Sunday, October 25

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Baby Giraffe. The self-proclaimed team captain. The man at the center of the Belt Wars. 

Brandon Belt carried many titles over his 12-year run with the Giants, but each represented just a small piece of the massive (size-15?) imprint he left on the organization. 

Three years after playing his final big league season, the two-time World Series champion and 2016 All-Star will return to San Francisco to be honored as part of Brandon Belt Celebration Day at Oracle Park on Saturday.

“He's just an important player in the history of the Giants franchise and was a part of a lot of really memorable and impactful moments,” said president of baseball operations Buster Posey, who played with Belt for a decade in San Francisco. “I think we have a fan base that appreciates those types of players that not only had great careers but were in the middle of plays and memories that most of them will remember for the rest of their lives. It'll be a great day for them to reminisce and celebrate a guy that was a great Giant.” 

In honor of No. 9, here’s a look back at the top nine moments of Belt’s career: 

1. “If you need a beer, grab a beer” 

One year after winning the 2010 World Series, the Giants had a film crew following them around as part of “The Franchise,” a documentary series that aired on Showtime. 

The behind-the-scenes footage included an iconic moment between former Giants manager Bruce Bochy and a 22-year-old Belt, who grew emotional when he was informed that he had made the team out of Spring Training and would be making his Major League debut on Opening Day in 2011. Belt broke down in tears and tried to compose himself before walking back out into the clubhouse, which prompted Bochy to offer some reassuring words. 

“You can take your time, you can hang with me for a while,” Bochy told Belt. “If you need a beer, grab a beer.” 

“For a manager, you love that moment,” Bochy recalled last week. “That's the toughest part of spring, those last few cuts. To be able to tell him that he made the club and see how emotional he got -- that was a cool moment. I'm glad that we had it on video there for him because that's something he could take with him the rest of his life.”

2. Brandon meets Brandon

Longtime Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper dubbed Belt the “Baby Giraffe” because of the stilted way the 6-foot-5 first baseman moved when he played left field as a rookie in 2011. The moniker inspired zookeepers at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, Calif., to name a newborn giraffe after Belt, who later got to meet his namesake in person.

3. The 18th-inning home run

Belt’s signature postseason moment came in Game 2 of the 2014 NLDS, when he blasted a go-ahead home run off Tanner Roark in the top of the 18th inning to lift the Giants to a 2-1 win over the Nationals. Belt’s clutch homer ended a frigid six-hour, 23-minute marathon in the nation’s capital and brought San Francisco within one win of advancing to the NLCS. 

“If that game would have gone another inning, we might have gotten frostbitten,” Bochy said. “It was so cold that night. It's hard to get a bigger home run than that because we were running out of pitching. I'm sure they were [too]. He hit it well, too, no-doubter. It was a pivotal game, a huge game.”

4. The Belt Wars

Belt was a sabermetric darling, but he also had his share of detractors, many of whom lamented his modest home run totals, his slumpy body language and his tendency to strike out a lot. The online debate about his value sparked his eponymous wars, though that divisiveness has largely dissipated now that Belt has cemented his status as one of the best first basemen in San Francisco history. 

“That's funny about the Belt Wars,” right-hander Logan Webb said. “You still look at his numbers, and he was a very good offensive player for a long time. If you move the fences in 10 years earlier, I think you add about 30 more home runs. His power was to center field, right-center, so I think he would have quite a bit more home runs. If you look at his OPS, he had an over .800 OPS almost every year. .850 is really good.”  

5. Splash down

No one has more splash hits than Barry Bonds (35), though Belt ranks second (10) on the all-time leaderboard and is the only other Giant who has managed to crack double-digits. One of Belt’s more memorable shots into McCovey Cove came on June 8, 2016, when he went deep off Boston left-hander David Price to record the Giants’ 69th splash hit and become the first San Francisco player to put one in the water in nearly 21 months.

6. A battle for the ages

Belt was known for his keen eye at the plate, so it feels fitting that he made history by grinding out a 21-pitch at-bat against Angels right-hander Jaime Barria at Angel Stadium on April 22, 2018. The epic duel in Anaheim lasted 13 minutes before Belt finally flied out to right field to end the longest regular-season at-bat on record since 1988, which is as far back as the data is available.

7. I’m the captain now

A resurgent season from Belt helped fuel the Giants’ 107-win campaign in 2021, emboldening the Texas native to cheekily declare himself the team captain during a September series against the Cubs. His teammates went along with the schtick, fashioning a “C” out of electrical tape that Belt ended up wearing on his chest during the game. 

“He was probably delirious because it was a day game,” Posey said. “He wasn't ever ready for a day game, and he was just having some fun.”  

8. A bad break

Belt dealt with brutal injury luck over his career, an unfortunate trend that continued when he tried to bunt against the Rockies and was struck by a fastball that fractured his left thumb heading into the final week of the 2021 regular season. Belt ended the year with a career-high 29 homers, but the Giants badly missed his bat in the playoffs, as they mustered only 10 runs over five games en route to being eliminated by the rival Dodgers in the 2021 NLDS.  

9. Hello old friend

After 12 seasons with the Giants, Belt left to sign a one-year, $9.3 million deal with the Blue Jays ahead of the 2023 season. Belt got to face off against his old team for the first time when the Giants visited Toronto that year, allowing him to showcase the deadpan humor that endeared him to the fans in San Francisco for years. 

Belt jokingly took shots at several of his former teammates, saying he was looking forward to facing Webb and hoped to “embarrass his whole family” during the series.

“I thought that was really funny,” Webb said. “People were like, ‘Honestly, man, what's wrong with Brandon and Webby?’ Nothing. That's just who he is. That's what makes him so awesome. He was a great leader for me, a great teammate. It was always great to have him.”

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