The Original San Francisco Giants

The Original San Francisco Giants is a nostalgic look at the team that brought Major League Baseball to San Francisco, the 1958 Giants. Author Steve Bitker, who attended his first big-league game in 1958 at age five at a charming little downtown ballpark called Seals Stadium, traveled as far as the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands to interview virtually every surviving member of the team.

Old-timers and avid Giants fans will enjoy these recollections of old Seals Stadium. With over 100 images of the '58 Giants team, Steve Bitker has written a descriptive account of memorable events in Baseball history.

In 1957 Horace Stoneham took his Giants of New York baseball team and headed west, starting a gold rush with bats and balls rather than pans and mines. But San Francisco already had a team, the Seals of the Pacific Coast League, and West Coast fans had to learn to embrace the newcomers. Starting with the franchise’s earliest days and following the team up to recent World Series glory, Home Team chronicles the story of the Giants and their often topsy-turvy relationship with the city of San Francisco. Robert F. Garratt shines light on those who worked behind the scenes in the story of West Coast baseball: the politicians, businessmen, and owners who were instrumental in the club’s history. Home Team presents Stoneham, often left in the shadow of Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, as a true baseball pioneer in his willingness to sign black and Latino players and his recruitment of the first Japanese player in the Major Leagues, making the Giants one of the most integrated teams in baseball in the early 1960s. Garratt also records the turbulent times, poor results, declining attendance, two near-moves away from California, and the role of post-Stoneham owners Bob Lurie and Peter Magowan in the Giants’ eventual reemergence as a baseball powerhouse. Garratt’s superb history of this great ball club makes the Giants’ story one of the most compelling of all Major League franchises.

The San Francisco Giants celebrate more than 50 years in the City by the Bay. Follow the Giants from their early days at Seals Stadium to Candlestick Park to latest decade led by Barry Bonds, from the World Series in 1962 and 1989 (and the earthquake) to the National League Pennant in 2002. Player profiles include 1968 no-hit hurler Gaylord Perry, and high-kicking Juan Marichal; slugger Willie McCovey, National League MVP in 1969, and of course the great Willie Mays, who hit over 600 career homers with the Giants. Other chapters cover stories such as how in 1963 Jesus Alou joined his siblings Felipe and Matty on the roster, giving the team the first all-brother outfield in Major League history. Join some of San Francisco's famous fans, from Peanut's creator Charles Schulz to Danny Glover, Carlos Santana and Robin Williams, in celebration of this golden anniversary. In addition to the often rare and amazing visual history presented in this book, each chapter features reproductions of Giants memorabilia that will provide fans a complete San Francisco Giants scrapbook. And an audio CD of famous play-by-play radio calls, player interviews and more -- collected here for the first time -- makes this book a lasting pleasure.

With a title drought that started in New York and carried on for more than five decades after the move to the west coast, the San Francisco Giants and their fans were growing restless, waiting for a team like the 2010 roster and that one magical postseason run. The anticipation, memories, and celebrated relief of the season when it finally came together are captured in this chronicle of the World Series season of the Giants. Written in entertaining prose, the book is as much an enjoyable story to be reread through the years as it is a factual account of the events that brought the elusive title to the Giants.

Day in, day out, Mike Murphy has been a constant presence with the San Francisco Giants since the team moved west in 1958. The clubhouse at Oracle Park bears his name, and in the jubilant aftermath of the team's 2010 World Series victory, Buster Posey told Murphy, "We did it for you, we got your ring." If you know the Giants, you know "Murph." In From the Stick to the Cove, the beloved longtime clubhouse manager reflects on over six decades of incredible memories, from getting his start as a bat boy and first meeting his idol Willie Mays, to unexpected celebrity encounters, to his role as a father figure for more recent generations of Giants.

Students will love learning about the San Francisco Giants in this high-interest title! Text covers the team's history, memorable wins, star players, and important coaches. Features include table of contents, fun facts, team stats, timeline, glossary, and index. Aligned to Common Core standards and correlated to state standards.Big Buddy Books is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

In San Francisco Year Zero, San Francisco native Lincoln Mitchell deftly weaves together the personal and the political, tracing the city's current state back to three key events that all occurred in 1978: the assassination of George Moscone and Harvey Milk occurring fewer than two weeks after the massacre of Peoples Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana, the explosion of the city's punk rock scene, and a breakthrough season for the San Francisco Giants.