The Giants just finished honoring a familiar core from the championship years, but the next name on the Wall of Fame should jump out immediately: Tim Lincecum.
Over the weekend, the club inducted Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, Pablo Sandoval, and Joe Panik into Giants history. All five were worthy choices, and seeing them together again was a nice reminder of what those teams meant. Still, if the Giants are looking for the next obvious addition, Lincecum is sitting right there.
He hasn’t been back to Oracle Park since 2019, when he showed up for Bruce Bochy’s final game as skipper and got an electric reception. Giants fans know he can be very reclusive, and the source material notes that he has had some things happen in his personal life that make staying out of the public eye understandable.
Even so, there’s no question he belongs on the Wall of Fame. Lincecum won two Cy Young awards, was a major part of the 2010 World Series, and also played a key role in 2012 despite working out of the bullpen that season.
The Freak was never just another ace. With that wiry frame and his one-of-a-kind delivery, he became a Bay Area favorite because of the way he pitched and the way he overwhelmed hitters. For anyone who watched him at his peak, those years won’t be forgotten.
And if the Giants are going to do this right, the honor shouldn’t stop with the Wall of Fame. Lincecum’s No. 55 should be retired, too. It has been unofficially retired already, since no Giant has worn it since he left San Francisco, but he deserves a formal jersey retirement ceremony.
That raises the practical question of how to get him back to Oracle Park without asking too much. One idea would be to combine the Wall of Fame and jersey retirement into a single event. The timing could even line up with 2028 or 2029, which would be 20 years after his consecutive Cy Young awards.
There’s also the possibility of waiting for a 20-year reunion for the 2010 championship team in 2030, though that would mean hoping he appears for another celebration later. The source material says Lincecum has been spotted more in the Bay Area lately, so there may be at least some chance he would show up for multiple occasions.
He isn’t the only former Giant who fits this mold, either. Madison Bumgarner is also eligible for the Wall of Fame and should get that recognition, along with having his No. 40 retired. He was at Oracle Park in 2014 for the 10-year reunion of that World Series-winning club, which suggests he’d be willing to return.
After Lincecum and Bumgarner, there may be a pretty long wait before the Giants have many more Wall of Fame candidates. That’s just the reality of the last decade, with the championship runs behind them and the team largely struggling to stay competitive.
Still, a little nostalgia is part of the deal here. If the Giants want a sure thing, they should start working on getting Lincecum back to Oracle Park. He’d be greeted like a rockstar, and that fits exactly what he meant to Giants fans.
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