SAN FRANCISCO - The Mohawk has arrived as a major presence in the San Francisco Giants clubhouse, not as a fashion statement but as a bonding agent.

Closer Brian Wilson initially sported the look, and pitching coach Dave Righetti briefly joined in with a faux version when he lost a bet to Wilson. Jonathan Sanchez followed Righetti’s lead after throwing a no-hitter Friday, while infielder Juan Uribe and reliever Sergio Romo went with the real thing.
Manager Bruce Bochy has vowed to be next if the upstart Giants - who come out of the All-Star break with the National League’s third-best record - put together 10 wins in a row. He doesn’t cherish the prospect.
“Can you imagine this thing shaved, with the size of my head?” the manager says, pointing to his famously prominent noggin.
Such esprit de corps would have been unfathomable during the last years of the Barry Bonds era, and not only because baseball’s all-time home run leader was follicly challenged.
Between his legendary accomplishments, often-surly personality and the steroid allegations, Bonds cast a huge shadow in good times and bad.
“When you have a huge superstar in the clubhouse, you don’t want to step on his toes, so you’re not going to be as loud and goofing around as you may want to be,” says pitcher Barry Zito, who played with Bonds in 2007, the slugger’s last of 15 seasons in San Francisco. “There’s more youth in the clubhouse now, and the youth is starting to really feel like they’re a big part of this.”
The Giants posted the majors’ third-best record (738-557) from 1997 to 2004, but they had losing seasons in Bonds’ last three years and again in 2008, as teams laden with veterans past their prime played mostly uninspired and dull baseball. The main source of excitement was Bonds belting pitches into the bay.
Now the fun-loving style of Tim Lincecum and third baseman Pablo Sandoval, also known as “Kung Fu Panda,” set the tone for a club that has been relying more on homegrown players than expensive free agents.
So far the formula has worked. San Francisco has ridden the majors’ top pitching staff - headed by Lincecum and fellow All-Star Matt Cain - to a 49-39 mark and a two-game lead in the NL wild-card race.
“This year’s team is a mirror opposite of those (1997-2004) teams,” Giants President Larry Baer says. “A lot younger, pitching-and-defense oriented, pretty much operating all season with three of the four infield positions having rookies.”
As the Giants open the second half Friday by visiting the Pittsburgh Pirates, the question remains whether a team that ranks near the bottom of the NL in most key offensive statistics can reach the playoffs for the first time since 2003.
“They’re going to make the playoffs,” San Diego Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez says. “After that, it will depend on how well they hit.”
Change in chemistry
Fan and news media expectations were low when the Giants failed to address their glaring need for offensive punch after hitting the fewest homers and scoring the second-fewest runs in the majors last season. They still rank in the bottom fifth in both categories but have made up for it with a 3.51 ERA, best in baseball.
Moreover, the Giants exude joy on and off the field again.
“I’ve been told it was very different in the past, the chemistry wasn’t as good and the players weren’t as tight,” says shortstop Edgar Renteria, signed as a free agent in the offseason. “I’ve always said a team that doesn’t stick together won’t win, regardless of how much talent it’s got.”
After disregarding player development to build contenders around Bonds - the Giants forfeited their first-round picks in 2004 and ’05 by signing free agents - team executives acknowledge the return to prominence has taken place quicker than expected.
Sandoval, 22, has emerged as a force in the middle of the lineup in his first full season, hitting .333 with 15 home runs and 55 RBI. And outfielder Nate Schierholtz and first baseman Travis Ishikawa, both 25, are becoming solid complementary players. Like Lincecum, Cain, Wilson and Sanchez, they are products of the farm system.
“I was at the start of the transition, the younger era of players,” Lincecum, a first-round pick in 2006, says of his arrival midway through 2007. “Then the next year we had 14 or 15 rookie call-ups, guys making their debuts. Changes were being made.”
Things started to click last month. The Giants were 20-23 on May 24, nine games behind the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, and have gone 29-16 since to seize the wild-card lead. (They trail the Dodgers by seven.)
In that stretch, Lincecum, 25, and Cain, 24, combined for a 12-2 mark while Sandoval hit .365 with 12 home runs and 38 RBI.
Padres manager Bud Black says Cain (10-2, 2.38 ERA) and Lincecum (10-2, 2.33) have elevated their games, a particularly remarkable feat for the latter, considering he’s the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner.
“The changeup seems to have gotten better, and his overall ability to handle the running game has improved,” Black says.
The floppy-haired Lincecum, who used to do cartwheels in the clubhouse, has caught fans’ fancy with his ability to blow away hitters with 97-mph fastballs from a 5-11, 170-pound frame. Depending on the night of the week and the opponent, the Giants’ home attendance swells by 2,000 to 4,000 when he starts, according to the club.
“He connects a lot with some of the younger fans because he looks like a little kid,” veteran infielder Rich Aurilia says. “He brings some fun to the game.”
Everybody loves Pablo
So does Sandoval, on an everyday basis.
The jovial native of Venezuela energized the clubhouse after getting called up in August last season, hitting .345 in 41 games as a catcher, first baseman and third baseman.
This year, playing mostly third for the first time since 2005, Sandoval has committed only four errors (plus another three at first) and sometimes made spectacular plays.
But his boundless enthusiasm is most obvious when the 5-11, 245-pounder races around the bases after one of his frequent line drives into the gap, a sight that stokes the crowd and gets teammates rushing to the dugout railing for a better look.
“Lincecum owns this town on the mound. Sandoval will own it on the field,” Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper says. “They love the guy.”
A free swinger who gives full meaning to the phrase “plate coverage,” Sandoval got his nickname from Zito because of his superb athleticism in such an unlikely body.
“I like it because it’s true, the panda is chubby but also agile,” Sandoval says. “That’s me.”
After years of marketing the team around Bonds, Baer says the club is fortunate to have the magnetic personalities of Lincecum and Sandoval.
That’s especially crucial at a time when several teams are experiencing big declines at the box office, partly because of the sour economy. The Giants rank 10th in the majors in attendance, with an average of 34,489 a game, down 963 from last year, according to Baseball-reference.com.
Baer says when he went to a function at Class A San Jose earlier this season, team personnel and fans kept asking him to send regards to Sandoval.
“Fans want to view him as the next big thing because he’s so likable,” Baer says. “It’s not like we have a grumpy .330 hitter.”
He is, however, one of San Francisco’s few consistent run producers. Sandoval and cleanup hitter Bengie Molina are the only Giants with more than 40 RBI.
As the July 31 trade deadline approaches, Baer says the Giants’ ability to improve the club will depend more on the price they have to pay in prospects than in increased payroll. They are loath to part with prized minor leaguers such as catcher Buster Posey and pitchers Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson.
So the onus remains on the pitchers, but Lincecum says they can handle the burden.
“We don’t put any extra pressure on ourselves,” he says. “If anything, it kind of helps. It makes you say, `Hey, I have to buckle down.’ It keeps you focused.”