-- With contribution from the Bay City News
The San Francisco Giants will honor the victims of Saturday's fatal yacht crash, including Alexis Busch, Major League Baseball's first-ever "batgirl," prior to Monday night’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies, a team spokeswoman said.
Alexis Busch, of Larkspur, is one of four people who remain missing after the yacht they were traveling in crashed near the Farallon Islands shortly before 3 p.m. Saturday.
On "Saturday, a mayday call put the coast guard into action,” according to KTUV. Waves “hit the boat and caused it to capsize.”
The Giants will have a moment of silence prior to the singing of the National Anthem before tonight's 7:15 p.m. game in honor of the sailors, team spokeswoman Staci Slaughter said.
Busch was the first batgirl in MLB history, Slaughter said, was with the team from the 1999 season through 2002 -- meaning she suited up at both Candlestick Park and what was then Pacific Bell Park.
She later studied stage management for theater at San Francisco State University and in 2008-09 studied sports management at the University of San Francisco.
She founded Lady Baseball, an organization based out of Marin County looking to put women's baseball on the map, according to its website.
Busch is the daughter of former Giants executive vice president Corey Busch, team president and CEO Larry Baer said in a statement released Monday evening.
A true baseball fan, she was a passionate and dedicated member of our organization and she will be deeply missed by the Giants family," Baer said.
When Barry Bonds "hit his 500th career home run on April 17, 2001, the only person to greet him at home plate was a teenaged bat girl named Alexis Busch", says a a San Francisco Chronicle blog. "They shared a fist bump."
The Coast Guard called off the search for the four missing sailors on Sunday after a 30-hour search. Also on the yacht was Elmer Morrissey, of Ireland, who was a fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for nearly a year after moving to the United States from Ireland.
Morrissey was a postdoctoral research scientist in the Building Technologies Department, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory website.
