S.F. Giants to Hold 'Manny Pacquiao Day'

It was announced yesterday that the San Francisco Giants will hold Manny Pacquiao Day (or Night, as the case may be) at AT&T Park during their game with the San Diego Padres on Tuesday, April 21st.

The mighty Filipino boxer will throw out the first pitch, and a Pacquiao bobblehead doll will be distributed to the fans. Other activities involving the fighter also are being planned, though I have to wonder what in the hell they could possibly be. A sparring session with Tim Lincecum? (They’re about the same size.) A photo-shoot with Barry Zito and some dancing girls? A mass quiz to find out if anyone in the crowd actually knows who Manny Pacquiao is?

The Giants’ ode to all things Pac will come just 11 days before Pacquiao’s scheduled May 2nd fight with Ricky Hatton at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, a bout which promises to be one of the biggest boxing events of the year. No doubt, Bob Arum is looking to get all of the Bay Area on board for the Pacquiao/Hatton pay-per-view mayhem with this bizarre baseball-boxing promotion. We’ll have to see if that bears any fruit. Though I don’t know off the top of my head, I imagine that you’d have to go back at least to the days of Ray Leonard, or possibly Ali, to find another fighter being honored at a baseball game. Though there is that famous picture of Mike Tyson throwing a straight right at Doc Gooden while Darryl Strawberry looks on laughing (what a trio of coconuts those three must of been out on the town).

Also, Kelly Pavlik threw out the first pitch at Jacobs Field for Game 4 of the 2007 ALCS between the Indians and the Red Sox (and got quite an ovation, as I recall), and in the summer of ‘07, Tony Margarito threw out the first ball at a Dodger game.

Actually, if you look closely at that picture of Margarito on the mound up there, I think you’ll see that he’s got Vaseline on his cap. He’s throwing a spitter. Frickin' guy cheats at everything.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.