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San Francisco Giants
Baseball History |
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San Francisco Giants are
one of the most distinguished 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. Andrew Freeman though considered
"the worst owner in the world" during his time, 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. In that era the Giants had their
fair share of stars, 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.
The San Francisco Giants is a Major League Baseball team based in
San Francisco, California. The Giants play in the Western Division
of the National League (NL). Founded in 1883, the Giants are one of
the oldest in major league baseball. They have their home arena at
the SBC Park. The uniform of the players include the colors Black,
Orange, and French Vanilla (off-white). The San Francisco Giants have
won one Wild Card title in 2002; won six Division titles in 1971,
1987, 1989, 1997, 2000 and 2003; won twenty National League pennants
in 1888, 1889, 1904, 1905, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, 1921, 1922, 1923,
1924, 1933, 1936, 1937, 1951, 1954, 1962, 1989 and 2002 and won five
World Series championships in 1905, 1921, 1922, 1933,1954. In 2003,
the Giants recorded 100 victories for the seventh time in franchise
history and the third 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. 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 division race. Barry Bonds received his fourth consecutive Most
Valuable Player (MVP) award as well, marking the fifth consecutive
year a Giant has received the award. Jeff Kent received it in 2000,
a feat no other team has accomplished.
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