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Giants' Brian Wilson not as crazy as he looks
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By Bob Nightengale
October, 19, 2010
Philadelphia, PA — Brian Wilson, the dude who closes for the San Francisco Giants, looks absolutely crazy. ...
There are the Mohawk; the lumberjack-style, black-dyed beard and the tattoos. Put him in street clothes, and he might wear black leather pants as he did upon arriving in Philadelphia before the start of the National League Championship Series vs. the Phillies. Or he could go with the wild, checkered sports jacket or the lemon-yellow suit or the black shirt, shorts and knee-high socks with bright orange shoes.
Wilson also acts absolutely crazy. ...
Once at spring training he decided it was time to get a new truck, former Class AA pitching coach Bob Stanley recalls, so he left his old one on the side of a highway in Phoenix, took off the license plates and headed off to a car dealer.
Many closers save baseballs from the games they have saved, but Wilson keeps the balls from every time he has warmed up in the bullpen this year.
"I've got about 300 baseballs in my locker," Wilson says. "I don't date them. I just go by smell."
Stanley remembers coming to the mound while Wilson was pitching for Norwich, Conn., and telling him, "Your shoulder is flying open.
"(Wilson) said, 'OK, but which shoulder is it?' " Stanley says. "I looked at him. I looked at the catcher. I said, 'I got nothing else to say.' And I walked off the mound.
"He's a space cadet. He reminds me a lot of Bill (Spaceman) Lee. Not as crazy, but getting there."
But don't let all of it fool you, Wilson is remarkably sane and intelligent. ...
He finishes the New York Times crossword puzzle in less time than guys take to eat from the pregame spread. He's a graphic designer. He'll debate history and religion with anyone. He buries those who dare play him in chess.
"He's a guy who looks off the wall and acts off the wall," Giants reliever Sergio Romo says. "You can't really describe this guy. I've never met anybody like him.
"It's easy to say he's in his own world all the time. You've got to love him, though. Besides, what a lot of people don't see is that he's one of the smartest guys on this team."
Giants pitcher Barry Zito, who shared a place with Wilson in San Francisco and Los Angeles last year, remembers challenging him to a friendly trivia game.
"I played him once," Zito says. "That was enough.
"I never want to go through that again."
Wilson's personality is complex, and those within his inner sanctum call it "Brian's World."
Once Wilson allows you inside, it's easier to understand his strong mental makeup and why he has become one of the game's premier closers.
"I signed up for this job," Wilson says, "the day I was born."
Father and son
"I don't let a lot of people know me," Wilson says, "but I have a lot of anger in me. I use that anger when I pitch."
The anger started when Wilson was 12 years old. His dad, Mike, who spent 22 years in the Air Force, told him he had cancer.
"Back then, all you knew about cancer was on TV," Wilson says, "and those shows never ended well.
"That's when my dad started teaching me about life. Learning how to accept failure, handle a crisis, man up, defend yourself."
Wilson prayed for a miracle that never happened. His father's health slowly failed from the kidney cancer. He died at 52.
Wilson was 17.
He became mad, he said, at the doctors. Mad at the world. And mad at God.
He started making wrong choices, he says, until reconnecting with Christianity early in his minor league career.
"I'm able to accept things better," he says. "It's not easy to lose anybody, but I was brought up to realize that this is what happens in life. As soon you're born, you're dying. So enjoy yourself. Don't be so selfish that you hold a hard grudge through life.
"You don't want to face death, but the last thing you want to do is fear it, because it's inevitable."
On the mound, Wilson wants hitters to think they might have the bat in their hands but he has the ball — and he's not about to let them beat him.
"When I'm on the field," Wilson says, "my one thought is to completely annihilate you and do everything in my power to make you fail. I don't have a single thought about what my hair looks like, what my shoes look like, why my shirt's unbuttoned. I don't care who you are or what you've done in this game. Right now it's a one-on-one battle and nothing's going to stop me from doing what I need to do to get the game over.
"I got three chances to get you out, three strikes. I got four chances to walk you. I like my odds. If I can't get that guy, I'll get the next guy."
This philosophy worked quite well the last three years, when Wilson saved 127 games and improved each season. He dominated the NL this year, saving 48 games out of 53 opportunities, posting a 1.81 ERA and striking out 93 in 74 2/3 innings. He's completely unpredictable, unafraid to throw a 97-mph fastball, an 88-mph slider, a curveball or a cutter at any time in the count.
He had a major league-leading 10 saves of more than one inning during the season and twice has been asked to record saves of at least 1? innings in the postseason. After each save, just as he does in the regular season, he turns around, make an exaggerated cross on his chest and points toward the heavens.
"It has nothing to do with showing anybody up," Wilson says, "but everything to do with honoring two people responsible for bringing me into this life, my father and God."
If his dad were alive today, Wilson says, he's sure he would be proud but restrained in his emotions. He demanded the best from Wilson, teaching him the value of improving upon failure.
"Like any military man," Wilson says, "he'd tell me not to gloat just yet. There's always another game, another year. You can party when it's over."
And when it's over, what becomes of the beard? He began growing it in July, and several teammates have followed suit, although they're not dying it black like Wilson does. "Fear the Beard" has become one of several mantras for Giants fans.
"If I grow it out in the offseason," he says, "it's going to get scary. Real scary. You know something, it sounds like a fun task.
"Hey, looks can be deceiving."
• MLB News Archive Index:
2010, 2009
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