At the National League's owners meeting in 1882, New Yorkers John Day and Jim Mutrie, owners of a minor league NY club, were invited to enter a new franchise into the NL, which was ready to drop its Worcester and Troy clubs,  for 1883. Rather than simply elevating their existing club to Major League status, the league desired they form a new club, stocked with the best players from the minor league team.  Initially called the Gothams (and, apparently, occasionally the Maroons), in 1885 Mutrie, then the manager, stormed into the clubhouse after a particularly satisfying win over the Phillies and exclaimed "My big fellows, my giants!".  The story goes that from then on the club was known as the Giants, although research suggests that at least one New York paper had begun calling them by that name slightly earlier.  Either way, the name stuck.  

 

The team won the "World Series", played against the American Association's champions, in 1888 and 1889 behind performances by future Hall of Fame pitchers Tim Keefe and Mickey Welch.  After this, they settled into a period of mediocrity until a young Christy Mathewson came into his own and new manager John McGraw took the reigns in 1902.  Over the next 30 years, the club won 10 NL pennants, but only 3 World Series (they might have had another, but in 1904 McGraw and owner John Brush refused to play the AL champion Red Sox because of business and personal rivalries).  During this era the club took up full-time residency at Manhattan's Polo Grounds, perhaps the oddest stadium any MLB team has ever called home. 

 

After McGraw departed in 1932, the club had some initial success (1 title, 3 pennants in the 1930s) but after that, sub-.500 finishes were the norm in the 1940s. In 1951, they tied the Dodgers in the standings at the end of the season, prompting a best-of-3 playoff series, and setting the stage for Bobby Thomson's game- and pennant-winning HR in the 9th inning of game 3.  Waiting on deck at the time was a youngster named Willie Mays, who would lead the Giants to victory in the 1954 World Series and become, with Mickey Mantle, an icon of baseball over the course of the next 20 years.  

 

In 1957, the Dodgers were considering a move to the west coast but could not obtain approval to do so unless another team also moved.  Giant's owner Horace Stoneham, already looking to exit the crumbling Polo Grounds and possibly leave the city entirely, saw the lure of virgin baseball territory and a completely untapped fan base.  Thus, in 1958 the Giants moved to San Francisco, ending an era in New York but starting a new tradition in California.

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The story of the Giants' first 50 years by the Bay is one of also-rans and near misses.   There were stars (Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Gaylord Perry, Juan Marichal, Will Clark, Barry Bonds) and occasional success (pennants in 1962, 1989 and 2002 ) but there were also a heck of a lot of 2nd and 3rd place finishes, a good number worse than that,  and  many nights spent by fans in cold, dreary Candlestick Park watching the Giants play out the string.   Then, as in an earlier era, fortunes changed after a new manager arrived.   In 2010, only 4 years after Bruce Bochy took over, the club won its first championship since 1954.  Then they won another in 2012.  And then another in 2014.  Bochy, Tim Lincecum , Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey and others presided over a golden era in Giants history, giving fans in San Francisco a taste of what it was like for fans in Manhattan nearly 100 years prior.  

 

The main purpose of this page is to illustrate those players, managers and coaches who have been the most prominent in the franchise's history.  Links below will take you to galleries highlighting each, by position.  Generally, an individual is included if he spent at least 2 full seasons (consecutive or cumulative) as a starter, relief pitcher, closer or manager. For coaches, I've generally used 5 years of service as the bar.  None of this is scientific, though, so there are exceptions.  Where possible and practical, I used pictures of actual baseball cards because that it is the medium through which I, and I suppose many others, first discovered the game. Where necessary, I designed my own images.  Images of actual baseball cards were obtained at the Card Cyber Museum, and for my own designs I used photos found at host of different sites, but none moreso than the wonderful forum at Out of the Park Developments.  

 

I claim no rights to, or ownership of, any of the photographic images I've used on these pages.   You are welcome to use them yourself.  All I ask is that that if you use any of my personal creations, you give credit to this site.