SF Giants beat writer exposes harsh truth about San Francisco and free agency

The SF Giants are still feeling the aftershocks of Pride Night several weeks after it happened. The fact it has lasted so long speaks to the feelings stirred by so many after four pitchers protested the team’s Pride hats earlier this month. 

The issue became politicized by those seeking to make gains in the culture wars and while it’s died down a bit on the national level, locally it still lingers and will not go away anytime soon thanks in large part to the team’s bungled response to the controversy.

San Francisco Chronicle reporter Susan Slusser appeared on KNBR recently and was asked whether she thought free agents may be scared away because the players who protested were branded as “bigots” by some.

Slusser said in response: “I mean, bigoted free agents, maybe, I guess.”

She went on to say that the players know the city they play in and should have been a bit more sensitive to the culture of San Francisco which obviously has a vibrant LGBTQ community. 

"Certainly, it's not a secret that San Francisco has a huge gay community, many gay fans. To me, this is a little bit on the players. If you don't want to be a part of that, A, maybe don't openly insult your paying customers after a game, but B, don't sign here. Maybe that will happen. I don't know. But that just seems honestly kinda crazy to me. You know where you're coming. This is San Francisco. It's not a secret," Slusser continued.

This caused a bit more of an uproar even though nothing Slusser said was out of bounds. One can disagree with her take but her comments were not dissimilar from the ones made by Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow on the matter.

Giants fans seem destined to have another debate about San Francisco

Once again it seems like we’re talking about whether the city of San Francisco is the reason Giants can’t land free agents. That chatter has died down a bit in recent years after the Giants signed Willy Adames and Matt Chapman to long-term deals, ironically, deals the team now seems to regret, but for years when the Giants struggled to get big names in free agency people blamed San Francisco.

They said that it had a bad reputation due to crime, drug use, homelessness, its left-leaning politics, and Californa's high taxes. Even Buster Posey has seemed to subtly buy into that narrative.

It’s true that some free agents might be deterred but Slusser made a good point that reliever Sam Hentges, who opted to not wear the team’s Pride hat, signed with the team knowing full well where he’d be playing. Many Giants players over the years have probably not had the most progressive views on the matter and yet they still played for the team.

Most free agents aren’t just going to say no to the team’s money because of San Francisco since there are many factors that go into where a player signs but it seems like we’re going to have to have this whole debate all over again in the offseason.

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