When the going got tough for the World Series champion SF Giants last season, outfielder/cult hero Hunter Pence did everything the franchise asked of him and much more to help right the ship.
Here's Around the Foghorn's Mark O'Neill with his thoughts on the stability Pence provided to the club in 2014:
Pence had his work cut out for him last season, when Matt Cain, Angel Pagan and Brandon Belt all ended up on the shelf at the same time for a spell. After a blistering 43-21 start to the season, the Giants vessel hit an iceberg and the iceberg struck back, with the result that San Francisco plummeted from the best in Major League Baseball to tenth seed in the playoffs.
When the ship is listing and in danger of sinking, Pence is apt to don any one of a number of hats to keep the team focused, as he did in the 2012 playoffs when he transmogrified into Preacher Pence and the Traveling Medicine Show, and righted the vessel. His series of pep-rallies before each of the six elimination games played that postseason, was instrumental in propelling the Giants into the World Series, where they swept the stunned Detroit Tigers.
Pence has become a household name to many a baseball fan, but it's the work he does when the cameras aren't around (and the magic he works at the plate) that has made him such an indispensable piece for the Giants.
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