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San Francisco Giants
Franchise historyThe New York years (1883-1957)One of the most storied clubs in American professional sports, the Giants began life as a second baseball club founded by John B. Day and Jim Mutrie . The Gothams (as the Giants were originally known) were their entry to the National League, while their other club, the Metropolitans (the original Mets) played in the American Association. While the Metropolitans were initially the more successful club, Day and Mutrie began moving star players to the Gothams and the team won its first National League pennant in 1888. It is said that after one particularly satisfying victory, Mutrie (who was also the team's manager) stormed into the dressing room and exclaimed, "My big fellows! My giants!" From then on, the club was known as the Giants. The Giants' home stadium, the Polo Grounds, also dates from this early era. Originally located on the corner of 110th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, the Polo Grounds moved uptown, to 155th Street and 8th Avenue. There the Giants would make their home in New York City. Though considered "the worst owner in the world" during his time, Andrew Freeman changed the Giants' fortunes. In 1902, after a series of disastrous moves that left the Giants 53 1/2 games behind, Freedman signed John McGraw as a player-manager. McGraw would go on and manage the Giants for three decades, one of the longest tenures in professional sports. Under McGraw, the Giants would win ten National League pennants and three World Series championships. The Giants under McGraw famously snubbed their first ever World Series in 1904--an encounter with the Boston Red Sox--because McGraw considered the new American League as little more than a minor league. The Giants already had its share of stars during its brief history at this point, such as Smiling Mickey Welch, Roger Connor, Tim Keefe, Jim O'Rourke and Monte Ward, the player-lawyer who formed the renegade Players League in 1890 to protest unfair player contracts. McGraw would also cultivate his own crop of baseball heroes during his time with the Giants. Names such as Christy Mathewson, Iron Man Joe McGinnity, Bill Terry, Jim Thorpe, Mel Ott and Casey Stengel are just a sample of the many players who honed their skills under McGraw. McGraw handed over the team to Bill Terry in 1932, and Terry played for and managed the Giants for ten years, winning four pennants and one World Series. Aside from Terry himself, the other stars of the era were Ott and Carl Hubbell, one of three pitchers in baseball history to master the screwball (along with Mathewson and Fernando Valenzuela). Known as "King Carl" and "The Meal Ticket", Hubbell gained fame during the 1934 All-Star Game, when he struck out--all in a row--Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin. Mel Ott succeeded Terry as manager in 1942, but the war years proved to be difficult for the Giants. In 1948, Leo Durocher became manager of the Giants, with some controversy--Durocher had been manager of the Giants' rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, but he had been accused of gambling in 1947 and had been suspended and the Dodgers let him go the following year. Durocher remained at the helm until 1955, and those eight years proved to be some of the most memorable for Giants fans, particularly because of the arrival of Willie Mays and two famous games. The Shot Heard 'Round The World (1951)One of the more famous episodes in major league baseball history, "The Shot Heard 'Round The World" is the name given to Bobby Thomson's walk-off home run that clinched the National League pennant for the Giants over their rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. This game was the third of a three-game playoff series that was called after one of baseball's more memorable pennant races. The Giants had been thirteen and a half games behind the league-leading Dodgers, but under Durocher's guidance the Giants caught up to tie the Dodgers for the lead on the last day of the season. The game is also remembered for Russ Hodges' commentary for WMCA Radio:
The Catch (1954)In game one of the 1954 World Series, Willie Mays makes "The Catch" -- a dramatic over-the-shoulder catch of a line drive by Vic Wertz to deep center field which would otherwise have given the [[Cleveland Ind The Move Westward (1957)The Giants' three final years in New York City were unmemorable. The Giants stumbled to third place the year after their World Series win and attendance plunged. Horace Stoneham , the Giants' owner, enter into negotiations with San Francisco mayor George Christopher around the same time that Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley was courting the city of Los Angeles. In the summer of 1957, both teams announced their move West, and the golden era of baseball in New York City ended. New York would remain a one-team town until 1962, when the Mets brought back National League baseball to the city. The "NY" script on the Giants' caps, along with the Dodgers' blue background, would be adopted by the Mets. The San Francisco years (1958–)In sharp contrast to the New York years, the Giants' fortunes in San Francisco have been mixed. Though recently the club has enjoyed sustained success, there were also prolonged stretches of mediocrity, along with two instances when the club's ownership threated to move it out of San Francisco. After a brief sojourn in Seals Stadium, the Giants moved to Candlestick Park a stadium built on a point in San Francisco's southeast corner overlooking San Francisco Bay. The new stadium quickly gained a reputation for being one of the most inhospitable in baseball, with swirling winds and cold temperatures making for a torturous experience; the radiant heating system installed never worked. Candlestick Park's reputation was sealed during the 1961 All-Star Game, when gusts of wind blew pitcher Stu Miller off the mound. The Giants have played in three World Series since moving to San Francisco, but have yet to win one. In 1962, they lost 4 games to 3 to the New York Yankees, losing in the bottom of the ninth 1-0 in a pitchers' duel when Willie McCovey's line drive, needing to be just a single, was caught by Bobby Richardson with the tying run on third (Matty Alou bunt single) and the winning run on second (Willie Mays double). A failed bunt by Felipe Alou resulted in Matty not scoring on Mays' double and started a lifelong dedication to fundamentals. In addition, to rub salt in the wound, Richardson was not originally positioned to catch the drive, he only moved there (three steps to the left) in reaction to a foul smash by McCovey on the pitch before. In 1989, they faced the Oakland Athletics in the "Bay Bridge Series." The series is perhaps best remembered for when the ground shook on October 17, 1989 before game 3 at Candlestick Park. The 7.1-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake caused a ten-day delay in the series that Oakland led 2-0 at the time. Oakland went on to sweep San Francisco 4 games to none, as the Giants did not have the starting pitching to match up with Oakland. Following the World Series defeat, a local ballot initiative to fund a new stadium in San Francisco failed, threatening the franchise's future in San Francisco. After the 1992 season, owner Bob Lurie, who had previously saved the franchise from moving to Toronto in 1976, put the team up for sale. A group of investors from Saint Petersburg reached an agreement to purchase the team and move them across the country. However, Major League Baseball blocked the move, paving the way for the team to stay in San Francisco with an ownership group lead by Peter Magowan , the former CEO of Safeway. Before even hiring a new General Manager or officially being approved as the new owners, Magowan signed superstar free agent Barry Bonds (which the MLB blocked until some terms were negotiated to protect Lurie and Bonds in case the sale failed), a move that shaped the franchise's fortunes for more than a decade. The Barry Bonds era started with a bang as Barry put up the numbers for the third MVP of his career: 46 homers, 129 runs, 123 RBI, .336/.458/.677/1.135, all career highs. This led the Giants to a great 103-59 record in Dusty Baker's first year as manager, which earned Dusty the Manager of the Year award. Unfortunately, the Atlanta Braves won the NL West by one game as the Giants, in first place much of the year, were just not as hot as the Braves after they picked up Fred McGriff in a mid-season trade. A late-season win streak did put the Giants in position to determine their fate, but destiny spat in their face again as Salomon Torres , their just called-up ace pitching prospect, was put in the impossible position of needing a win against their hated rivals the Dodgers, and was battered. The period of 1994 to 1996 were not good years for the Giants, punctuated by the Strike that Cancelled the World Series in 1994. The strike cost Matt Williams a chance to beat Roger Maris' single season home run record - he was on pace for over 60 homers when the strike hit with 47 games to play. The Giants then came in last place in both 1995 and 1996, as key injuries and slumps hurt them. The only bright spot was Barry Bonds, highlighted by his joining the 40-40 club with 42 homers and 40 stolen bases in the 1996 season. These bad times led the Giants to name Brian Sabean as their new general manager, replacing Bob Quinn. Prior to being named GM, he was already rumored to have engineered the deal to get Kirk Rueter from the Expos. In his first trade as GM, he shocked Giants fans across the world by trading Matt Williams for seemingly a bunch of spare parts, and the reaction was great enough for him to have to publicly explain: "I didn't get to this point by being an idiot... I'm sitting here telling you there is a plan." It turns out he was indeed not an idiot, as the players he acquired in the Williams trade - Jeff Kent, Jose Vizcaino, Julian Tavarez, and Joe Roa (plus the $1 million in cash that enabled them to sign Darryl Hamilton) - plus the trade for J.T. Snow enabled the Giants to win their first NL West division title of the 1990s in 1997. Unfortunately, the Florida Marlins ended the Giants' season with a 3-0 sweep in the first round of playoffs, as the Marlins marched their way to their first World Series championship. 2000 was the Giants' inaugural season in Pacific Bell Park, and after a horrendous and inauspicious 0-6 start at their new home, they roared off to win their second NL West title under Sabean and Baker, finishing with the best record in the NL. They actually ended up with a great home record of 55-26, despite the fact that lefties not named Barry Bonds had their power cancelled by Pac Bell Park's configuration. Pac Bell Park played like parks from olden times, boosting up doubles and especially triples, but dampening home run power. The Giants were booted out in the first round of playoffs by the New York Mets, however, 3 games to 1, highlighted by Edgardo Alfonzo's clutch hitting, JT Snow's leaning 3-run homer off Armando Benitez to push game 2 into extra innings, and Bobby Jones pitching the game of his life in game 4 to clinch the series. Following division championships in 1997 and 2000, the Giants reached the World Series again in 2002 as the wild card team. As underdogs in 2002, they beat two teams who had been thorns in the San Franciso Giants' side for much of the life of the franchise: the Braves and the Cardinals. They first defeated the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS 3 games to 2, and then the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS 4 games to 1, to stake claim to their first NL pennant since 1989. The Giants faced their wild card counterparts from the American League, the Anaheim Angels, in the 2002 World Series. The games seesawed from well pitched games to wild affairs during the series. The Giants evenutally took a 3-2 lead in the series and were up 5-0 in the seventh inning of Game 6, just eight outs away from their first championship since moving to San Francisco, when Dusty flipped the ball to Russ Ortiz as a souvenir, angering the Angels' players. The Angels then staged a historic rally to win the game as the bullpen collectively fell apart (with fans not realizing that this was Robb Nen's last appearance as a major leaguer), and then defeated Liván Hernández in game seven to win their first World Series in franchise history. In 2003, the Giants recorded 100 victories for the seventh time in franchise history and the third time in San Francisco. With their 100-61 record, the Giants spent the entire season in first place in the NL West. They became just the ninth wire-to-wire winner of a division or pennant in baseball history. The previous three were Baltimore in 1997, Cleveland in 1998, and Seattle in 2001. They lost to the wild card Florida Marlins 3 games to 1 in the 2003 National League Division Series as Ivan Rodriguez, offensively and defensively, led the way for the Marlins to their second World Series championship in seven seasons. In 2004, the Giants ended the season one game behind the Houston Astros for the wild card race, and two games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the divison race. It was only the second time this decade in which the Giants failed to make the postseason, 2001 being the other one. Once again, their hated rivals the Dodgers prevented them from winning the division, with a stunning come-from-behind victory on a Steve Finley grand slam. Barry Bonds received his fourth consecutive MVP award, marking the fifth consecutive year a Giant has received the award—Jeff Kent received it in 2000—a feat no other team has accomplished. It was also the first time the Giants had been first or second for eight consecutive seasons since they were first or second from 1917-1925. What has not changed is the Giants' share of stars gracing the field. Willie Mays, one of the last holdovers of the New York years, thrived in San Francisco, as did Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Felipe Alou, Gaylord Perry, Bobby Bonds, Jack Clark , and Juan Marichal. Recent stars include Will Clark, Matt Williams, Barry Bonds, and Jason Schmidt. Players of noteBaseball Hall of Famers
Current roster (updated on April 19, 2005)
Not to be forgotten
Retired numbers
References
External link
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