The San Francisco Giants are one of the major and most popular baseball teams in the league based in San Francisco, California. The Giants play in the Western Division of the National League. In the early days, the Giants were originally known as the Gothams, started as a second baseball club by John B. Day and Jim Mutrie. The Giants were Day and Mutrie’s actual entry into the National League, although their other clubs, the Metropolitans (known as the original Mets) played in the American Association. Initially, the Metropolitans were a more successful club, but then Day and Mutrie moved the best players to the Gothams, leading the team to win its first National League pennant in 1888. After this splendid and satisfying victory, Mutrie (who was also the team’s coach) came to the locker room and, in his delight and excitement, yelled, “My great teammates! My giants!” And from then on, the club was called the Giants. At the beginning they saw a good moment as a team and they also brought out some notable first-class players, but in general they did not come out with great success, they fought a lot, but they could not give their best.
History of the San Francisco Giants.
Contrary to the times in New York, the San Francisco Giants have several fortunes. However, as the Giants have enjoyed comparatively persistent triumph of late, there have been prolonged times of inequality, especially when they came under threat when club ownership was at risk of moving the club out of San Francisco. The most unfortunate part of the story is that the Giants managed to build a huge fan base since they came to town, but the Giants couldn’t prosper until now for a World Series title for San Francisco.
When there was a break at Seals Stadium, the Giants moved to Candlestick Park, also known as “The Stick”, but unfortunately that same stadium turned out to be one of the most hostile stadiums in the history of the sport. It was sealed in 1961. The Giants stopped playing in that stadium which was later called 3Com Park and then Monster Park. The Giants never won a World Series after moving to San Francisco, but they always came close, playing in three of them.
The Giants didn’t make it to another World Series until 1989, but the 1960s Giants still remained pennant contenders, and gratitude goes to several future Hall of Famers such as Gaylord Perry, who pitched in 1968 a no-hitter for the Giants; Juan Marichal, another pitcher with an unforgettable delivery of high kicks; McCovey, winner of the NL MVP award in 1969, and Mays, who holds the all-time franchise record for most home runs, also hit his 600th career home run in 1969.
The Giants’ postseason appearance was in 1971. The Giants were handily beaten in the League Championship Series by the Pittsburgh Pirates and Roberto Clemente after winning their division. The 1970s also proved to be a decade of desperation for the Giants. Bob Lurie bought the team to prevent it from moving to Toronto in 1976.
The 1980s also failed to bring any success for the giants. The Giants hired a black manager, Frank Robinson, in 1981, although Robinson’s tenure only lasted 4 years. 1985 was the worst year in the history of the San Francisco Giants. They lost 100 games (the most misses since moving to San Francisco). The owner then hired Al Rosen as general manager. In managing him, the Giants gifted rookies like Will Clark, Robby Thompson and gained players like Kevin Mitchell, Dave Dravecky, Candy Maldonado and Rick Reuschel.
Roger Craig remained the Giants’ new manager from 1985 to 1992. The Giants never faced a losing record in Craig’s first five full seasons. That was a splendid change for the future of the team. With an outstanding motto, “Humm Baby” under Roger Craig’s leadership, the Giants were victorious in 83 games in 1986 and also won the NL West title in 1987. The Giants also won the National League pennant. National League in 1989. 1989 turned out to be an even better year for the Giants. After a long-awaited period of 27 years, the San Francisco Giants were finally the National League champions. After defeating the Cubs, they faced the Oakland Athletics in the “Bay Bridge Series”. That series was perhaps most appreciated due to the Loma Prieta earthquake on October 17, 1989 which interrupted the series’ scheduled Game 3 at Candlestick Park. Oakland completed its sweep of San Francisco, following a ten-day delay in the series.
Later, Barry Bonds started a new dawn with a bang. Bonds created numbers for his third career MVP: 46 home runs, 129 runs scored, 123 RBI, .336/. 458/. 677/1135. The Giants post a crushing 103-59 record in Dusty Baker’s first year as manager. Which also benefited Baker, since he won the “Manager of the Year” award. Once again, the period from 1994 to 1996 was not a rewarding time.
Due to these dire times, the Giants were forced to name Brian Sabean as the new general manager, replacing Bob Quinn. Before he was named general manager, it was already whispered to him that Brian Sabean had planned the deal to unearth Kirk Rueter from the Montreal Expos. His first trade as general manager shocked Giants fans around the world when he traded Matt Williams for apparently a handful of spare parts, and the criticism was great enough that he had to openly explain: “I didn’t get there.” At this point being an idiot… I’m sitting here telling you there’s a plan.”
And Sabean’s plan sure worked, because the players he got in the Williams trade — Jeff Kent, José Vizcaino, Julián Tavarez and Joe Roa (also the $1 million in cash allowed them to sign Darryl Hamilton) — plus their The JT Snow trade saw the Giants win their first NL West title of the 1990s in 1997. Unfortunately, the Florida Marlins ended the Giants’ season by defeating them 3-0. And the Marlins advanced on their way to their first World Series championship.
40 years later, in 2000, in Candlestick, the Giants opened their own privately funded ballpark and named it Pacific Bell Park. The team surprised everyone by having the best record in the National League. It was actually 2002 when the Giants came back into the spotlight. The Giants defeated the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS three games to two and then defeated the St. Louis Cardinals four games to one. Giant’s performance was out of class in the World Series and they were on the verge of winning when Los Angeles came back and won the championship, which really put Giant fans off. After this agonizing failure, they once again posted 100 wins for the seventh time in franchise history and for the third time in San Francisco. The year 2004 also drastically changed the whole scene, when the Dodgers beat the Giants in a late-season game, beating Steve Finley. The next year, 2005 was the most dismal season of the 2000s for the Giants.
The Giants celebrated in honor of Baseball Hall of Famer Juan Marichal on May 25, 2005. On July 14, 2005, the Giants won their 10,000th contest by beating their competitors, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-3 , becoming the first professional sports franchise to have five digits in its winning total. Unfortunately, the Giants were formally eliminated from the NL West race when they lost to the 2005 champion San Diego Padres. The San Francisco Giants finished the season in third place, with a 75-87 record, which was their worst season, and first losing record, since 1996.
In 2006, the return of slugger Barry Bonds should mean a better offense. Fans anticipate the Giants to do better than their 75-87 records in 2005. Finley is an attractive surprise. Finley hit 36 home runs, which was a career high in 2004. The Giants have high hopes for Finley, hoping he can have a recovery year and possibly hit 30 or more home runs alongside Bonds and Alou. . Sweeney is regularly allowed to bat to wow the fans. Niekro should also flourish with better hitters around him. There’s a very polished lineup with a vigorous Bonds coming back.
If Schmidt and Matt Morris could also put up a similar performance to last year (14 wins), then the starting rotation would be solid as well. Lowry and Hennessey also have to prepare for 2006 with more innings under their belt. The Giants also expect a full season from closer Armando Benitez, who should also help out the bullpen. The Giants should do much better in 2006 and will chase the Padres for the NL West title. Giants always have their unique style of having a big comeback. And his fans expect nothing less than this from their favorite Giants of all time.
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