SAN RAMON, Calif. — The line of cars waiting to turn into City Center Bishop Ranch stretched a quarter mile to the exits on I-680. The line of San Francisco Giants fans in front of the autograph tent spilled past the last of the stanchions. The team’s first FanFest satellite event in the East Bay was a success before it even began.
“I’d only done Sacramento, so it’s good to do a different one,” said Giants right-handed ace Logan Webb, meeting with reporters in a green room of a steakhouse before he ventured out to sign and shake hands. “I’m excited. I love the East Bay and … this is considered the East Bay, right? Yeah? All right. I love the East Bay. I love being out here.”
San Ramon is most definitely the East Bay. And it’s most definitely a deliberate choice for the Giants to add a new stop on their caravan in territory that used to belong to their Bay Area rivals. Perhaps Giants fans already outnumbered A’s fans in places like San Ramon and Pleasanton and Livermore. But there’s no territorial pretense to respect any longer. The A’s ceded their claim and are entering their second season untethered from Oakland and their former home at the Coliseum, instead treating a Triple-A ballpark in Sacramento as a waystation with an eye toward a permanent home in Las Vegas as soon as 2028.
For the Giants, the East Bay has become just another population center where many of their fans reside. So one week after the Giants drew close to 6,000 fans at a satellite event in San Jose, they picked up stakes and continued the caravan in San Ramon. The official estimated attendance of 12,000 was their largest in three years since they turned FanFest into a series of regional stops.
“One of the main priorities of FanFest is to go to the communities where our fans live and we clearly have tons of fans in the East Bay, given the record number who showed up today,” said Shana Daum, the Giants’ executive vice president of communications and community relations. “We are extremely grateful for all the support.”
Webb received cheers as he appeared in the autograph tent. Fans crowded the KNBR Q&A stage and chanted Jung Hoo Lee’s name. A parade of women in traditional Korean hanbok dresses paraded down an escalator and waved the South Korean flag. Young pitchers Hayden Birdsong and Landen Roupp were also in attendance, along with left-handed reliever Erik Miller. So was new manager Tony Vitello, who also attended last weekend’s stop in San Jose.
Vitello grew up in St. Louis with split baseball loyalties because his father was a fan of all the Chicago teams. He can’t pretend to understand the pathos of Bay Area sports fans just yet, but he didn’t reject the suggestion that former A’s fans can be swayed to the only team still in town.
“Everyone gets excited about being a part of a clan or a group and to have a park they can call home, and Oracle Park, I think, is going to become home, especially for some younger fans that are growing up as fans of baseball and experiencing new things,” Vitello said. “They can latch on to the Giants.”
Webb has a deeper perspective on the subject. He grew up an A’s and Raiders fan in Rocklin near Sacramento. Does he really believe that A’s fans can be converted to wear orange and black?
“Well, my dad did it,” said Webb, smiling.
OK. How about former A’s fans who don’t have a son who’ll take the ball for the Giants on Opening Day?
“Yeah, I think so,” Webb said. “I think it’ll be hard. You know, I’m a Raiders fan, and they left for Vegas too and it was frustrating. But you’ve either gotta stick with your team or not. And if not, the Giants are there with open arms if you want to be a Giants fan.
“The East Bay is such a good area for sports and I know a lot of people were pretty sad about losing a team. I mean, I was sad about it. I grew up an hour and a half away. I really enjoyed the Coliseum. I was one of few players who did, I think, and I missed going there last year, to be honest. For selfish reasons, I loved going to Sacramento (to play the A’s), but it was just different.
The Giants and Athletics split the last Bay Bridge Series played at the Coliseum in August 2024. (Darren Yamashita / Imagn Images)
“Growing up in the area, I think the Giants were already the biggest in Northern California. So I don’t know how much changes, to be honest. The revenue part, how those things might change, that’s over my head. But it could be an advantage. I just know right now, Northern California is already Giants country.”
In a few weeks, Webb will be wearing the uniform of another country. He’s ecstatic about joining the pitching staff for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic alongside Cy Young Award winners Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes. Webb didn’t want to disclose when he’s scheduled to pitch in the international tournament, but he confirmed that he wouldn’t start Team USA’s exhibition game against the Giants on March 3 at Scottsdale Stadium.
“I wanted to, though,” he said with a grin.
The Giants are less thrilled about Webb’s participation, given his prominent place on the roster and the inherent risk of a pitcher competing in March with far more adrenaline than you generate in a typical split-squad exhibition game. At the winter meetings in Orlando last month, Giants president Buster Posey left little doubt that the team hoped to talk Webb out of participating.
“The perfect-case scenario for some of these pitchers that are asked to do it, with me being somewhat selfish, is you hope that they have an opportunity later in their career,” said Posey, citing veteran starters like Adam Wainwright and Clayton Kershaw who pitched for Team USA. “It’s a great event. But we’ve also seen over the years that it can derail some pitchers, just because there’s no way to replicate getting yourself ready for what’s essentially a playoff baseball atmosphere in early March.”
Webb said he took the advice to heart. But he wanted to participate in 2023, when he backed out because he and the Giants were finalizing his five-year, $90 million extension. He’d spent the past three years reading texted recruiting pitches from Team USA manager Mark DeRosa. In early November, Webb was visiting friends and attended an ERNEST concert that included a backstage pass to meet the country music artist on his tour bus. When the doors opened, Team USA bullpen coach David Ross was standing there along with ESPN personality Pat McAfee. Webb listened to their hard sell and made a verbal commitment on the spot. McAfee, wearing a Team USA hat and a cheeky grin, posted a captionless photo of the trio to social media.
“Obviously (the Giants) have their thoughts about it,” Webb said. “That’s known. At the end of the day, it’s my decision.”
Webb stuck to his usual offseason program and started throwing in late November. He’s thrown off a mound nine times. He figures that he’ll have two exhibition starts under his belt before he leaves with Team USA for the first round of pool play in Houston. He’ll be on a regular schedule for his final exhibition tuneups as well before he throws the first pitch of the 2026 Major League Baseball season on March 25 against the New York Yankees at the Giants’ waterfront ballpark.
“I’m trying to treat this offseason as normal as possible but definitely know there’s gonna be more adrenaline going into springtime,” Webb said. “The same buildup I’ve always done. There’s an intensity that’s maybe amplified a bit but I think it’s pretty much the same.”
Lee will rack up a few more air miles when he leaves the Giants in early March. Korea will participate in pool play at Tokyo Dome. Outfielder Heliot Ramos will compete for Puerto Rico and right-hander José Buttó will pitch for Venezuela.
Lee formally asked the Giants for permission to compete when Posey, Vitello and shortstop Willy Adames led a 17-person travel contingent on a goodwill tour of Korea earlier this month. The Giants sought to make marketing and business inroads in the country while Lee, a national celebrity and former KBO All-Star, is on their roster.
If Saturday’s attendance at Bishop Ranch was any indication, making those inroads closer to home should be a simple task.