Two years ago, the Jock Blog penned an Opening Day missive and we led with this line:
“Call it the Matt Beaty Moment.”
Two years later, the Jock Blog pens an Opening Day missive and we will lead with this line:
“Call it the Buster Posey Era opening moment.”
A 2025 Giants roster with no last-second party-crashers, with no rotisserie baseball margin moves, with no mid-game platoons and no roster muscles pulled to strain for a matchup edge at every turn — creating a roster churn as soothing as a loud, crashing wave —won its Opening Day game in Cincinnati, 6-4.
Watching from the executive level at Great American Ballpark, wearing no shin guards but sporting his trademark high-and-tight barber shop fade and a sport coat, was Buster Posey, the new head of baseball operations.
He was there to win a gosh darn ballgame, was the look.
Mind, it wasn’t all one big Buster Hug. The Giants struck out 17 times. Logan Webb was just meh. But as if they collectively decided that the 2025 Giants did not want to disappoint Buster Posey on his big day, and on his birthday, a ninth inning recipe of a Jung Hoo Lee walk, a Matt Chapman bingle the other way, a Pat Bailey clutch swing and a Wilmer Flores Yahtzee! hack meant the Giants would pull out a stirring win.
It was enough to make ebullient Willy Adames leap the dugout rail and storm up and down the Ohio dirt with the enthusiasm of a high school varsity baseball player in a big rivalry game. Oh, and Adames was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, don’t you know. Still had that big smile.
Because they didn’t disappoint Buster. Because they played for all 27 outs. Because the nine who started the game, finished the game. And because ninth-inning at-bats in a one-run game can make you forget about less colorful at-bats in the previous eight innings.
Now about now you are wondering — what is the ‘Matt Beaty Moment’ and why did my favorite Jock Blogger lead with that?
Dear reader, please recall the 2023 Giants opening at Yankee Stadium. On that day, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi pulled one of those signature “no move too small” acquisitions and acquired journeyman outfielder Matt Beaty just hours before the opener. Jon Miller came on our airwaves and said a Kansas City Royals travel bag was in the clubhouse, bafflingly enough. Beaty had just been cut by the Royals, as it turned out. Speedy Bryce Johnson had flown to New York with the club, only to see his roster spot snagged by the guy with the Royals travel bag.
Beaty pinch hit and struck out in the 5-0 loss to the Bronx Bombers.
History did not shine well on the Beaty Moment. He was released in June after five at-bats. It made you wonder why it even happened. That was part and parcel of what fatigued Giants fans about the Farhan Era.
In comes Buster Posey as head of baseball ops, and all he says when he gets hired is “we’re in the memory-making business.” It was easy enough to say, sure. What did he mean? Winning, obviously. But also perhaps, as we are learning, he meant familiarity. Names your kids know. Lineups your kids know. Not having to answer to your 13-year-old budding Giants fan who sees a hitter and asks: “Who’s that?”
The lineup on Thursday in Cincinnati was not dramatically different from the Farhan Era. In fact, every starter was a holdover from the Farhan Era, except for Willy Adames.
But here’s the thing: those same eight regulars started the game, and ended the game. Wilmer Flores, a right-handed hitter, faced a right-handed reliever and hit the game-winning home run. And the dugout reacted like a dugout that knew each other and liked each other. Because they played together all spring, and didn’t see Royals travel bags on a random day.
It was a poetic start to the Posey Era, in many ways. A dramatic home run in Cincinnati, over the same LF fence that Buster cleared in the 2012 NLDS Game 5, don’t you know. A dugout that seemed to emanate chemistry. A clean defensive game.
And a win. Because who wants to disappoint Buster Posey?