Giants History

The Giants renamed inaugurated open-air baseball stadium SBC Park formerly known as Pacific Bell Park on March 31, 2000. The Giants first season in the new ballpark attracted 3.3 million fans and earned their second division title in four years. Jeff Kent was named the NL MVP and Dusty Baker earned his 3rd Manager of the Year Award. In 2001, Barry Bonds registered his one of the greatest offensive seasons in baseball history. Barry Bond’s phenomenal homer binge gave the team hopes of winning a playoff spot. However, the Giants were locked in a pennant race with Arizona Diamondbacks, who eventually took the pennant. Bonds ended up hitting 73 long balls that year. In 2002, Barry Bonds led the league in batting average at .370 and hit 46 HRs, becoming the 4th player in baseball history to hit 600 career Home Runs. The Giants made the playoffs as the Wild Card team. The Giants astounded the Atlanta Braves by knocking them off in 5 games to advance to the National League Championship Series. The Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals in 5 games in ALCS and made their first World Series appearance in 13 years, where the Giants fell in the series finale by 4-1.

Despite the incredible defeat, Barry Bonds .700 on-base percentage was spectacular. The following season, the Giants popular Manager Dusty Baker left the team due to his contract expiration. Under new manager Felipe Alou, the Giants led their division from start to finish, and captured the NL West by registering 100 wins. In the NLDS, the Giants disappointed the Marlins and en route to winning their second world championship. In 2004, the Giants finished the season one game behind the Houston Astros for earning a wild card entry, and two games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the division race with a 91-71 record. The Giants' tried to return to the playoffs in 2005, but only struggled. Moreover Barry Bonds did not play in 2005 due to a knee injury. San Francisco Giants is one of the oldest franchises of the American professional sports that was founded in 1883.John B. Day and Jim Mutrie and played as the Gothams. Mutrie began moving star players to the Gothams, which led the team to win its first National League pennant in 1888 various NL titles in 1889. From 1890 to 1893, the Giants started losing their star players to their competitor leagues, which sent the team to the cellar of inconsistency. The club returned to dominate the league in 1894 with the World Championship victory. Following the victory, the Giants once again returned to their cellar of vagueness for almost a decade. Andrew Freeman was identified as "the worst owner in the world," but one good thing he did was the hiring of John McGraw as a player-manager in 1902.

In 1904, John McGraw guided the team to win a franchise-record of 106 games. Proud of their achievement, the Giants refused to play the determining game against the Boston because they considered them to be worthless opponents. The following season, a deciding game between AL and NL champions became compulsory. The Giants defeated the Philadelphia Athletics the same season and took home the Fall Classic title. Under Manager McGraw, who managed the team for three decades, the Giants won three World Series titles and ten NL pennants. It is to be noted that seven future Hall of Fame members played for the 1924 pennant-winning club. The Giants finished the 1932 season in last place, which led to tensions between the Giants payers and McGraw. Consequentially, McGraw appointed the slugging first baseman and 1930 league MVP Bill Terry to take over as player-manager in 1933. He guided the Giants to a World Series victory. McGraw’s talented players; home-run hitting outfielder Mel Ott and league-leading pitcher Carl Hubbell showed their determination once again. In 1936 and 1937 Terry again led the Giants to two consecutive pennant victories. The Giants failed to make a playoff appearance during the 1940s. In 1948, the Giants acquired rival Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher to guide the franchise.

He made the Giants a pennant contestant once again. Until 1955, Terry guided the team and helped them to record some memorable achievements including a World Series victory of 1954. After a long streak of poor finishes, declining fan-support and mediocre performances, owner Horace Stoneham shifted the team west to San Francisco in 1958. Though the Giants have never won a World Series since moving to San Francisco, but relatively their performance has spectacularly improved with six Western Division crowns in 1971, 1987, 1989, 1997, 2000, and 2003 and three NL pennants in 1962, 1989, and 2002. Manager Roger Craig received the manager of the year award in 1987. Outfielder Barry Bonds and manager Dusty Baker joined the team in 1993. After the 1992 season, owner Bob Lurie put the team up for sale. A group of investors led by Peter Magowan, the former CEO of Safeway bough the team. The Giants finished the 1995 and 1996 in last place as the injuries plagued the key players. The only highlight of the season was Barry Bonds, who joined the 40-40 club with 42 homers and 40 stolen bases in the 1996 season. The logo of the team has Giants written in black placed over a dirty baseball. The mascot of the team is Lou Seal.