Many San Francisco Giants fans are relieved to have this dreadful season end. But for the small businesses around Oracle Park, the end of the season has brought sadness and major uncertainty, especially with the looming threat of an MLB lockout leading to lost games in 2027.

“Baseball is vital to our survival,” Momo’s owner Scott Morton told SFGATE by phone last week.  

Momo’s, an American grill, is one of the few businesses in SoMa that predate Oracle Park’s opening, as its 1998 debut came two years before the Giants moved downtown. Ever since then, Momo’s has been an iconic place to meet up before and after baseball games. (Unless Netflix buys out the whole place for opening night, like it did in March.)

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Morton worked at Momo’s for years, starting as a seasonal employee and working his way up the chain to become general manager in the mid-2010s. When the previous owners decided to sell, Morton and his wife, Caitlyn, bought it in 2019, and have kept things humming through the years. And just how important is Giants baseball to a place like Momo’s?

“Eighty percent of our annual revenue comes within the 81 home games that take place during a baseball season,” Morton said. “I can speak on behalf of Momo’s, baseball is our only lifeline for success, and I would probably venture to guess that many of our neighbors around there feel the same way.”

San Francisco Giants fans pack outdoors patio at MoMo’s, a sports bar and restaurant across the street from Oracle Park in San Francisco on Oct. 8, 2021, before Game 1 of the National League Division Series.

MoMo’s owner Scott Morton poses with his wife, Caitlyn, outside the sports bar and restaurant that sits across the street from Oracle Park in San Francisco, on Oct. 8, 2021.

While some of those neighbors around the ballpark have changed over the years, they all are still trying to capture that ballpark crowd — and either already were or have become Giants fans. In a two-block square — between 2nd and 4th streets and King and Howard streets — there are more than a dozen restaurants and bars that rely on games to keep their doors open, and the same is true for more food businesses along the Embarcadero, too.

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“That is our whole season,” Pat Belding, manager and part-owner of Frankie’s Java House, told SFGATE by phone last month. “I mean, our season goes around the baseball season. It’s not around the Warriors that are just a quarter mile away, or, you know, Fleet........

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