Selected Giants players called A.J. Pierzynski “the Cooler” behind his back during his miserable 2004 season in San Francisco because they believed he could chill a conversation or the mood in the clubhouse.
The White Sox catcher returns Friday night to AT&T Park for the first time since his acrimonious departure with a 2005 World Series ring, job security and plenty of ammunition to use as motivation against the Giants.
“I’m glad we’re getting it out of the way,” Pierzynski said calmly during a 10-minute interview before the Sox played the Angels Thursday night. “I didn’t enjoy my time in that city. It wasn’t a good year, it wasn’t fun. … It’s just bad vibes when I go to that city.”
Pierzynski is expected to receive a thunderous round of boos despite his hitting .272 and driving in 77 runs in 131 games while helping the Giants to a 91-victory season in which they fell one game short of a National League playoff berth.
“You get satisfaction from the fact I won a World Series,” Pierzynski said. “Coming out of there where they said I didn’t know how to handle pitchers and to see the way our pitchers pitched the next year, especially in the playoffs, was satisfying.
“I was in the World Series and I see Ned Colletti, their assistant GM (now with Dodgers), in the mall. He looks at me in Houston and said, ‘Don’t blow it like we did.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry. We won’t.’
“That was kind of satisfying to see the look on his face. It was one of those things where it worked out great for me. It worked out great for the Twins. They made a great move to get rid of me and get the guys they got (Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser). It worked out perfect for everyone.”
Pierzynski claimed he knew he would be gone shortly after he arrived in November 2003.
He recalled a meeting with general manager Brian Sabean and managing general partner Peter Magowan, who made a suggestion that didn’t mesh with Pierzynski’s catching talents.
“[Magowan] asked me if I knew how to play first base,” Pierzynski said. “I looked at him and said, ‘I played it in the minor leagues.’ He said, ‘We like our players to be able to play more than one position, so you probably will get a lot of games at first base.’ That’s when I knew it was probably not going to work out there.”
Later, Pierzynski said the front office attacked him and his agent before they beat the Giants in an arbitration hearing.
He also shot down a story that claimed he kneed former trainer Stan Conte (now with the Los Angeles Dodgers) while being examined at home plate during a spring training game at Scottsdale Stadium.
In late April, Pierzynski said he was scarred unfairly by an Oakland Tribune story in which three anonymous pitchers criticized him for being unwilling to review scouting reports while preferring to work on crossword puzzles.
“The story about me playing cards and not going over the hitters is not true,” Pierzynski said. “I told them I’d be there in two minutes, and I came over two minutes later.
“The story about me telling hitters what [pitches] were coming, anyone who knows me or sees me at all knows I’m not ever going to do that. I’m the last [person] to ever do that. So just the fact, no one wants to hear the real stories … they just want to hear [false stories] because it makes for better newspapers, it makes for better radio, better TV.”
Despite his miserable stint, Pierzynski said he looks forward to seeing former Sox teammate Aaron Rowand, a few Giants players and the clubhouse attendants.
“It was weird because there were some good guys in the organization and in the clubhouse who I still talk to and still keep in touch with. But at the same time, there were a lot of things going on peripherally and outside that were just not good.”
Pierzynski also is prepared for the boos from the fans who expressed their displeasure even when he played for the Giants.
“People pay their money; they can come and boo,” Pierzynski said. “It’s a little different being booed at home. You can understand getting booed at home if you don’t run balls out or if you don’t show up or if you say something about them. I don’t know. It’s over with now and I’m sure they’ll boo me again.”
