ShareThisSAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco Giants fans are the party guests who refused to leave. After the parade and rally at the Civic Center, which together lasted nearly four hours, hundreds of the faithful surrounded the players' entrance at AT&T Park on Wednesday afternoon to get one more glimpse.
The party will have to continue without the honored guests. Most players hurriedly scattered to their winter homes for a little rest before they start their offseason work. Remember, their break was shortened by a month.
Pitcher Barry Zito, chastened by his exclusion from the postseason rosters, said he plans to start his regimen within 10 days.
"It's hard for me to take time off," Zito said. "I've got some things I didn't accomplish. To sit back and bask in this is something I can't do."
Zito was a picture of joy after the Giants won the championship in Texas on Monday night. However, he candidly admitted it was hard for him to bask in the other clinchings because he did not participate.
"It was a tough situation," he said. "It was a test of your wits. When we celebrated the first three bottles of Champagne, I felt I wasn't on the field with these guys. I was not on the front line. It was hard to have a happy heart.
"Once the World Series came, it was so much easier for me to be happy. Your personal situation aside, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. For me to look back and say I'm not enjoying it because I'm seeing through foggy eyes, that's something I couldn't swallow."
Zito also laughed off the notion that the team might have "lost" him by taking the ball away during the playoffs.
"I don't see that at all," he said. "I've never been a candy-ass. I consider myself blue collar, not white collar. It's not what's owed to me. This game gives you what you put into it. I'll start over looking for better things."
Aubrey Huff left San Francisco as a free agent whose future as a Giant is not guaranteed. He and the team want to make it work, but Huff said he would not re-sign within the current five-day window after the World Series in which only the Giants can sign him.
"I'm just enjoying this time now," Huff said. "I'm not worried about it. It's going to be there when it's there. I'm soaking this day in. I don't want to get into (contracts) yet."
But Huff's intentions of returning to the Giants are clear.
"Sure, there's a pretty good chance," he said. "You want to defend your title. You want to bring everybody back."
Tim Lincecum, whose issues with conditioning seem so distant now, said he plans to start work in Seattle in three weeks after he buys a house. He has a couple of finalists picked out.
Even the parade and rally have not helped Lincecum comprehend the enormous achievement of winning a World Series.
"I'm still waiting for those tears," Lincecum said. "We'll see when it happens. I'm still waiting for it to hit me."
Here is something else for Lincecum to digest. With 16 regular-season wins and four in the postseason, he won 20 games.
"I had 40 chances at it," he said with a smile. Lincecum actually pitched 39 times, once in relief in the National League Championship Series, but who's counting?
Lincecum had a good day. He made a conscious effort not to cuss when he was interviewed live along the parade route, and he succeeded.
He will have a better day in April when the Giants are handed their World Series championship rings.
After winning his second Cy Young Award, Lincecum matter-of-factly said he had the trophies in his car.
Asked if he planned to store his ring in his wheels, Lincecum laughed and said, "No, I might lose the ring if I put it in my back seat."
(E-mail Henry Schulman at hschulman(at)sfchronicle.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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