A fan standing behind Baer shot this photo of the incident.
Wilson’s actions stunned Baer and Giants officials, who said they tried repeatedly throughout the season to meet with Wilson so the ring could be presented, and that he never responded, even when the Giants invited him to the ring ceremony during the first weekend of the home season.
“I don’t know why he decided to make a show of it and air his grievance tonight,” team spokeswoman Staci Slaughter said.
The Giants have tried to have a sort of mini-ceremony with former players when they get their rings, as they did in Toronto when manager Bruce Bochy gave Melky Cabrera his ring in a brief, private ceremony. That scene was repeated elsewhere.
But after tonight’s episode, Slaughter said, the Giants just sent the ring to the Dodgers clubhouse with instructions to deliver it to Wilson.
Wilson pitched in two games for the Giants last season, during which he re-tore his ulnar collateral ligament. He spent the year rehabbing from a second Tommy John surgery under the Giants’ auspices, all the way until August, when he signed his million-dollar contract with the Dodgers.
Is there anything odder in sports than saying goodbye to a player who might not be leaving, especially an icon and a star?
That was not an issue with Barry Bonds. The Giants announced they would not re-sign Bonds with a week left in the 2007 season, and he and the fans got to say their farewells. There also was a finality to Barry Zito’s start Wednesday even if it went unsaid.
Tim Lincecum is different. Nobody, not even the pitcher himself, knew if his 221st start Thursday night was the end of a critical chapter in this franchise’s history.
If it was, he went out strongly even if he got no decision in the Giants’ 3-2 victory against the Dodgers. He allowed two runs in seven innings and left for a pinch-hitter in a 2-2 game.
Angel Pagan broke a 2-2 tie in the eighth with a homer that hit the top of the fence down the left-field line and popped over. So ended the 2013 version of the rivalry, with the Giants winning the season series 11-8.
The Dodgers got a nice consolation prize: The NL West title.
Like Barry Zito the night before, Lincecum was not afforded a definitive walk off the mound to adulation from the fans. They took no chances and gave him standing ovations after the sixth and seventh.
Manager Bruce Bochy said from the outset he was not treating this as a goodbye.
“I certainly hope Timmy is back with us,” Bochy said. “Timmy has been such a pleasure all of his years here. I hope that continues.”
Lincecum finished the season 10-14 with a 4.37 ERA, a decent improvement from last year’s career high 5.18. He threw 197 2/3 innings and struck out 193.
For his Giants career he is 89-70 with a 3.46 ERA, 1,510 strikeouts, two World Series rings, two Cy Young Awards, four All-Star teams, a no-hitter and an iconic image of his teammates lifting him on their shoulders, his fist raised, after he won the clinching game in the 2010 Series.
The Giants came from behind spare Lincecum a loss
The fans gave Lincecum his first ovation in the fifth inning after he sacrificed Nick Noonan to third. Noonan scored on an Angel Pagan grounder for the first Giants run in a 2-1 game.
The Giants tied it later in the inning with a Gregor Blanco walk and Brandon Belt double.
Lincecum got another sustained ovation when he ended the 1-2-3 seventh with a Hanley Ramirez groundball as Javi Lopez warmed in the bullpen, and that was it. With two outs in the bottom half Johnny Monell pinch-hit for Lincecum as The Freak hugged his teammates in the dugout.
Lincecum led the team onto the field and clearly was jacked up. The evidence was the 93-mph fastballs he pumped to Puig, who struck out looking at one down the middle.
Carl Crawford, the next hitter, Sandovaled a ball off the ground into the left-center gap for a triple and scored on Adrian Gonzalez’s sacrifice fly, giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in an inning that also featured a hit batter (Hanley Ramirez) and a walk (Matt Kemp).
Puig’s attempt to double that lead in the second ended when Blanco fielded his single and threw a strike to Buster Posey to nab catcher Tim Federowicz trying to score.
Back-to-back fourth-inning doubles by Juan Uribe and Mark Ellis gave L.A. that 2-0 lead, but Lincecum struck out the next three hitters, ending with Puig, to strand Ellis.
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