San Francisco Giants Baseball Team

National League baseball owners, meeting here Tuesday, disapproved the relocation of the San Francisco Giants to St. Petersburg, Fla., meaning the team will definitely return to Candlestick Park in 1993 for its 36th season. Giants' owner Bob Lurie was prevented from voting and needed 10 of 13 votes to approve his $115-million agreement of sale to a group from the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg area. But in the secret balloting, only four clubs voted in favor of the move and nine voted against it.

Professional baseball teams, already looking ahead to spring, are stealing an idea from the airline industry to boost lackluster attendance. The San Francisco Giants expect to become the second team in baseball with a frequent-fan program that rewards attendance at home games with coupons and prizes. It will be modeled on a similar scheme introduced by the San Diego Padres last year.

A USC spokesman said Athletic Director Mike Garrett might be at Edison Field for Game 2 of the World Series, and when a Stealth bomber flew overhead at the conclusion of the national anthem, I wondered if it was at Garrett's suggestion. As you know, Garrett doesn't like noise at sporting events, and while he came to the wrong place, recently he was the guy who led a successful move to ban Angel-like noise sticks from all Pacific 10 Conference stadiums.

The pain is gone. The memory of the body blow that was the loss to the Dodgers on the final day of the 1993 season is now a motivation. The San Francisco Giants are determined to take it a step farther--their stunning and surprising 103 victories one fewer than needed. The Atlanta Braves are gone, too, realigned from West to East in the National League. Who's going to miss the team that came from 10 back in July to win 104 and the division title? Who's going to miss the Braves? Get real.

His twins, age 4, have not seen Robby Thompson's face since it was disfigured. Neither have his older kids. They all stay in far-away Florida with their mom. The naked eye no longer can see any white in the San Francisco Giant second baseman's bloodshot left eye, and he dabs at the purple-black blotch of flesh beneath it with his index fingertip. "Might scare the little ones," he says. This is not all that pains him. Thompson longs to be out there where he belongs, playing baseball.

If George Genovese were trying to assemble the finest team of rodeo cowboys, he would pay closest attention not to the heroes who ride the crazed animals but to the guys assigned to hose the beasts down after the performance. Genovese, however, is a scout for the San Francisco Giants.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Brian Sabean sat alone at the end of the home dugout Friday afternoon, bundled up in a black jacket beneath gray skies and persistent drizzle, watching this year's edition of the San Francisco Giants take batting practice. The Giants could be dreadful this season, perhaps historically so. Sabean, the general manager, cannot put a happy face on this product, and to his credit he does not try.

Kevin Mitchell charged the mound after pitcher Bruce Hurst first knocked him down with one pitch and then hit him with another in the fourth inning at San Diego. The San Francisco Giants' slugger went after the Padre pitcher as players from both dugouts poured out on the field. No damage was done, but Mitchell, who hit his second home run in two games in the second inning, was ejected. Mitchell became upset when the first pitch he faced in the fourth was high and inside and knocked him down.

It's been 16 summers, most of them long ones, all of them cold ones. When the San Francisco Giants finally got to success' front door Monday night, no way were they just stepping through like everybody else. The Giants clinched their first National League West Division title since 1971 Monday night against the San Diego Padres on an mist-clearing, two-strike, home run in the eighth inning. By a relief pitcher .

Your image doesn't matter much. Unless, of course, you routinely face intense, bat-wielding men with games on the line. In that case, any edge helps. Intimidation is a good thing in a closing pitcher's chaotic world. San Francisco Giant closer Rod Beck, with his frizzy long brown hair, Fu Manchu mustache, menacing scowl and pot belly, has that look. Beck's job forces him to live on the game's fringe, and he's well groomed for the role. But if ever a cover didn't tell the whole story, this is it.