Giants hat leads to true love for 2 fans

Greg Tucker and Jenna Beck (she’d been too nervous to eat earlier in the day) share a quick bite of pizza that the groomsmen had ordered earlier before the wedding gets under way. Greg Tucker and Jenna Beck (she’d been too nervous to eat earlier in the day) share a quick bite of pizza that the groomsmen had ordered earlier before the wedding gets under way. Photo: Caitlin O'Reilly / Caitlin O'Reilly Photography Photo: Caitlin O'Reilly / Caitlin O'Reilly Photography Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Giants hat leads to true love for 2 fans 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

Few people would be crazy enough to wear a Giants cap every day for 1,500 days straight — especially if they lived in Los Angeles. But in 2012, Greg Tucker was doing just that. A native of Los Gatos, Greg, now 30, was living in L.A.’s trendy Silver Lake area. Ever since the Giants won the 2010 National League Championship, he had worn a Giants hat for part of every day; he’d vowed that if the team won that year’s World Series, he’d do so for the rest of his life.

But Greg’s best victory was that wearing that hat won him the heart of Jenna Beck.

Jenna, a native of Napa then living in L.A. for work, was having coffee with a friend and bemoaning the scarcity of nice men in Southern California when she spotted the iconic S.F. Giants cap. A baseball fan who missed her hometown as well as her team, she couldn’t help but comment, “I like your hat.”

Greg, who had Weezer playing loudly in his headphones, barely heard what she said, but he caught that it was about the Giants. “It was the one thing that would bring me out of my shyness,” he said.

The two quickly discovered they were both from the Bay Area, and the self-described “shy and antisocial” Greg asked if Jenna would attend a Giants game with him sometime. Before leaving the parking lot, he’d texted his number to her as confirmation of his intention.

Their first date the following weekend was not to a game — scheduling didn’t allow — but a lunch that led to dinner and, a few days later, a realization that each had met “the one.” Greg often wrote important details about games he’d attended on the inside brim of his hat, but just days later he wrote his first non-baseball fact there — Jenna’s name and the date they’d met.

Jenna said it was a first date like she had never had before. “Greg had a kind, sweet and gentle nature,” she said. “He was, and is, unlike anyone I had ever met.”

They talked every day from then on, and went to every Giants-Dodgers game, including one with a three-hour parking-lot jam. Their first road trip was to San Diego to see the Giants face the Padres.

“Even in terrible traffic, with Greg I was as happy as I’d ever been,” said Jenna, who now works as a senior designer for Bonjour Studio in Oakland. “I’d never been in love before.”

A year and a half later, the couple moved to Marin County. Greg, a software engineer, now works for Narrow Labs in San Francisco. In August 2013, driving to Napa to visit Jenna’s parents, Greg pulled over, and in the middle of a vineyard, at sunset and on one knee, he took off his hat and offered it to Jenna. On the inside brim was written his marriage proposal.

At their Nov. 8 wedding at Ramekins Culinary School & Inn in Sonoma, Greg wore Giants cuff links and his trademark Giants hat — but only for part of the day. Guests signed a hat rather than a guestbook, and Tony Bennett crooned “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” just like at a home game win.

“I won. I am the luckiest man in the world,” said Greg, who notes that the odds of meeting his perfect mate at a coffee shop were very, very slim. But then the Giants have sometimes been pretty good at beating the odds as well.

And, at this writing, Greg’s hat-wearing days were at 1,527 and counting.

Louise Rafkin is an East Bay freelance writer. E-mail: style@sfchronicle.com

AT A GLANCE

Venue Ramekins Culinary School & Inn

Catering Ramekins

Flowers Wine Country Flowers

Coordinator Ooh La La Weddings & Events

Cake Sweetie Pies

Wedding gown JCrew

Bridesmaids dresses JCrew

Groom’s suit Hugo Boss

Photography Caitlin O’Reilly Photography