All-Star skills and endless energy made Hunter Pence a fan favorite when he played in San Francisco for eight seasons, and he gave the city some love in return by hosting a trash pick-up event last weekend.
The beloved former Giant on Sunday took to the streets of the city he still adores in the first ever "Pick Up with Pence" clean-up.
Pence teamed up with local organizations "Together SF" and "Refuse Refuse San Francisco" to host the event in the Chinatown and North Beach neighborhoods.
"We had 100 volunteers come and join us and went out and covered about 2.2 miles," Pence told KCBS Radio. "I think we had 300 bags of trash that we picked up."
Pence – who splits his time between San Francisco, Texas and Southern California since retiring in 2020 – doesn't play baseball in the City by the Bay anymore, but the former outfielder still feels connected to it.
"SF has done so much for me,” he said. "Being a part of this organization – it's just near and dear to me and my wife's heart, our family. We love it so much."
Pence said his goal is to host one or two trash pick-up events every year. He called the experience therapeutic and added that it was safe with everybody wearing masks.
"Now that I’m retired from playing I have a lot more time to do a lot of these things, especially in the offseason," he explained.
"Not only was it fun to be doing the pick-up but we were keeping track of the (San Francisco 49ers) score – they made it to the playoffs. And it was 'Klay Day,' Klay Thompson coming back - it was just such an electric vibe in the city and good times here," Pence added.
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