The franchise began as the Gothams in the 1883 National League. After two seasons under that moniker, they became the Giants for good and stayed in New York until 1958. The team won NL flags in 1889-89 under legendary manager Jim Mutrie, but were mostly unsuccessful during the 1890s. Hall of Famers Buck Ewing, Roger Connor, John Ward, Mickey Welch, Jom O'Rourke, Tim Keefe, Jesse Burkett, Amos Rusie, and George Davis all played for the team during this period.
A turning point in Giants history occurred in 1903, when John McGraw, the old Baltimore Orioles third baseman, bolted the fledgling American League to manage the Giants, hoping to crush the AL's New York team in the process. McGraw quickly built the Giants into a juggernaut, and over the next 29 years, he guided the team to 10 NL flags.
Immediate dividends were paid in 1904-1905 with back-to-back pennants. Christy Mathewson, Joe McGinnity, "Turkey Mike" Donlin, and Roger Bresnahan starred as the club won 211 games in those two seasons. In 1904, still sore at the new league, McGraw refused to field his team against the American League champions, one of only two times the World Series has failed to be played, since 1903. In 1905, McGraw relented, whipping Connie Mack's Athletics for the World Championship.
The Giants fought for the pennant four of the next five seasons, but came up short. Finally, in 1910, they returned to the World Series, losing to Mack's A's in a rematch. 1911, 1913, and 1914 brought three more pennants for McGraw's team, which featured stars Mathewson, Larry Doyle, Rube Marquard, Fred Merkle, Art Fletcher, and Red Murray.
The Giants returned to the Fall Classic in 1917, only to lose to the Chicago White Sox. By that time Mathewson had retired, but a new stable of pitchers, including Slim Sallee, Jeff Tesreau, and Pol Perritt, supported outfielder George Burns and third baseman Heinie Zimmermann.
The Giants extended their winning ways into the 1920s, finishing 1st or 2nd every season from 1917 to 1925. McGraw led the team to four consecutive pennants, from 1921-1924, still the only NL franchise to do so. The first three of those years resulted in a clash with the cross-town Yankees in the World Series. It was made more dramatic by the fact that for part of that time the two clubs shared the Polo Grounds. The Giants won titles in 1921 and 1922, with the young Yankees finally beating them in 1923.
In 1924, the Giants and Washington Senators played one of the most exciting World Series in history. The finale was decided by a bad hop in favor of the Senators. It was McGraw's final World Series, having lost six of nine trips. Though he never made it back to the Fall Classic, McGraw fielded talented teams over his final seven seasons, finishing second twice, and third three times.
The 1920s Giants teams featured some of the finest players in baseball: George Kelly, Frankie Frisch, Dave Bancroft, Ross Youngs, Art Nehf, Jesse Barnes, Heinie Groh, Irish Meusel, Travis Jackson, Hack Wilson, Fred Lindstrom, Bill Terry, Freddie Fitzsimmons, Rogers Hornsby, Edd Roush, Burleigh Grimes, Mel Ott, Lefty O'Doul, and Carl Hubbell.
After McGraw stepped down in 1932, Bill Terry was named player/manager the Giants. Terry guided the team for a decade, winning three pennants (1933, 1936, and 1937) Led by future Hall of Famers Hubbell and Ott, the G-Men won the 1933 World Series. Terry, Ott, and Leo Durocher all tried to navigate the team to victory in the 1940s to no avail. But by 1950 a young nucleus was in place, built around Don Meuller, Hank Thompson, Alvin Dark, Whitey Lockman, and Bobby Thomson.
In 1951, the Giants added 20-year old Willie Mays in center field. By late summer the race was on to catch up with their rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. In one of the most amazing races ever, the Giants got hot in August and September and caught the slumping Dodgers to force a playoff. Trailing with two outs in the bottom of the ninth of the deciding game in the Polo Grounds, Thomson clubbed a dramatic pennant-winning homer and created one of baseball's greatest moments. The subsequent World Series loss to the Yankees was anticlimactic compared to the pennant race.
In 1954, Durocher guided the Giants to another pennant, their last in New York. In the Fall Classic they upset the Cleveland Indians, who had set an AL record with 111 wins. The victory was a shocking sweep, and featured Mays' amazing over-the-shoulder grab of a Vic Wertz drive to deep center field.
"Leo the Lip" left after the 1955 season, and the Giants' success went with him as well. By the late 1950s ownership was looking for a way to compete at the gate with the perennial Al power ? the Yankees. Giants' owners made the decision was made to move the club to San Francisco, joining their rival Dodgers on the west coast. The rivalry would continue, this time North-Cal against South-Cal. The Giants took up residence in Candlestick Park on San Francisco Bay.
Billy Rigney led the Giants from 1956 to 1960, before Alvin Dark took over in 1961. The following season the Giants romped to 101 wins in the regular season but it wasn't enough ? the Dodgers won the same amount. In a three-game playoff, the Giants won twice to advance to the World Series, which they lost to the Yankees.
The San Francisco Giants were one of the first teams to actively pursue black and Latin players, and their teams reflected that in the 1960s. Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey, Jose Pagan, Felipe and Jesus Alou, Tito Fuentes, and Jim Ray Hart all worked their way to the majors via the Giants scouting system.
The 1970s were the first decade in which the Giants failed to reach a World Series, despite a playoff appearance in 1971. That team was Mays last real hurrah, and eventually he was shipped back to New York to play for the Mets.
McCovey, Gaylord Perry, Bobby Bonds, Darrell Evans, Jack Clark, and Bill Madlock starred at various times for the Giants in the 1970s, which saw six Giant managerial changes. In the 1980s, Frank Robinson and Roger Craig provided stability in the dugout, but just one pennant (1989) came from it. The 1989 World Series promised to be a great story ? the Battle of the Bay ? with San Francisco and Oakland meeting for the first time. But after a devastating earthquake delayed play for nearly two weeks, the A's methodically finished their sweep of the Giants.
1993 was a season of change for the team; Dusty Baker arrived as manager, and outfielder Barry Bonds, the best player in baseball, arrived as a free agent. The impact was immediate, as the Giants battled the Braves in the last great divisional race. Unfortunately, the Giants lost on the final day of the regular season to the Dodgers, leaving their 103 wins one short of first place Atlanta.
The rest of the 1990s was spent trying to assemble a pitching staff to support Bonds and the offense. In 1997, San Francisco climbed to the top of the NL West, but lost in the opening round of the playoffs to underdog Florida. In 2000, the Giants opened beautiful new Pac Bell Park, located on San Francisco Bay, won the division title, and then, unfortunately, exited early from the playoffs.
The 2001 season began with Barry Bonds hitting home runs at an alarming pace. It ended with Bonds breaking Mark McGwire's three-year old record for home runs in a season. Bonds finished with 73 homers ? and perhaps even more impressively ? eclipsed Babe Ruth's 80-year old mark for slugging percentage. The Giants were in the playoff hunt until the final week of the season, but failed to make the playoffs.
Few thought that Bonds could perform an encore in 2002, but he surprised most experts. At the age of 39, Bonds won his first batting title, hitting .370 with 46 homers. He scored 117 runs and drove in 110, despite receiving 68 intentional walks and 198 walks overall. His .582 on-base percentage shattered the previous record of .553 held by Ted Williams. Bonds MVP season helped carry the Giants to the NL Wild-Card, holding off the rival Dodgers.
The rest of the team, with the exception of Jeff Kent, slumped offensively in 2002, but the pitching ? especially the bullpen ? picked up the slack. In the NLDS against the Braves, the Giants took Game One and then fell behind two games to one, before winning the last two games to give Dusty Baker his first post-season series victory. In the NLCS against the Cardinals, the Giants won in five games behind series MVP Benito Santiago, who came through nearly every time Tony LaRussa intentionally walked Bonds.
The 2002 World Series was a match-up of Northern California vs. Southern California: the Giants vs, the Anaheim Angels (making their first WS appearance). Bonds seemed to be answering his critics when he blasted a home run on his first WS swing in Game One, as the Giants triumphed, 4-3. The Angels took the next two games before San Francisco responded with wins in games four and five at Pac Bell. In Game Six, the Giants held a 5-0 lead with one out in the 7th inning, on the strength of homers by Shawon Dunston and Bonds (his fourth of the series), but the Halos came back. Anaheim rallied with three runs in the seventh and three more in the eighth to storm back for a stunning 6-5 win. It was the greatest comeback by a team facing elimination in World Series history. The Giants never seemed to recover, losing Game Seven 4-1, as their offense numbly went through the motions. A disappointed Bonds had gotten close to his World Series title goals, and Giants' fans felt the sting of the Game Six collapse.
In the off-season, the team lost its' skipper, Dusty Baker, who went to the Cubs, and Jeff Kent, who signed as a free agent with Houston. But new manager Felipe Alou stepped right in and guided the team to 100 wins, as the Giants spent every day of the season in first place. Bonds once again paced the attack, hitting .339 with 45 homers, 109 runs, and 148 walks in just 129 games. Righty Jason Schmidt spearheaded the pitching staff with 17 wins and his league-leading 2.34 ERA. The Giants earned a rematch with their 1997 playoff opponent, the Florida Marlins, who once again bounced them from the playoffs, winning in four games.
--TheBaseballPage.com
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