Former GM Sabean remembers almost blowing the Giants’ chance to draft Lincecum originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Next year, as various media outlets list “The Most Iconic Sports Figures” of the first quarter of the 21st century, the discussion should include at least two members of the San Francisco Giants.
One of them, Barry Bonds, is forever marked by his connection to performance-enhancing substances. This is why the best pure hitter of his era was repeatedly denied entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The other is Tim Lincecumwho over a three-year period was the most charismatic figure in baseball. He won’t come near the Hallbut he has three World Series rings and will forever live in the hearts of not only Giants fans but anyone who likes underdogs.
With apologies to Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, Lincecum was the Bay Area’s original baby-faced killer.
In the 2008-2010 seasons, Lincecum made 99 appearances and posted a 49-22 record. He led the National League in strikeouts each season. He won Cy Young Awards in 2008 and 2009. His first postseason start was a two-hit victory over the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series.
And Brian Sabean, the general manager who drafted Lincecum, admits he was one phone call away from blowing the chance to bring him to San Francisco.
The GM was just minutes away from leaving the stadium for a trip to Seattle to see Lincecum when the phone rang. It was director of player personnel Dick Tidrow, whose opinion, at least for Sabean, went platinum.
Sabean paused to answer the call.
“I picked up the phone and he said ‘What are you doing?’” Sabean told NBC Sports Bay Area this week, 90 minutes before he was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. “I said, ‘Well, I’m flying to see Lincecum.’ He says, ‘Stop. Please, do not go. And I said ‘Well, why is that?’ He said, ‘If you go, you’ll give us a tip.’
“He said, ‘This guy is special. He will make it to the big leagues quickly. It will have an instant impact. I don’t know how long he’ll last, but I can’t let you see him.’”
Sabean canceled his trip. There’s no doubt that the GM’s arrival at the University of Washington would have signaled to other MLB teams that the Giants were serious about the right-hander named Lincecum, who San Francisco selected with the 10th overall pick in 2006.
“Full disclosure,” Sabean said. “There was a pitcher at Cal — I won’t mention his name — that everyone in baseball thought we were going to draft. Ultimately, Seattle got that pitcher and we got Lincecum.
Former Cal pitcher Brandon Morrow had a longer career than Lincecum, but didn’t win half the games and didn’t reach similar heights.
The Giants arrived in San Francisco in 1958 and took 52 seasons to a World Series victory that wouldn’t have happened without Lincecum, their most fascinating pitcher since Hall of Famer Juan Marichal, a swashbuckling right-hander who made his MLB debut in 1960. .
And Lincecum did it looking like a 16-year-old boy, with his hair cascading down his back, skateboarding down the sidewalk.
“Timmy had a meteoric rise in that infamous window that went against all odds,” Sabean recalled. “As for his dexterity or how good he was and I just remember his stature if you saw him in normal clothes. . . You’d scratch your head and say, ‘There’s no way.’ Now, if you saw him in shorts and a t-shirt, he was dynamic. He was a gymnast. He had that energy and that spirit in his body that made him special as an athlete and also as a pitcher.”
Lincecum’s listed height, 5-foot-11, is generous. His listed weight, 170 pounds, is about right. The vehemence of his attitude was generated by a firm core, defined thighs, and marble-cut hips. He was a physical specimen who did not have the stature expected of a physical specimen.
You can understand, then, why his nickname was “The Freak.”
But it was his boyish face and repertoire of malevolent pitches that discouraged hitters and increased spectator numbers not only in San Francisco but in every city in which he took the mound. For fans who weren’t able to purchase a ticket, Lincecum was must-see TV.
Lincecum, who turns 40 next month, was a four-time All-Star and peaked early. He was 27 years old when he was named to his fourth and final MLB All-Star Game, and was a sub-.500 pitcher for the rest of his career.
Despite his relatively brief time in the sports world, Lincecum stands alongside the likes of Joe Montana, Rickey Henderson, Bonds, Curry and a select few others who have captivated fans around the world and become legends in the Bay.
Like a comet, Lincecum needed to be seen to be appreciated. And to think he might not have been on that August list if Sabean had made that trip in 2006.
