of 183 NAIA schools, 365 Division 3, 298 Division 2, and 298 Division 1 baseball programs, not one of them believed in the Giants set-up man Romo enough to offer him any amount of scholarship. 

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7. Closer Santiago Casilla used false documents to lie about his name and age when he signed with the Oakland A’s in 2000.

–Casilla, AKA Jairo Garcia, had papers that listed him as three years younger than he really was. Casilla is now 35 years old.

8. LHP Javier Lopez’s father was an FBI agent for the U.S.

-As a kid, Lopez wanted to be just like his dad and grow up to be in the FBI.

9. Hunter Pence was diagnosed with a spinal disorder called Scheuermann’s disease, where the vertebrae grow unevenly with the sagittal plane in the spine.

-We all knew there was something up with that unorthodox Pence. Maybe this explains some of it.

10. Manager Bruce Bochy has a hat size of 8 1/8.

-In his debut with the Mets in 1982, the team could not find a helmet that would fit Bochy’s head; therefore, they had to ask for his helmets that he had already been using in the minors to be sent up to New York. His large head may correlate to his immense amount of baseball knowledge.