San Francisco Giants Team History

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 Bloomington, Minnesota, 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. But the Washington Senators wound up there as the Minnesota Twins in 1961.

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 around the same time 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 in the summer of 1957 both the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers announced their moves to California, ending the three-team golden age of baseball in New York City.

New York would remain a one-team town with the New York Yankees until 1962, when Joan Payson founded the New York Mets and brought National League baseball back to the city. Owners 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, honoring their New York NL forebears with a blend of Giants orange and Dodgers blue.

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. Its built-in radiant heating system never worked. Candlestick’s reputation was sealed in the ninth inning of the first 1961 All-Star Game when, after a day of calm conditions, the winds came back and 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”, although the National League won anyway. Two All-Star Games per season were played from 1959 to 1962.

Candlestick Park was frequently beshrouded in fog, both inside and out, coming in from the Pacific Ocean seven miles to the west (through what is known as the “Alemany Gap”, a wide gorge ocean winds come through in lieu of major topographical obstacles). A foghorn was eventually situated and sounded inside the stadium between innings, adding to Candlestick’s already notorious meteorological reputation. Winds would whirl around in the parking lot at other times while it would be calm inside the stadium. Even with its cold, windy and foggy reputation, it stood its ground when the ground below it shook violently just before the scheduled start of Game 3 of the 1989 World Series. At 5:04 pm, the Loma Prieta Earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay Area during the pregame ceremonies. For 15 seconds the stadium rocked, and it was feared that one or more of the huge overhead light towers might fall on spectators in the stands; but only minor injuries were reported and the stadium’s structure was deemed safe ten days later.

In 2000, after forty years, the Giants bade farewell to Candlestick Park and, as long advocated, moved into a privately financed downtown stadium (AT&T Park, originally Pacific or “Pac” Bell Park and later renamed SBC Park) on that part of the shoreline of China Basin known to Giant fans as McCovey Cove, at the corner of 3rd and King Streets (with an official address of 24 Willie Mays Plaza in honor of the longtime Giant superstar), ushering in a new era for the Giants and their fans. While Candlestick resembled the multi-purpose concrete-dominated “cookie-cutter” parks built by so many teams during the 1960s & 1970s, their new home is regarded as one of the most beautiful venues in all of professional sports. Even so, as part of the intense rivalry with the Los Angeles Dodgers, some Dodger fans derisively and jealously refer to AT&T Park as “The Phone Booth” from its current and former names (Pac Bell Park, SBC Park), as could be expected.

The Giants routinely sell out their new nearly 43,000-seat state-of-the-art stadium built for the 21st century, whereas paltry paid attendances of less than 10,000 were not uncommon in Candlestick despite its nearly 60,000 seating capacity, although by the 1999 season the Giants did manage to draw about 25,000 fans per game. The team in its striking new location annually vies for highest MLB season attendance in contrast to often having lowest attendance in the NL (or close to it) before. Still quite breezy in summer compared to other MLB parks, AT&T Park has been a consensus success despite its reputation as a “pitcher’s park” stingy for power hitters. Its state-of-the-art design minimizes wind-chill, it is well served by mass transit and has spectacular views of the bay and the city skyline, traits all lacking at Candlestick especially after it was redesigned in the early 1970s to accommodate the NFL 49ers. AT&T Park is the centerpiece of a renaissance in San Francisco’s South Beach and Mission Bay neighborhoods, known for what has been called sustainable design.

The 2010 World Series was the 106th edition of Major League Baseball’s championship series. The best-of-seven playoff, played between the American League champion Texas Rangers and the National League champion San Francisco Giants, began on Wednesday, October 27, and ended on Monday, November 1, with the Giants winning the series 4–1 to secure their first World Series championship since 1954 and their first since relocating to San Francisco from New York City in 1958.

The 2012 World Series was the 108th edition of Major League Baseball’s championship series. The San Francisco Giants, the National League champion, won the best-of-seven playoff in a four game sweep over the American League champion Detroit Tigers. The 2012 title marked the Giants’ seventh World Series title in franchise history, their second in San Francisco (the New York Giants won five), and their second in a three-year period (2010 – 2012).

The 2014 World Series was the 110th edition of Major League Baseball’s championship series, a best-of-seven playoff between the National League champion San Francisco Giants and the American League champion Kansas City Royals. The Royals had home field advantage for the series as a result of the American League’s 5–3 victory in the All-Star Game. The Giants defeated the Royals, 4 games to 3, to clinch their third World Series championship in a five-season span and their third overall since their move to San Francisco from New York. This was also the Giants’ eighth World Series championship in franchise history.