San Francisco Giants
2012 San Francisco Giants season
Established	1883
Based in San Francisco since 1958
100px Team logo Cap insignia
Major league affiliations
National League (1883–present) West Division (1969–present)
Current uniform
275px
Retired numbers	NY, NY, 3, 4, 11, 20, 24, 27, 30, 36, 42, 44
Colors
Black, Orange, White
Name
San Francisco Giants (1958–present)
New York Giants (1885–1957) New York Gothams (1883–85)
Other nicknames
The Orange and Black, Los Gigantes, The G-Men, The Jints, The Gyros, Boys from the Bay
Ballpark
AT&T Park (2000–present) a.k.a. SBC Park (2004–05) a.k.a. Pacific Bell Park (2000–03) Candlestick Park (1960–99) a.k.a. 3Com Park at Candlestick Point (1997–99) Seals Stadium (1958–59) Polo Grounds IV (New York) (1911–57) a.k.a. Brush Stadium (1911–19) Hilltop Park (New York) (1911) Polo Grounds III (New York) (1891–1911) Polo Grounds II (New York) (1889–90) St. George Grounds (New York) (1889) Oakland Park (New Jersey) (1889) Polo Grounds I (New York) (1883–88)
Major league titles
World Series titles (6)	2010 • 1954 • 1933 • 1922 • 1921• 1905
NL Pennants (21)	2010 • 2002 • 1989 • 1962 • 1954 1951 • 1937 • 1936 • 1933 1924 • 1923 • 1922 • 1921 1917 • 1913 • 1912 • 1911 1905 • 1904 • 1889 • 1888
West Division titles (7)	2010 • 2003 • 2000 • 1997 • 1989 1987 • 1971
Wild card berths (1)	2002
Front office
Owner(s)	Ownership group led by Larry Baer, Chief Executive Officer Sue Burns, died July 2009.[1] Former Senior General Partner (largest shareholder, estimated 35–40% share)
Manager	Bruce Bochy
General Manager	Brian Sabean

The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division.

As one of the oldest baseball teams, they have won the most games of any team in the history of American baseball, and any North American professional sports team.^[2] They have won 21 National League pennants and appeared in 18 World Series competitions – both records in the National League (tied for NL pennants with the Los Angeles Dodgers and for World Series appearances with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals). The Giants 6 World Series Championships are also tied for second in the National League with the Dodgers (the St. Louis Cardinals have won 11). The Giants have played in the World Series an NL record 18 times, but boycotted the event in 1904. With their history, the Giants have the most Hall of Fame players in all of professional baseball.^[3] The Giants rivalry with the Dodgers is one of the greatest longest-standing rivalries and is regarded the biggest in American baseball.^[4][5]

The Giants played at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, New York, until the close of the 1957 season, after which they moved west to California to become the San Francisco Giants. As the New York Giants, they won 14 pennants and 5 World Championships, from the era of John McGraw and Christy Mathewson to that of Bobby Thomson and Willie Mays. The Giants have won four pennants and the 2010 World Series since arriving in San Francisco.

Early days and the John McGraw era[link]

The Giants began as the second baseball club founded by millionaire tobacconist John B. Day and veteran amateur baseball player Jim Mutrie. The Gothams, as the Giants were originally known, entered the National League in 1883, while their other club, the Metropolitans (the original Mets) played in the American Association. Nearly half of the original Gotham players were members of the disbanded Troy Trojans, whose place in the National League the Gothams inherited. 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, as well as a victory over the St. Louis Browns in an early incarnation of the World Series. They repeated as champions the next year with a pennant and World Series victory over the Brooklyn Bridegrooms.

It is said that after one particularly satisfying victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, 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' original home stadium, the Polo Grounds, also dates from this early era. The first of the Polo Grounds was located north of Central Park adjacent to Fifth and Sixth Avenues and 110th and 112th Streets in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. Upon eviction from the Polo Grounds after the 1888 season, the Giants moved uptown and renamed various fields the Polo Grounds which were located between 155th and 159th Streets in the New York City neighborhoods of Harlem and Washington Heights. The Giants played at the Polo Grounds until the end of the 1957 season, when they moved to San Francisco.

The Giants remained a powerhouse during the last half of the 1880s, culminating in their first league pennant in 1888 and another in 1889. However, in 1890, nearly all of the Giants' stars jumped to the upstart Players' League, whose New York franchise was also named the Giants. The new team even built its park next door to the National League Giants' Polo Grounds. With a decimated roster, the Giants finished a distant sixth. Attendance took a nosedive, and the financial strain affected Day's tobacco business as well. The Players' League dissolved after the season, and Day sold a minority interest to the PL Giants' principal backer, Edward Talcott. As a condition of the sale, Day had to fire Mutrie as manager. Although the Giants rebounded to third in 1891, Day was forced to sell controlling interest to Talcott at the end of the season.

Four years later, Talcott sold the Giants to Andrew Freedman, a real estate developer with ties to Tammany Hall. Freedman was one of the most detested owners in baseball history, getting into heated disputes with other owners, writers and his own players. The most famous one was with star pitcher Amos Rusie. When Freedman only offered Rusie $2,500 for 1896, Rusie sat out the entire season. Attendance fell off throughout the league due to the loss of Rusie, prompting the other owners to chip in $50,000 to get him to return for 1897. Freedman hired former owner Day as manager for part of 1899.

In 1902, after a series of disastrous moves that left the Giants 53½ games behind, Freedman signed John McGraw as a player-manager, convincing him to jump in mid-season from the Baltimore Orioles of the American League and to bring with him several Orioles' players. McGraw would go on and manage the Giants for three decades, one of the longest and most successful tenures in professional sports. McGraw's hiring was one of Freedman's last significant moves as owner of the Giants; after the season he was forced to sell his interest to John T. Brush. Under McGraw the Giants won ten National League pennants and three World Series championships.

The Giants already had their share of stars during its brief history at this point, such as Smiling Mickey Welch, Roger Connor, Tim Keefe, Jim O'Rourke and John Montgomery 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, Casey Stengel, and Red Ames are just a sample of the many players who honed their skills under McGraw.

The Giants under McGraw famously snubbed their first modern World Series chance in 1904—an encounter with the reigning world champion Boston Americans (now known as the "Red Sox")—because McGraw considered the new American League as little more than a minor league. His original reluctance was because the intra-city rival New York Highlanders looked like they would win the AL pennant. The Highlanders lost to Boston on the last day, but the Giants stuck by their refusal. McGraw had also managed the Highlanders in their first two seasons, when they were known as the Baltimore Orioles.

The ensuing criticism resulted in Brush leading an effort to formalize the rules and format of the World Series. The Giants won the 1905 World Series over the Philadelphia Athletics, with Christy Mathewson nearly winning the series single-handedly.

The Giants then had several frustrating years. In 1908, they finished in a tie with the Chicago Cubs and had a one-game playoff at the Polo Grounds. The game was a replay of a tied game that resulted from the Merkle Boner. They lost the rematch to the Cubs, who would go on to win their second World Series. That post-season game was further darkened by a story that someone on the Giants had attempted to bribe umpire Bill Klem. This could have been a disastrous scandal for baseball, but because Klem was honest and the Giants lost, it faded over time.

The Giants experienced some hard luck in the early 1910s, losing three straight World Series starting in 1911 to the A's, the Red Sox,and the A's again(the Giants and the A's both won pennants in 1913; two seasons later, both teams finished in eighth [last] place). After losing the 1917 Series to the Chicago White Sox (the White Sox's last World Series win until 2005), the Giants played in four straight World Series in the early 1920s, winning the first two over their tenants, the Yankees, then losing to the Yankees in 1923 when Yankee Stadium opened. They also lost in 1924, when the Washington Senators won their only World Series in their history (prior to their move to Minnesota).

1930–57: Five pennants in 28 seasons[link]

McGraw handed over the team to Bill Terry in 1932, and Terry played for and managed the Giants for ten years. During this time the Giants won three pennants, defeating the Senators in the 1933 World Series and losing to the Yankees in 1936 and 1937. Aside from Terry himself, the other stars of the era were Mel Ott and Carl Hubbell. Known as "King Carl" and "The Meal Ticket", Hubbell gained fame during the 1934 All-Star Game, when he struck out five future Hall of Famers 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. Midway during the 1948 season Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher left the Dodgers to become manager of the Giants. This hire was not without controversy. Not only was the mid-season switch unusual, but Durocher had been accused of gambling in 1947 and subsequently suspended for the entire 1947 season by Baseball Commissioner Albert "Happy" Chandler. Durocher remained at the helm of the Giants through the 1955 season, and those eight years proved to be some of the most memorable for Giants fans, particularly because of the arrival of Willie Mays and arguably the two most famous plays in Giants' history.

1951: The "Shot Heard 'Round the World"[link]

One of the most 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 deciding one of a three-game playoff ending one of baseball's most memorable pennant races. The Giants had been thirteen and a half games behind the league-leading Dodgers in August, but under Durocher's guidance and with the aid of a sixteen-game winning streak, caught the Dodgers to tie for the lead on the last day of the season.

Mays' catch and the 1954 Series[link]

In game one of the 1954 World Series at the Polo Grounds against the Cleveland Indians, Willie Mays made "The Catch"—a dramatic over-the-shoulder catch of a fly ball by Vic Wertz to deep center field. At the time the game was tied 2–2 in the eighth inning, with men on first and second and nobody out. Mays caught the ball 450 ft (140 m) from the plate, whirled and threw the ball to the infield, keeping the lead runner, Larry Doby, from scoring.

The underdog Giants went on to sweep the series in four straight, despite the Indians having won a then-American League record 111 games that year. The 1954 World Series title would be their last appearance in the World Series as the New York Giants, as the team moved to San Francisco just prior to the 1958 season.

Memorable New York Giants of the 1950s[link]

In addition to Bobby Thomson and Willie Mays, other memorable members of the Giants teams during the 1950s include: Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher, coach Herman Franks, Hall of Fame outfielder Monte Irvin, outfielder and runnerup for the 1954 NL batting championship (won by Willie Mays) Don Mueller, Hall of Fame knuckleball relief pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm, starting pitchers Larry Jansen, Sal Maglie, Jim Hearn, Marv Grissom, Dave Koslo, Don Liddle, Max Lanier, Rubén Gómez, and Johnny Antonelli, catcher Wes Westrum, catchers Ray Katt and Sal Yvars, shortstop Alvin Dark, third baseman Hank Thompson, first baseman Whitey Lockman, second basemen Davey Williams and Eddie Stanky, outfielder, pitcher Clint Hartung, Hall of Fame second baseman Red Schoendienst and utility players: Bill Rigney, Daryl Spencer, Bobby Hofman, and Dusty Rhodes among others. In the late 1950s and after the move to San Francisco two Hall of Fame First Basemen Orlando Cepeda and Willie McCovey joined the team.

1957: The move to California[link]

The Giants' final three years in New York City were unmemorable. They stumbled to third place the year after their World Series win and attendance fell off precipitously. While seeking a new stadium to replace the crumbling Polo Grounds, the Giants began to contemplate a move from New York, initially considering Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, which was home to their top farm team, the Minneapolis Millers. Under the rules of the time, the Giants' ownership of the Millers gave them priority rights to a major league team in the area.

At this time, the Giants were approached by San Francisco mayor George Christopher. Despite objections from shareholders such as Joan Whitney Payson, majority owner Horace Stoneham entered into negotiations with San Francisco officials at around the same time that the Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley was courting the city of Los Angeles. O'Malley had been told that the Dodgers would not be allowed to move to Los Angeles unless a second team moved to California as well. He pushed Stoneham toward relocation. And so it was in the summer of 1957 that both the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers announced their moves to California, and the golden age of baseball in the New York area had ended.

New York would remain a one-team town with the New York Yankees until 1962 when Joan Whitney Payson founded the New York Mets and brought National League baseball back to the city. Payson and M. Donald Grant, who became the Mets' chairman, had been the only Giants board members to vote against the Giants' move to California. The "NY" script on the Giants' caps and the orange trim on their uniforms, along with the blue background used by the Dodgers, would be adopted by the Mets – something of a compromise between the colors of both the Giants and the Dodgers.

1958: The San Francisco Giants history begins[link]

This section may be too long and excessively detailed. Please consider summarizing the material while citing sources as needed.

As with the New York years, the Giants' fortunes in San Francisco have been mixed. Though recently the club has enjoyed relatively sustained success, there have also been prolonged stretches of mediocrity, along with two instances when the club's ownership threatened to move the team away from San Francisco.

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1958–61: Seals Stadium and Candlestick Park[link]

When the Giants moved to San Francisco, they played in Seals Stadium for their first two seasons. The stadium, which was located at 16th & Bryant St. across from the Stempel's Bakery, had been the home of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) San Francisco Seals, a minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, from 1931 to 1957. In 1958, Latino hitter Orlando Cepeda won Rookie of the Year honors. In 1959, Willie McCovey won the same award.

In 1960, the Giants moved to Candlestick Park (sometimes known simply as "The 'Stick"), a stadium built on Candlestick Point in San Francisco's southeast corner overlooking San Francisco Bay. The new stadium quickly became known for its strong, swirling winds, cold temperatures, and thick evening fog that made for a formidable experience for brave fans and players. The park had a built-in radiant heating system, but it never worked. Candlestick Park's reputation was sealed in the ninth inning of the first 1961 All-Star Game when, after a day of calm conditions, the winds rose. A strong gust appeared to cause Giants relief pitcher Stu Miller to slip off the pitching rubber during his delivery, resulting in a balk (and a baseball legend that Miller was "blown off the mound").

There were also many times that Candlestick Park was covered in fog, both inside and out, coming in from the ocean seven miles to the west (through what is known as the "Alemany Gap," a type of wide gorge through which the ocean winds come without major topographical obstacles). At one time, a fog horn was played inside the stadium between innings giving Candlestick another reputation. Other times, the winds would also whirl around in the parking lot, but inside the stadium it would be calm. Even with its reputation of being cold, windy, and foggy, it stood its ground when the ground below it shook violently during the 1989 World Series. At 5:04 pm, the Loma Prieta Earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay Area during the pre-game ceremonies before Game 3. For 15 seconds the stadium rocked and there was fear that the standing light fixtures above would fall onto the crowd. However, only minor injuries were reported, and the stadium's structure was deemed safe ten days later.

1962 World Series[link]

In 1962, after another memorable pennant chase with the Dodgers which resulted in a playoff series which the Giants won, the Giants brought a World Series to San Francisco. However, the Giants lost the series four games to three to the New York Yankees. The seventh game went to the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Yankees ahead 1–0. With Matty Alou on first base and two outs, Willie Mays sliced a double down the right field line. Right fielder Roger Maris, quickly got to the ball and rifled a throw to the infield, preventing Alou from scoring the tying run (he only reached 3rd base).

With the speedy Mays on second, any base hit by the next batter, Willie McCovey, would likely win the series for the Giants. McCovey hit a screaming line drive that was snared by second baseman Bobby Richardson, bringing the Series to a sudden end. Earlier in the inning, a failed sacrifice bunt by Felipe Alou had ultimately resulted in his brother Matty not scoring on Mays' double. In addition, 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 previous pitch.

Giants fan (and resident of nearby Santa Rosa) Charles Schulz made a reference to the real world in one of his Peanuts strips soon afterward. In the first three panels of the strip of December 22, Charlie Brown and Linus are sitting on a porch step, looking glum. In the last panel, Charlie cries to the heavens, "Why couldn't McCovey have hit the ball just three feet higher?" Some weeks later, the same scene appears. This time, Charlie cries, "Or why couldn't McCovey have hit the ball just two feet higher?"

1963–84: Always a bridesmaid, never the bride[link]

Although the Giants did not play in another World Series until 1989, the teams of the 1960s continued to be pennant contenders thanks to several future Hall-of-Famers. These included Gaylord Perry, who pitched a no-hitter with the Giants in 1968; Juan Marichal, a pitcher with a memorable high-kicking delivery; McCovey, who won the National League MVP award in 1969, and Mays, who hit his 600th career home run in 1969. A Giants highlight came in 1963 when Jesús Alou joined the team, and along with Felipe and Matty formed the first all-brother outfield in Major League history. In 1967 the Giants had their first Cy Young Award winner in Mike McCormick.

The Giants' next appearance in the postseason came in 1971. After winning their division, they were easily defeated in the League Championship Series by the Pittsburgh Pirates and Roberto Clemente, who then went on to beat the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.

In 1972 the field at Candlestick Park was converted from grass to Astroturf.

During this decade, the Giants gave up many players who became successful elsewhere. Some of them included Garry Maddox, George Foster, Dave Kingman, and Gaylord Perry. However, the Giants did produce two more Rookie of the Year winners (Gary Matthews Sr. in 1973 and John Montefusco in 1975).

In 1976, Bob Lurie bought the team, saving it from being moved to Toronto.^[6] Toronto was awarded an expansion team called the Blue Jays, but San Francisco baseball fans' worries about losing their beloved Giants had not completely gone away just yet. The rest of the 1970s was a generally disappointing time for the Giants, as they finished no higher than third place in any season. That third place season was 1978. They had a young star in the likes of Jack Clark, along with veteran first baseman Willie McCovey, second baseman Bill Madlock (whom the Giants had acquired from the Chicago Cubs,) shortstops Johnnie LeMaster and Roger Metzger, and third baseman Darrell Evans. Veteran pitchers Vida Blue, John Montefusco, Ed Halicki, and Bob Knepper rounded out the starting rotation with Vida Blue leading the way with eighteen victories. The most memorable moment of that 1978 season occurred on May 28, 1978, when pinch hitter Mike Ivie, acquired from the San Diego Padres during the offseason for Darrel Thomas, hit a towering grand slam off of Dodgers pitching ace Don Sutton in front of Candlestick Park's highest paid attendance of 58,545. They were atop of the NL West for most of the season, but the Dodgers heated up to eventually win the West and the NL Pennant.

In time for the 1979 season, Candlestick was converted back to grass.

In 1981, the Giants became the first National League team to hire a black manager, Frank Robinson. However, Robinson's tenure lasted less than four years and was generally unsuccessful. In that tenure, the Giants finished a game over .500 in the strike-shortened 1981 season. The next season, the Giants acquired veterans Joe Morgan and Reggie Smith. They were in the midst of a three-team pennant race with the Dodgers and Braves. Morgan hit a homer against the Dodgers on the final day of the season to make sure Atlanta won the NL West.

In 1984, the Giants hosted the All-Star Game at Candlestick Park.^[7]

1985–89: Nadir and resurrection[link]

The 1985 Giants lost 100 games (the most in franchise history), and owner Bob Lurie responded by hiring Al Rosen as general manager. Under Rosen's tenure, the Giants promoted promising rookies such as Will Clark and Robby Thompson, and made canny trades to acquire such players as Kevin Mitchell, Dave Dravecky, Candy Maldonado, and Rick Reuschel.

New manager Roger Craig served from 1985 to 1992. In Craig's first five full seasons with the Giants, the team never finished with a losing record.

Under Roger Craig's leadership (and his unique motto, "Humm Baby") the Giants won 83 games in 1986 and won the National League Western Division title in 1987. The team lost the 1987 National League Championship Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. The one bright spot in that defeat was Giants outfielder Jeffrey Leonard, who was named the series MVP in a losing effort. In Leonard's own faltering words, the prize money ($50,000) meant nothing to him. He would have given anything to be going up north to play the Minnesota Twins in the 1987 World Series.

1989: The "Thrill", World Series and the Earthquake[link]

Although the team used fifteen different starting pitchers, the 1989 Giants won the National League pennant. They were led by pitchers Rick Reuschel (1989 National League All-Star Game Starter) and Scott Garrelts (the 1989 National League ERA champion) and sluggers Kevin Mitchell (the 1989 National League MVP) and Will Clark.

The Giants beat the Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series, four games to one. In Game 5, eventual 1989 NLCS MVP Will Clark (who hit .650, drove in eight runs, including a grand slam off Greg Maddux in Game 1) came through in the clutch with a bases-loaded single off of the hard-throwing Mitch Williams to break a 1–1 tie in the bottom of the eighth inning. In the top of the 9th inning, Steve Bedrosian was shaky as he gave up a run. But ultimately, Bedrosian was able to get Ryne Sandberg to ground-out for out #3. Fittingly, the hero of Game 5, Will Clark caught the final out from second baseman Robby Thompson. For the first time in twenty-seven years, the San Francisco Giants were the champions of the National League.

After taking care of the Cubs, the Giants faced the Oakland Athletics in the "Bay Bridge Series". The series is best remembered because the Loma Prieta earthquake on October 17, 1989, disrupted the planned Game 3 of the series at Candlestick Park. After a ten-day delay in the series, Oakland finished up its sweep of San Francisco. The Giants never would hold a lead in any of the 4 games and never even managed to send the tying run to the plate in their last at-bat.

1992: Farewell San Francisco?[link]

Will Clark preparing to bat for the Giants at Candlestick Park in 1992. That year, the Giants came close to relocation, with an empty stadium ready to be filled in Tampa.