Giants freshen food, hail history for 2018

The Giants will celebrate the team’s 60-year love affair with San Francisco since moving from New York in 1958 by offering fans new features, menu items and promotional giveaways for the 2018 season.

The team will set the tone before their April 3 home opener against the Seattle Mariners, which promises to be steeped in ceremony. Players from all eras of the club’s West Coast history will participate in the pre-game on-field ceremonies, including Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Vida Blue, Travis Ishikawa, Dusty Baker, Brian Johnson, Jeremy Affeldt, Robb Nen and more. The team encourages fans to get to the ballpark early for the 1:35 p.m. scheduled start.

All past and present living San Francisco majors will also be on-hand for Opening Day as the Giants plan to honor the late Mayor Ed Lee, who died suddenly in December.

In line with the theme of San Francisco-era Giants history, the team has installed an exhibit called “The Giants Vault” inside the O’Doul Gate. Each season the exhibit will display a different collection of rare memorabilia and artifacts.

The 2018 theme is said to focus on the team’s move to San Francisco, and will include Willie Mays’ 1957 jersey and the Polo Grounds’ last home plate.

Of the historical focus this season, Giants CEO Larry Baer said:

“It will be great to re-live those moments as we pause and think about the 60 years in San Francisco. It’s a blessed thing that really the last half-dozen years have provided a big chunk of the great memories in San Francisco.”

Another relatively new offering from the Giants is the Ballpark Pass, which allows entry to almost any Giants game. The catch is that the pass only offers eligibility to watch from standing room only perches. Once in the gate though, a Ballpark Pass holder can choose to buy an upgrade to a seat.

The Ballpark Pass, first quietly introduced last season, is a monthly subscription priced at $19.58. The Giants are selling only 1,000 of them for the 2018 season.

AT&T Park concessions will now be run exclusively by the BonAppétit Management Company, which previously only catered the Giants’ more premium concessions. Among the new items will be the Juicy Lou burger, named for mascot Lou Seal and offered at the stadium’s McGraw Grill.

The Juicy Lou is a cheese-stuffed hamburger with all the fixings, modeled on the Juicy Lucy burger of Midwest origins. Among other new menu options, Tony’s Slice House will now be offering fried cheese ravioli with marinara, garlic fries will be available in a Giants souvenir batting helmet, McCovey’s BBQ will offer a ribs and chicken platter and the snack stand in the Blue Shield Field Club will sell cinnamon-sugar nachos with house-made caramel.

Fans can look forward to many of their favorite giveaways returning, along with some new ones. The coveted “Two Flaps Down” hats will be given away at an April 27 Dodgers game to the first 20,000 fans. The very next day will be a Brandon Crawford Gold Glove Gnome for the first 25,000 fans, with 1,000 gold versions of the gnome interspersed at random.

Other notable regular giveaways include the Alaska Airlines 2-for-1 Flight Voucher giveaway to the first 40,000 fans on September 15, and the Buster Hugs giveaway, this year a bobblehead, to the first 35,000 fans August 25 against the Texas Rangers.