Not just lucky, Giants create good karma by design

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When it comes to team effort, luck, forgiveness, timing, family unity, ghosts from the past and intelligent design, the Giants are your one-stop shopping center.

Barry Bonds sought out Michael Morse on Thursday in the Giants’ clubhouse and told him to get his front foot down. Morse went to the cage and worked on it. Then he hit a fairly important home run, as in: Hello, World Series.

What was Bonds doing in the clubhouse? Well, the Giants welcomed him back to the fold last spring as a drop-in instructor. He earned cred with the players, enough so that when he dropped that tip on Morse on Thursday, Morse listened.

Who invited Bonds back last spring, setting the stage for Barry to be around to throw out the first ball Wednesday, and to drop the nugget o’ wisdom on Morse? I’m not sure, but the Bonds homecoming, potentially touchy and controversial, had to have had the blessing of team president Larry Baer and skipper Bruce Bochy.

Luck? Marco Scutaro, his season wrecked with a bad back, gets an accidental assist for the Giants being in the Series. His back woes led to the arrival of Joe Panik. And Scutaro’s accidental skulling of Brandon Belt with a throw in batting practice July 21 put Belt out of action and created a need for another lefty first baseman. Enter the long-lost Travis Ishikawa, called up from Fresno eight days later.

Intelligent design? Third-base coach Tim Flannery is a smart baseball guy. But when he began coaching under Bochy with the Padres, Flannery had a habit: With runners on first and third and less than two outs, he would instruct the runner on third to retreat to the bag on a groundball to first base.

Flannery did that one game, and when he returned to the dugout, Bochy said, “You know, there’s another way to do that.”

Fast forward to Wednesday, Brandon Crawford on third. Flannery tells him on a groundball to first base to edge down the line. Be ready to get back, but if the first baseman throws to second, break for home. And thus did it come to pass.

Former Giants player Barry Bonds throws the ceremonial first pitch during Game 4 of the NLCS at AT&T Park on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014 in San Francisco, Calif. Former Giants player Barry Bonds throws the ceremonial first pitch during Game 4 of the NLCS at AT&T Park on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014 in San Francisco, Calif. Photo: Beck Diefenbach / Special To The Chronicle Photo: Beck Diefenbach / Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close Not just lucky, Giants create good karma by design 1 / 19 Back to Gallery

Deep thoughts, cheap shots & bon mots ...

•Bruce Bochy arrived early for an off-day news conference in St. Louis. Still on the podium was Jake Peavy, who pitched for Bochy in San Diego from ’02 to ’08. “Hey, Boch,” Peavy said, “these guys asked me how you’re different than you were back in San Diego.” Drawled Bochy, “Better lookin’.”

•The Giants’ run to the Series has vindicated Billy Beane. The A’s GM traded away Yoenis Céspedes and hot prospect Addison Russell for pitching. Can’t have too much excellent pitching was Beane’s reasoning. Proof: Giants.

•If you want to see a home-run hitter having more fun circling the bases than Michael Morse had Thursday, you’ll have to start watching little kids play ball.

•Still out there somewhere, presumably ready to pitch: Tim Lincecum.

•Madison Bumgarner was born in 1989, 14 years after the Marshall Tucker Band had a hit with “Fire on the Mountain,” Bumgarner’s walk-on song. Possible connection: Bum was born in Hickory, N.C., about 75 miles from Spartanburg, S.C., where the band was formed. Bumgarner speaks with a Marshall Tucker twang.

•True fact: There was nobody named Marshall Tucker in the Marshall Tucker Band.

•Travis Ishikawa’s home run was caught, then bobbled, then caught by Frank Burke of Oakdale (Stanislaus County). Burke gave Ishikawa the ball after the game, and Ishikawa gave Burke an autographed bat.

•The Giants say all the talk about how lucky they’ve been helped motivate them. So give an assist to Chronicle ace Ann Killion, who courageously broached the subject with Bochy and other Giants before NLCS Game 2 in St. Louis.

•The Dodgers will outspend the Giants next season, but they can’t buy Giants’-style clubhouse harmony. Dodgers insiders say that clubhouse is a squabbling, leader-free mess. You could say Don Mattingly has lost the clubhouse, but Gandhi couldn’t unite that group.

•Proof that it takes more than muscle to play big-league baseball: Matt Duffy. Mix in a steak, son.

•Quietly playing third base like a rock star and getting on base everysingle game, 23 playoff games in a row: Pablo Sandoval.

•Huge benefit to the Giants of avoiding Games 6 and 7 of the NLCS: The bullpen comes in fresh as an Irish spring.

•On Ishikawa’s home-run trot, as he’s rounding third, Tim Flannery is holding up both arms. Touchdown? Stop sign?

•Eventually Buster Posey will make a permanent move out from behind the plate. But for now, Buster Backstop seems to be the right man in the right spot.

•The album that featured “Fire on the Mountain”: “Searchin’ for a Rainbow.” Just like the Giants.

Knucklehead of the Week: Nobody

This is no time to go negative, so we’ll give any and all knuckleheads the week off.

Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter @scottostler