Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt is proving again he is the moral compass of the team.
Evidence of that has been seen since the devoted Christian joined the orange and black.
For example, the players asked Affeldt to speak the night the Dodgers played the Giants following the brutal beating of Bryan Stow in 2011.
He has visited Stow in the hospital and been a support to his family over the past two years.
When Stow was not able to throw out the first pitch on Opening Day 2012, the family asked Affeldt to stand in for him and help Stow's son throw it.
We are also learning that the man puts his money where his mouth is.
In his new book "To Stir a Movement" he tells the story of the time he returned $500,000 to the Giants after he was overpaid thanks to a clerical error. '
Hank Shulman explained the story in Wednesday's Chronicle:
"Affeldt was set to earn $4 million in 2010 under an existing contract with the Giants when they negotiated a two-year, $10 million extension. When the 2010 amount was rewritten into the new contract, someone made a clerical error and typed $4.5 million instead. The Giants and Affeldt signed it without recognizing the mistake."
Affeldt had the legal right to keep the money, but decided to give it back to the team by redoing the contract with the correct amount.
Affeldt said he told his agent he couldn't take the money. "I won't sleep well at night knowing I took that money because every time I open my paycheck I'll know it's not right," he wrote.
This happened in 2010.
He writes in the book that he thinks he benefited from the decision because when he signed his next three-year $18 million contract this past off-season he credits the smooth negotiation to good feelings from the Giants.
