Giants Cove Named After McCovey; Owned By Dave Edlund
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) – During a recent homestand at Oracle Park, two home run balls were launched into McCovey Cove. One sank to the bottom, the other was recovered by a kayaker not named Dave Edlund.
Edlund was on vacation watching the water shots on his laptop. It was unfortunate timing for a guy who spends roughly half of the Giants home games sitting in his kayak waiting to scoop balls out of the drink.
He's the official creature of the Cove having spent over 500 games beyond the left field fence dressed in orange. He's not shy about his identity either – his moniker "McCovey Cove Dave" is printed on his T-shirts and painted on his car doors.
Officially there have been 131 combined (including visitors) splash home runs since Oracle Park opened in 2000. All 131 blasts have gone in on the fly, but Edlund puts the bounce-ins on equal footing.
Edlund owns roughly thirty percent of those balls.
"Barry Bonds played 495 games for the Giants and he got 38 home runs," Edlund said. "I actually have one more home run than Barry Bonds."
Bonds had his number retired last year, and it wouldn't be a shock if Edlund gets some sort of recognition from the Giants for his years of commitment in the frigid, sometimes lonely water.
For a night game, he leaves his peninsula home around 3:30pm and loads up his kayak at the Pier 52 boat launch with all the essentials: net, radio, phone, lunch and wet suit. And he's well prepared for marathon games: "I never leave early," he boasted.
After the boat hits the water, Edlund paddles about 20 minutes around the pier, through San Francisco Bay and into the mouth of McCovey Cove. He enjoys the solitude of the trip and makes sure to keep quiet when he cruises by napping sea lions.
"My dad always believed the times that you're having fun in life, those are bonus days… they're extra. I'm trying to get as many extra days as I can," he said.
Edlund has turned his love of the water and the Giants into a full-blown summer job. His life is much different than the one he had two decades ago when he decided to take a sabbatical from his career at Hewlett Packard.
"I left after 20 years in high tech," he said. "Originally it was supposed to be a one-year-chase-all-your-dreams thing."
He read off a list of ten things he wanted to accomplish during his time away – one of them was to catch a home run in McCovey Cove.
One year ended up becoming 15 years. Edlund officially retired from the workforce at the age of 45, but continues to play the investment game when he's not chasing floating baseballs.
"I feel like me and other kayakers are part of the game," he said. "Maybe we're just retrievers, but we feel like we have a real special souvenir…we become little kids."
Edlund's first home run snag came back in 2005 when Randy Winn parked one into the Cove off San Diego Padres pitcher Woody Williams. Every ball he's caught since the Winn big fly is meticulously logged on a spread sheet.
Of his 39, none were swatted by Barry Bonds who only hit four in the drink when Edlund became a regular in the cove. There was also more competition when Bonds home run balls were increasing in value.
And if you his success is all luck, think again. Edlund studies charts that show home run concentration patterns for every player. He aligns his kayak in the Cove like a player shifts around a diamond, and it pays off.
The guy has literally thought of everything to help maximum his ball catching odds and TV broadcast exposure. He has a pile of laminated camera-friendly signs that display messages. For example, should a right hander hit the first ever splash hit, Edlund has premade sign that says he caught it.
His perpetration is second-to-none, but four-plus hours on the water can lead to the occasional mishap. He once was snapping a picture with his iPhone when the wind blew his paddle and knocked the smartphone to a watery grave.
"I had a $99 insurance policy, but you have to return the phone," he said. "The next day I came back and I found it and got a brand new iPhone."
Edlund dove to get the phone like he plans to dive and get Steven Vogt's home run that sank to the bottom last week. They have equal value in his eyes.
At this point, McCovey Cove Dave is a ballpark fixture like the Willie Mays statue and the garlic fries. He's in his mid-60s and has no plans to quit. The rush of netting a baseball keeps him afloat.
"It's like a fountain of youth for us old guys," he said.
