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San Francisco Giants holiday gift guide 2019

A World Series ring? Books? T-shirts? What to give the most deserving Giants fan(s) in your life?

By Bryan Murphy

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San Francisco Giants v Boston Red Sox Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images

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The Giants might not be too popular right now so the idea of spending time and money hunting down the perfect gift for the Giants fan in your life (or yourself!) probably doesn’t land in the top 10 of your to-do list as the holiday shopping season approaches;

However,

allow me to enumerate all the reasons why this might be the perfect year to give the gift of Giants to your unsuspecting friends, relatives, and other loved ones:

  • most of the championship era items make a perfect gag gift
  • most of the championship era items are heavily discounted because the team has been unwatchably bad for three years
  • there’s a g-d World Series ring on eBay:
A 2014 World Series ring for sale on eBay

Authentic Tiffany & Co. 2014 San Francisco Giants World Series Championship Ring

  • $1

Silver and Gold World Series Championship ring for the 2014 San Francisco Giants. Has 3 larger natural diamonds representing the current dynasty’s count and 5 smaller natural diamonds below representing the balance of world championship wings in Franchise history, a total of 8. There are also small natural diamonds around and in the team emblem and bezel. [...] From research we estimate this ring to have been given to Andy King (Strength and Conditioning Coach) during the 2014 season.

AUCTION ENDS 11-28-2019 at 12pm Pacific

You can be sure that gifting an authentic 2014 World Series ring to someone will be their best gift of 2019.

I wanted to get that biggie out of the way. I definitely wasn’t implying you pool your resources and buy that for me. If anything, we should probably all look into whether or not strength and conditioning coach Andy King is doing okay. Perhaps a bit concerning that he’s pawned his World Series ring.

In potentially less sad news, our good friends at BreakingT have kicked off their Black Friday sale. It’s a 15% discount on every item in their store. Just use discount code BFSAVE15 at checkout. There’s no minimum purchase required and the discount applies to their clearance items, too. It ends Monday, 12/2 at 11:59pm.

The Bay Area store has Warriors, Sharks, Niners, A’s, and Raiders gear, too. You may remember some of their Giants-themed items:

And danged if this one isn’t poignant. It could also make a good gift for that one Braves fan you know.

But if you’re not in the mood for wearables, how about some readables? This marketing firm put out a book about Bruce Bochy’s managerial principles and leadership qualities:

Bochy Ball!

  • $20

From Amazon.com: “A friend for 20+ years, our relationship with Bruce and his wife Kim started when Bruce was coming back into MLB for the second time, as manager of the San Diego Padres. Boch doesn’t like to do anything half-assed. He didn’t want to just win on the field, he wanted to be a great ambassador for the club and build a great relationship with the media and the community. So, with a desire to become more well-rounded he connected with us.”

A book about LEADERSHIP, CHARACTER and TEAM CHEMISTRY.

Apply it to your business, your team, your life!

But maybe you’re over Bruce Bochy and want to stay on the cutting edge. Sorry, sorry. Maybe you know someone who’s over Bruce Bochy and wants to stay on the cutting edge. Maybe this person you know hasn’t quite cracked the nut that is Farhan Zaidi and wants to see if they can think how he thinks. Well then, you can’t go wrong buying this for this person you know:

Thinking, Fast and Slow

  • $9

From Amazon.com: In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation―each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.

Zaidi admitted in a recent KNBR interview that he gifts this book to all his coaches and execs. You might not crack the code and figure out the Giants’ next move, but if you — ahem, or someone you know — has some downtime this holiday season and wants to try to stay on top of their favorite baseball team’s evolution, then you can’t go wrong looking at the front office’s reference material.

But if you or someone you know who loves the Giants just wants to stick with Giants stuff, then consider perusing the Junior Giants auction block on sfgiants.com. Proceeds go to the Junior Giants program. Most of the auction materials (which ends 11-30-2019) are autographed bats and balls, but if you click the Buy Now tab, a far more interesting array of immediately available goods appears.

Hmm... maybe not that one. Although... what if... Bumgarner leaves in free agency and Puig comes to the Giants and — no, no. Can’t think like that. Consider this a very expensive gag gift from a Dodger fan who might be reading this to their local Giants fan.

So, how about these? I admit I got a little caught up in all the options. I tried to edit this list down, but these are some legitimately interesting gifts.

And finally:

San Francisco Giants Game-Used Ball Bottle Opener

  • $145

This bottle opener is crafted from an MLB Authenticated Game-Used San Francisco Giants Baseball. This half baseball features the unmistakable red stitching and the little scratches and scuffs that let you know it has seen game-play. Measures approximately 3” in diameter x 1-1/2” and the aluminum bottle opener finding is engraved “Giants.”

But what if you know the Giants fans in your life still don’t want anything to remind them of the last three years but they still might like Giants stuff? Why not seek out the other big holiday thing — Star Wars — and pair it with sports fandom?

We end as we began with these eBay items:

Topical! The Mandalorian is very in right now on account of Baby Yoda. Also in? The Disney+ version of STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE because of the edit made to this famous scene:

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