It’s a mistake to let politics keep Aubrey Huff from San Francisco Giants reunion
Aubrey Huff lives in the paradise that is San Diego, which he refers to as “liberal hell.”
Huff was raised in Fort Worth and is one of the best athletes to ever come out of Brewer High School. He graduated in 1995 and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2015. His post-playing career has seen him become a version of Rush Limbaugh.
Huff’s 13-year career in the major leagues ended after the 2012 season, and since then he has become his own right-wing political talk show. Huff’s Twitter account essentially got him banned from celebrating an achievement that he had a major role in creating.
On Tuesday morning, the San Francisco Giants informed Huff that he is not invited to their 10-year anniversary celebration of their 2010 World Series championship team that defeated the Rangers in Arlington.
Huff is an unapologetic conservative, and it cost him.
You can disagree with Huff’s views on Trump and liberals, but you cannot deny him the right to express himself. This paradigm only works if we are all allowed to express ourselves, and while I don’t agree with everything Huff says, or how he says it, I fiercely believe in his right to speak his mind.
To my liberal friends, free speech does not come with an edit button.
If you are going to support former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s right to express himself, then Aubrey Huff must be allowed the same berth to make political statements. Both men’s words and actions can be taken as offensive, and both men discovered that their words and actions have consequences.
Learning the Giants rejected him
Huff was working out when he got the news that he would not be invited to the Giants party. Huff said Giants CEO Larry Baer called him to personally inform him on the decision.
“I asked him, ‘Is this because of my political leanings? He said, ‘That’s part of it,’” Huff said. “A lot of people in San Francisco hate Trump, and they can’t get behind a guy who supports him. Put two and two together, and yeah, that’s what did it. He didn’t give me a specific example of any one tweet, but I think Twitter got me banned.”
Baer told Huff that the decision made by the Giants’ board was unanimous.
This is not like a team forgetting to invite a player who was the 25th man on their roster. Huff was one of the main reasons the Giants won the World Series.
He hit 26 home runs and had 86 RBIs that season, and he finished seventh in the National League MVP voting.
Huff didn’t sound like he pleaded his case to Baer. But he did say: “You know me as a man. You know my sense of humor.”
Huff said Baer told him, “That’s what makes this so hard.”
Huff’s coming out party
When Huff was a player he didn’t share his views on much of anything other than baseball. In his mind, his role as a player was to perform, to be a good teammate, and citizen.
He is convinced that’s what fans want to see.
“I got paid a lot to put a lot on the field. That’s what I did. I didn’t talk about politics,” he said. “People who watch sports want to get away from politics. All of the LeBron James’ and all of these guys who are doing that, it’s ridiculous. Can’t we just watch the game and enjoy it?”
Huff said that after he retired from baseball in 2012 he went into a funk, which is not atypical for recently-retired athletes. The identity they built is gone, and they are often aimless.
“I buried myself. It was depression and anxiety,” he said. “I didn’t think I could be myself at all.”
Then Huff started to speak his mind. He worked on air as an analyst for the Pac 12 Network, and sports talk in the Bay Area.
He is fearless with big opinions, which in present-day radio and TV is a good way land a job.
Anyone who has spent some time with him knows he is a conservative, with a sense of humor. This is a guy who, during the Giants’ 2010 World Series run, made a “rally thong” quite popular in the Bay.
They also know what he says is divisive. Infuriating. And potentially offensive to ... pick your group.
In November, he tweeted a photo of a gun range with the line, “Getting my boys trained up on how to use a gun in the unlikely event” that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders defeats Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
Huff later explained the line was about teaching his kids how to shoot responsibly and that he was not threatening anyone.
Two months later, Huff tweeted about kidnapping women from Iran, so they could “fan us and feed us grapes, amongst other things.”
Huff later tweeted an explanation that it was not about forcing women into sex.
As a result of his online/on air persona the name “Aubrey Huff” stirs immediate reactions to people who have no interest in baseball. He has created a following of those who support him, and a legion of followers who would like to bean him in the face with a 198 m.p.h. fastball.
Look at his Twitter feed for five minutes and it’s easy to see why people hate him. In this day, to publicly express the type of sexist comments he writes, even if they are said in jest, is asking for scorn. He was asking to be uninvited to parties when an invite is earned.
I asked him if it was worth it.
“It’s absolutely worth it. A man has to have a fight. If you don’t, you’re dead,” he said. “When I started to say what was on my mind I realized I didn’t need any pills. We don’t need pills. I’m not trying to say anything to hurt people or be a [jerk]. If you believe in what you believe, don’t be afraid of it.
“Half of it is satire, and half of it is legit. I don’t want you to know what part is what. I started a podcast and I want it to be the same way as my Twitter; is he serious? If you know me as a man you’ll when I’m serious.”
Debating Donald Trump with Aubrey Huff
Much of what Huff says about politics is in support of our president, which the act alone will galvanize hate.
Among my many irritations with the president is his propensity to contradict himself, and the blanket support he receives despite saying, or doing, many of the things that drew the ire of the same cadre of people when it was a Democrat in office. That in order to support this president requires endorsement for every move he makes, and to defend everything he says.
“I don’t agree with everything he says. I don’t,” Huff said. “Sometimes it’s like a 3-year-old and I’m like, ‘Come on, clean that up.’ The reason I vote for any president is, can he make me money? With [Barack] Obama, it was up and down. With Trump it’s been unbelievable.
“He has an ego the size of Texas. Some of the most successful people I’ve ever been around have giant egos.”
This is Aubrey Huff. He’s not afraid of what he believes, and some of his tweets I not only don’t agree with, but find both stupid and offensive.
He’s not asking you to like him. He’s not asking that you agree with him.
“I gotta be honest,” he said, “I kinda like controversy and debate. I don’t know why that is. I don’t shy away from it.”
You may not like what he says, but you should like that he lives in a country where he is allowed to say it.
And any good liberal will tell you, if you endorse free speech that means you have to be OK with free speech, including from Aubrey Huff.
This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
