SAN FRANCISCO — If you’ve been watching the World Series, you’ve seen the aerial shots of McCovey Cove. Named for Giants first baseman Willie McCovey, the little piece of San Francisco Bay is filled with boaters and kayakers come game time, all hoping to grab a coveted home run ball.
When I arrived in San Francisco, I couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to experience Giants baseball, and I started asking around to see if anyone knew how to rent a kayak and get out there. Every person I asked had the same response: ‘Have you talked to McCovey Cove Dave?’
Come again?
McCovey Cove Dave, which is his preferred full name, is a local legend. In fact, legend might be too small of a word. To many fans, Dave is a hero.
Let’s put it this way; McCovey Cove Dave is the Barry Bonds of Giants fans. His Twitter (@mccoveycovedave) and Instagram accounts boast over 5,000 followers each. He’s been interviewed by everyone from the local news to MLB.com. When I asked Giants right fielder Hunter Pence about him, he knew exactly who I was talking about. “I really like his pictures on Instagram,” Pence said. “He’s a special guy.”
I paddled out to McCovey Cove to meet Dave for batting practice. It was a cloudy October day, and despite my limited kayaking experience, the kind folks at City Kayak on Pier 40 had provided foolproof instructions for myself and SN's Jesse Spector, who I roped into joining me. (Mostly because I wanted someone to write the story of my brave end if this went poorly.)
As I turned into the cove, I couldn’t help but pause and take in AT&T Park in all its glory. The gentle sound of waves hitting the seawall; seagulls circling overheard. If, like me, you think ballpark is just another word for cathedral, you’ll understand the hushed awe of that moment.
I found Dave with a group of regulars. Seasoned veterans of the cove, these gentleman are both friends and competitors. While several, like Dave, were in kayaks, even more stood on the sidewalk outside the park. One man held a homemade contraption consisting of a net attached to a pole. Dave tells me he can cast that net with sniper-like precision when a ball hits the water.
Dave was dressed in his typical wetsuit and a bright orange hoodie that simply reads "DAVE." A gift from his son, the hoodie makes it easy for newcomers to spot Dave out on the cove. And spot him they do — no fewer than two dozen people yelled hello to him as we bobbed in the cove, talking about weather and social media and, most importantly, baseball.
“The reason I’m in the cove is that the home runs are my favorite play,” Dave told me. “They’re my favorite play. They always have been. My first games at Candlestick Park, I saw Willie Mays and Hank Aaron both get home runs. I was in the bleachers. They were a distance away from me, but I saw those balls and I wanted to get one.” That doubleheader on June 22, 1967 between the Braves and the Giants was the start of a lifetime obsession.
A self-proclaimed “numbers guy,” Dave started following Giants box scores as a child. It was a family affair. He and his brother would listen on the radio, and Dave would update batting averages in his head as the game progressed. “It taught us some math, and we loved baseball, and it became a 50-year love affair,” Dave explained.
While his brother has passed away, Dave’s 86-year-old mother, a fan since the Giants were in New York, continues to watch every game as well. Dave’s love of kayaking is also a gift from his family. “My parents,” he explained, “my dad in particular are water people. That’s how I gravitate to the kayak. We’re boaters, swimmers.”
But it wasn’t until Dave retired that he found a way to combine his love of baseball and kayaking.
“I really started becoming a regular in 2005, and then I came out to a lot of the games in 2007, Barry Bonds’ last year,” said Dave. “I have 21 of my 24 home runs from 2010 on because I used math. I used math to basically solve for the highest probable location. So I do what they do inside, but I do it even more fanatically than any team. I basically solve for the most probable landing spot for every player.”
Dave’s math seems to be working. He estimates that in the past five years, he’s gotten about 80% of the balls hit into the cove. For each player, he creates a scattergram of the location of their previous homeruns. He calls it “doing his homework.”
During a game, Dave listens to the broadcast on the radio, and adjusts his position in the cove according to his scattergram for whichever player is up to bat. He also uses a few visual indicators; fans up on the stadium mezzanine level, running toward the ball, for example. “Some people immediately look for the ball in the air,” Dave said. “If you wait until you see the ball, you’ve lost time.”
Dave also takes into account other factors. “I want a righty pitcher and a lefty hitter,” he said. “That’s the perfect combination. And then weather. The warmer the air, the farther the ball will go. If it’s 80 degrees, I will not miss a game. If it’s 55 and windy, it’s not a good situation.
"Most splash hits are hit between the fourth and sixth innings. The first time they face a pitcher they have a harder time, but the second time the batters have a higher chance of hitting it deep on them. If it gets too late in the game, it gets too cold for the balls to carry.”
In the middle of our conversation, I heard a man yell “Incoming!” What had been a seemingly laidback group of bobbing baseball lovers turned into a mad rush of splashing paddles. A fan on the sidewalk snagged the ball before it made it to the water. “Nice catch!” yelled Dave.
Dave may have seen the look of shock on my face. As he turned back to me, he said “We’re a bunch of 50 and 60-year-old baseball fans here, but we all end up acting 40 years younger. When we see a ball in the air, we want to get the ball so badly. We want that souvenir.”
When I asked him if it ever got too rough, Dave responded “Everybody goes all out. For the Bryce Harper, a guy jumped of a paddle board. We’ve had people jump off the sidewalk. I would do the same thing.”
In fact, every regular in McCovey Cove has had an injury or two. “A couple of us have had teeth knocked out,” Dave said. “Mine was a crown. I got knocked out when a guy pulled his paddle back. The guy who missed the Harper home run, he broke my rib one time. When you have guys coming in on kayaks, those paddles are kind of like jousting sticks.”
I left Dave to watch the game inside the park, but caught up with him afterward at a nearby bar. He was making his way to a table, but every few feet a fan would stop him. ‘Dave! McCovey Cove Dave! Can I get a picture?’
Dave happily complied, telling the fans he’d see them on Instagram. When I finally made my way through the crowd to his side, I asked him how he knew so many people. “I don’t know any of those people,” he responded. “They want to get photos with me.”
It’s this approachability that makes Dave the legend he is. As a friend of Dave’s joined us at a table, I asked “How did you meet Dave?” He responded, “He’s in a kayak on McCovey Cove. He’s pretty easy to find.”
Dave finds that Twitter and Instagram allow him to connect with his fans, often during the games. He takes his iPhone 6+ out on the kayak with him, safely stowed in an Otter Box during at-bats. “(Through social media) I broadcast from McCovey Cove,” he explained. “About half the time out there is dead time, so I listen, and then I tweet.”
As we discussed the World Series over drinks, Dave told me he thinks the Royals are the favored team. But he likes the Giants as underdogs.
“The best team doesn’t always win the World Series,” he said. “It’s the team that gets hot at the end. I wouldn’t want to bet against the Giants.”
Coming from a pretty successful numbers guy, that’s advice worth considering.
As we closed down the bar, I asked Dave how long he planned to do this. He’s caught his home run ball. He’s caught 24, in fact. When is it enough? “In 20 years, I’ll be doing this,” Dave quickly replied. “There won’t be any players or coaches on the current team that will still be there. I’ll be doing this as a 75-year-old. I have goals.”
“75??” I responded.
“Hey, I work out,” Dave said. “If you had me race Buster Posey around the bases, I could beat him.”
If you’ve met Dave, you know better than to bet against him.
Erin Faulk is a documentary filmmaker and writer based in the Los Angeles area, best known for a unique brand of storytelling on Twitter. Examples of her work have appeared on Slate, Gawker, Jezebel and other sites.