I went to a noon rally for the Giants today in San Francisco. Justin Herman Plaza was packed with several thousand people despite the cold and a bit of a drizzle (I'm almost glad I'll be watching tonight's game in the warmth of my home).

Mayor Willie Brown has many faults, but he does a good job as a public figurehead for the city at events like this. The highlight was brief remarks from four hall of fame members of the 1962 Giants World Series team, Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey, and Willie Mays. KNBR currently has some photos of them from the rally on their home page.

Mays says over the past four or five years he has often given advice to his godson, Barry Bonds. He said Bonds is having fun again playing baseball. Mays was introduced several times as the greatest baseball player (there is a statue of him in front of Pac Bell Park). Jack Curry of the New York Times wrote about asking Mays about this issue.

Joe Satriani played the national anthem early on and later a medley of guitar licks with a sing-a-long of 'Take Me Out to the Ballpark" thrown in. Val Diamond from Beach Blanket Babylon (which I still haven't seen after over a decade in San Francisco) sang "San Francisco" wearing a huge hat of the SF skyline (including a Giants bobble-head). Someone from the morning sports show sang a really bad song about the Giants. They closed out by playing Peter Gabriel's 'Shock the Monkey" which has also been playing often on sports radio.

The SF Chronicle ofcourse has tons of coverage and they were including signs in today's paper saying "Monkey see, Monkey don't." I also got a Go Giants sign from KNBR you'll probably see a lot tonight saying "Pitch to Barry" on the back.

Only Baseball Matters is a Giants blog.