It wasn’t too long ago when the San Francisco Giants were just a mediocre team. After Barry Bonds left, it seemed as if he took all of the wins with him. After having 8 winning seasons in a row they hit a bump in the road and had 4 straight losing seasons. They saw their home game attendance dropping with the lack of talent and lack of wins. For a team that has always been near the top of the league when it comes to attendance, this was definitely hard to swallow. They knew they couldn’t allow it to go on much longer and needed to do something about it.
Obviously added new talent was a major factor in the turnaround and the first thing that needed to be addressed. The acquisitions of Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, and Madison Bumgarner through the draft showed that the Giants had a game plan. Further backing this game plan was their move into a much larger AT&T Park. They didn’t care about putting up 8 runs a game, they just wanted to prevent the other teams from doing it. Sure it wasn’t flashy baseball, but it got the job done and the wins starting to accumulate. Since they weren’t the most exciting team to watch, attendance was still not where they wanted it to be.
In 2010, the San Francisco Giants had one of the most magical seasons and practically rebranded baseball. They started out as just a bunch of “outcasts” and “misfits” that came together and shocked the baseball world. After winning their first world Series in 56 years, people all over became intrigued with the Giants story. With nicknames like; The Freak, The Beard, Kung-Fu Panda, and guys wearing “rally thongs”, the Giants were definitely something special. They didn’t shy away from their title of “misfits” but rather embraced it and ran with it. A large part of this can be attributed to Bryan Srabian, the team’s first director of social media.
Rather than shying away from the openness of social media like many other teams did, Srabian saw it as an opportunity for fans to share experiences with the players. Now, many teams are following suit, but it was Srabian who paved the way. He knew that they had something special and needed to share it with everyone. It was his genius that allowed the Giants to grow into what they are today.
Most teams would see nothing good from squeaking out wins, but the Giants made it a part of their brand as “torture” baseball. This is what Srabian has done, he sees something that is unique about the team and brilliantly spins it into something special. One of the most unusual guys on the team happens to be none other than Brian Wilson, the closer. This guy lives and breathes the Giants “torture” baseball and makes you nervous every time he is on the mound, but at the same time you just know he will get the job done. Wilson became an icon for the Giants with his high velocity, high intensity, and of course, his beard. The slogan “fear the beard” can be seen all over the stadium and his beard even has it’s own Twitter with 16 thousand followers. The use of Twitter has become the norm for many athletes and so it comes as no surprise that many of the Giants are frequent users.
Brian Srabian encourages players to interact with fans because he realizes the potential social media has. It gives fans an inside look at the organization and makes them feel apart of the team.
ericwondra 