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Home::Baseball
San Francisco Giants History
Author : Richard Stephenson
The San Francisco have a rich and storied history that is filled with many great moments and players, as they have five World Championships to their credit and have had such greats as Carl Hubbell, Bobby Thomson, Wille McCovey, and Juan Marichal. The San Francisco Giants can arguably say that they have had the two best all around players to ever play the game with the great Willie Mays and the incomparable Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, Mays belted 660 home runs in his illustrious career and is thought of by many to be the best player to ever play due to his ability to be able to play every aspect of the game at a high level and possessing no weaknesses, as for Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants all hes done is his award winning career is win the National League Most Valuable Player award seven times, win eight gold gloves, twelve silver slugger awards, be voted to the National League all-star team thirteen times, and belt 708 home runs which is only 47 shy of Henry Aaron's all time mark of 755. In the 1930s the San Francisco Giants would participate in three World Series, winning the 1933 World Championship, with NL MVP Carl Hubbell of the San Francisco Giants leading the way in an upset of the powerful Washington Senators, the San Francisco Giants pitching staff totally thwart the Washington Senators vaunted offense as they allow only eight earned runs all series long en route to a four games to one rout. It would take until 1951 for the San Francisco Giants to return to prominence, as they qualified for the fall classic again but were denied by New York Yankees, but in 1954 against the Cleveland Indians the San Francisco Giants with Willie Mays of the San Francisco returning from his tour of duty with the US Army rout the heavily favored Clevealand Indians who won 111 games in the regular season, one play perhaps changed the entire complexion of the '54 World Series, as Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants made perhaps the greatest defensive play ever, tied with the Cleveland Indians a 2 in the eighth inning of Game 1 at the Polo Grounds and two Indians runners on base, the Hall of Fame center fielder made an over-the-shoulder catch of a 460-foot smash off the bat of the Cleveland Indians Vic Wertz, the San Francisco Giants went on to win 5-2 in ten innings, and the series turned into a runaway for the San Francisco Giants. The San Francisco Giants made a World Series appearance in 1962 but were defeated by the New York Yankees in six games, and would not make the playoffs again until 1971 a year in which the San Francisco Giants did not have a pitcher who won 20 games or batter with a .300 average and were eliminated by the Pittsburgh Pirates, their would be a drought of 16 years before the San Francisco Giants would again make the playoffs, in 1987 they took the St.Louis Cardinals to a seventh game in the National League Championship series before succumbing, in 1989 the San Francisco Giants had a powerhouse squad led by NL MVP Kevin Mitchell who belted 47 HRS and 125 RBI and powered the San Francisco Giants past the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS and into the World Series against Bay Area rival the Oakland Athletics, who boasted a virtual all-star with AL MVP Jose Canseco and slugger Mark McGwire to go along with an award winning pitching staff, the San Francisco Giants were no match for the Oakland Athletics and were beaten in four straight games. The San Francisco Giants would make the playoffs in 1997 and 2000 but lose in the opening round to the Florida Marlins and New York Mets respectively,in 2002 they would once again qualify for the National League playoffs, this time behind the mighty bat of Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants who batted .370 with 46 home runs, 110 runs batted in, 198 walks, and a on base percentage of .582, the San Francisco Giants defeated the Atlanta Braves three games to two in the divisonal playoffs and went on to defeat the St.Louis Cardinals in the NLCS and earn the right to face the upstart Anaheim Angels. The 2002 World Series was one for the ages as the San Francisco Giants and Anaheim Angels dueled and battled to a seventh game, where the Anaheim Angels narrowly defeated the San Francisco Giants to win their World Series. The 2006 San Francisco Giants will be a National League powerhouse with Barry Bonds and pitcher Jason Schmidt returning to health and newcomer OF Steve Finley adding punch to an already potent lineup, the off-season acqusition of P Matt Morris from the St.Louis Cardinals will be a major boost, one that could give the San Francisco Giants the dege in the National League West with many san francisco giants tickets being sold. Great moment in team history After trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers by 13 1/2 games on Aug. 11, manager Leo Durocher's troops rattled off 16 straight victories and won 37 of their final 44 regular-season contests to force a tie with Brooklyn. The two teams met in a three game elimination to see who go on to the playoffs, the San Francisco Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers split the first two games setting a winner take all game 3 at the polo grounds, the San Francisco Ginats trailed the Brooklyn Dodgers 4-2 with two on and one out in the ninth inning when Bobby Thomson of the San Francisco Giants stepped to the plate, the rest is history, Thomson drilled an 0-1 pitch off reliever Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers to left field and jumped onto home plate to put an exclamation on "The Miracle of Coogan's Bluff," as called by legendary Giants announcer Russ Hodges. Richard Stephenson is a documented member of the ticket broker association with http://www.BarrysTickets.com. San Francisco Giants Tickets Related articles
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