SAN FRANCISCO — One last hop out of the bullpen.
One last blast of “El Mechón” on the Oracle Park soundsystem.
A few more sliders, for old times’ sake, and a classy exit befitting a Giants legend.
Sergio Romo didn’t have much in the tank when he entered the seventh inning of the Giants-A’s exhibition game on Monday night. He admitted as much.
But he gave everything he had for the Giants one last time.
“A couple of weeks ago, when I was sitting on the couch, they presented me with this opportunity. It didn’t matter how I felt physically. I knew it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass,” Romo said.
“I can honestly say that, not just tonight, but my whole career, I emptied the tank. I gave it everything I had, every time.”
And it was that attitude that made him a fan favorite throughout his improbable and exceptional 15-year career.
“I took a lot of pride in challenging hitters,” Romo said. “I know I never lit up the radar gun, but I always find a way to throw my ’95 to 100′ through my slider… I looked at if they had bad luck that day, because they had to face me. And I wasn’t afraid to show them why.”
Consider us lucky though — we were able to watch Romo pitch for a decade and a half.
While an exhibition game against the A’s couldn’t have been more different than Game 4 of the 2012 World Series and Romo’s final at-bat with Miguel Cabrera, Monday night proved the love and appreciation between the righty reliever and Giants fans is still strong.
Thirty-thousand-plus packed into the park on a brisk Monday night.
Even though Romo allowed three baserunners and a run, recording zero outs in his final outing as a pro, the standing ovations he received were deserved and 15 years in the making.
Giants fans ensured Romo was treated right as he ended his career.
“The reception I got just running out to the bullpen. The reception I got running out to the mound, walking off… Rather fulfilling moments,” Romo said. “It’s hard not to think it’s a dream.”
“To sit there and think that this is something a lot of people thought I deserved… To find a way to accept that, I’m still kind of struggling with that.”
But when you are a critical part of three World Series championship teams (one of nine Giants to be on all three title-winning squads), and you do it with Romo’s flair and charisma, you deserve the hero’s exit.
This man closed a World Series clincher. He was an All-Star. He locked down 84 games for the Giants and provided the critical outs in countless more contests. At 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds and lacking a powerful fastball, he still took down the biggest players in the game.
“I was a power pitcher without power stuff,” Romo said.
He did it with a big personality, too. He was an everyman hero — the life of a team of lovable and winning misfits.
“That support I’ve had my career. It was always uplifting to me. It always motivated me and gave me fuel to be a little bit bigger than I thought I was, to do more things than I thought I could,” Romo said. “Tonight was just another example of the support that I had. It never wavered. It didn’t matter what jersey I wore after [leaving San Francisco] it still felt like people were pulling for me, playing against their team, you know?”
“I’m so thankful for it all. This is my storybook ending for a fairytale career. What a fitting way to go out with Orange and Black.”
But all great things must come to an end.
And for the Giants, Romo’s retirement and his “storybook ending” carried a deeper context.
This team’s era of greatness — call it a dynasty if you insist — was played in effectively a different sport. Baseball’s dead-ball era has been over for a while time. This modern game is about speed.
And not just in the velocity of pitches and hits, but in the actual pace of the game, too.
Before Romo even threw his first pitch on his special day, home plate umpire Nick Lentz hit him with a two-ball penalty for a pitch-clock violation.
Romo just wanted to savor his final entrance and take in the love from the fans. The poor guy was chased out of the contest.
The Giants organization — keen to milk every last drop of nostalgia out of the title teams — finds itself in a similar place, struggling to get up to speed.
The World Series pennants plastered on the left-field wall were once a popping orange. They have been sun-bleached over the last decade. They’re now a light peach — a faded relic of a bygone era.
With Romo’s retirement, only Madison Bumgarner is now the only active member of all three Giants World Series-winning teams, and he’s out to pasture (with his horses, of course) in Arizona.
And as Romo left the game Monday — handing the ball to Hunter Pence on the mound in a fantastic surprise orchestrated by the team — it was impossible not to notice that he wasn’t hugging Bruce Bochy, Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, and Bumgarner in the dugout, but rather coaches and players with no connection to those title teams.
Outside of Brandon Crawford, the current Giant players thanked Romo for his indelible contributions to something they didn’t experience.
Yes, only one San Francisco World Series winner is still on the Giants. And while it’s too early to think about Crawford’s goodbye, it’s must also be noted that the Giants have been saying a lot of goodbyes as of late. For a few seasons, those goodbyes were the only thing to look forward to all season.
The hope is that this season is not highlighted by Romo’s exhibition-game exit — as lovely a night as it was. The idea is that this 2023 Giants team is a squad closer in spirit to the befuddling 2021 Giants, improbable winners of 107 games, or, if things really break their way, the 2010 Giants — misfits who surprised the world and won it all, with Romo playing a massive role.
Perhaps these Giants can capture the spirit of Romo, who was overlooked on every step of his baseball journey, but won, consistently, with heart, tenacity, and by using whatever advantage he could find.
If the 2023 Giants can do that, this group of generally anonymous players will become local heroes, one day befitting of a sendoff like Monday’s.
A sendoff that was befitting of a legend.
