SAN FRANCISCO – Imagine Bruce Bochy’s surprise. The Giants had a day off last summer so he headed down the peninsula to try a little surfcasting. He stopped into Hi’s Tackle Box, 15 miles from the ballpark in South San Francisco.
And there, in the modest storefront on the backside of a Safeway parking lot, he found Angel Pagan working behind the counter.
“Oh, I was stunned,” Bochy said. “The last place I’m expecting to see one of my players is in a bait shop on a day off. And there he was.”
Just as stunning: the sight of Pagan laughing and carrying on with customers, posing for pictures, and genially saying yes to every autograph request.