Jaybird's Jottings

Power Shortage

One would expect a team with a nickname of Giants to be associated with the long ball. And through the years, this franchise has had its fair share of home run hitters. Before the turn of the century, the big fellow Roger Connor cracked some mighty blasts over the fences and around the yards. John McGraw wasn't exactly in love with thin handles but Mel Ott sure was. He and owner Horace Stoneham loved their bruisers, guys like Johnny Mize, Willard Marshall, Walker Cooper and Bobby Thomson who helped the franchise earn the nickname, The Window Breakers.

Mays, McCovey and Cepeda hit their fair share of circuit shots as did the Pacific Sock Exchange trio of Clark, Williams and Mitchell. The Giants as a team have kept the reputation going in the past several years with Bonds and help from Jeff Kent and others.

This year, so far, there’s a noticeable power outage. Park factors for that beautiful cathedral they used to call Pacific Bell explains some of it. But other than the mighty Barry's nine trots around the bases, the Giants have a total of eight taters.

It’s still a small sample size of course, and their total of 17 is only two behind the league average. But the lads have to get going. If they keep up their current pace of a .386 slugging percentage, their new nickname will be The Heart Breakers.

Dressed to the Nines

Ran across this website today featuring baseball exhibits.

Their on-line exhibit is excellent. I particularly enjoyed Dressed to the Nines, A History of the Baseball Uniform. If you want even more information on the Giants uniforms and numbers, consult Marc Okkonen’s Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century.

Here’s a brief rundown on some of the Giants uniforms changes. (Info taken from Okkonen’s book).

Early 1900s

White at home, gray on the road, NEW YORK in arched block capitals on the chest.

1908

Return to plain, round-crown caps.

1913

Violet trim introduced.

1918

GIANTS displayed for the first time. Became standard for away games.

1922

Candy-cane stockings.

1933

Orange and black became the new colors. NY on uniforms retired to honor McGraw. NY appeared on caps with orange and black.

1936

Black is out, royal blue in.

1947-1957

GIANTS and NEW YORK font changed, still fancy. Caps, undersweaters, and stockings solid black. Piping orange and black.

1958

Uniform look retained.

1973

Lettering for black and orange arrangement reversed.

1977

Double-knits, pullovers, beltless trousers, bold stripes – the softball look!

Scripted GIANTS on uniform. Number of front of uniform.

1978

Scripted GIANTS replaced SAN FRANCISCO on orange road shirts.

Early 80s

Double-knits tossed out. Back to the conservative look.

1983

GIANTS font changed more to a block. G and S slightly larger than IANT.

1994

More traditional logo.

2000

White to cream. Player names no longer on back.

2001

Black colored jerseys.

Other resources:

Giants official site

The Greatest Rivalry in Baseball

What is the greatest rivalry in baseball?

Right now, with the full-blown media coverage of the Yankees-Red Sox series this weekend, you’d think theirs was the only one that ever existed.

With all that happened last year in the ALDS and AROD, and people actually believing in curses, this rivaly is white hot. But the one on the west coast ain’t too shabby either.

Several years ago, I wrote an article about these two rivalries. I thought it would be fun to review it and provide any updates.

The history.

The Red Sox-Yankees rivalry certainly has the edge with recent history. But when and where did it begin?

1904, a thrilling start. I mean you can't get anymore wilder than what happened on the last day of that pennant race. Bottom of the ninth, score tied and Yankee starter Jack Chesbro uncorks a wild pitch. Pennant Red Sox.

Now on the other hand, the Giants and Dodgers rivalry goes back to the 1880's. Lee Allen wrote:

"The course of events in early professional baseball cannot always be traced with accuracy, but there is no doubt whatever about the exact moment at which the rivalry between the teams we not call the Giants and the Dodgers was born. At precisely 3:07 p.m. on Friday, October 18, 1889, the battle was joined at the old Polo Grounds, Fifth Avenue and 110th Street, in Manhattan. The occasion was the first game of the World Series."

The Giants won the series and the battle was joined.

Advantage: Even.

Pennant Races.

The best measurement of a rivalry in my mind is the number and magnitude of pennant races. And lord knows these two rivalries have seen some great pennant races. Here is a Top Ten I came up with.

Year-Pennant Winner –G.A.

Giants-Dodgers.

1951 Giants +1 in 3 game playoff.
1962 Giants +1 in 3 game playoff.
1924 Giants + 1.5
1966 Dodgers + 1.5
1971 Giants + 1
1965 Dodgers + 2
1982 Braves LA -2 SF -2
1997 Giants +2
1959 Dodgers +4
1978 Dodgers +6

Yankees-Red Sox
1904 Red Sox + 1.5
1949 Yankees +1
1978 Yankees +1
1948 Indians Red Sox -1 NYY -2.5
1977 Yankees +2.5
1950 Yankees +3
1988 Red Sox +3.5
1986 Red Sox + 5.5
1974 Orioles NYY – 2 Red Sox -7
1972 Tigers Red Sox -5 NYY – 6.5

Advantage: Slight to Giants-Dodgers

Spoilsporting

Another aspect of keeping a rivalry intense is playing the spoiler role by knocking your rival out of the pennant race even when you don’t have a chance.

Giants-Dodgers


1934

When asked about the Dodgers’ chances at the beginning of the season, Giants skipper Bill Terry quipped, “Brooklyn? Are they still in the league?”

The Dodgers answered the question at the end of the season. They beat their rivals on the penultimate day to help the Cards tie the Giants. Then Brooklyn beat New York on the final day while the Cards won for the pennant.


1982

The Dodgers beat and eliminated the Giants on the final Saturday at Candlestick. The Giants returned the favor the next day on Joe Morgan’s seventh inning three-run homer.

1991

The Giants beat the Dodgers on the final Saturday to knock them out.

1993

Giants won 103 games but it wasn’t enough. Tommy Lasorda’s team beat and eliminated Dusty Baker’s squad on the final day of the season.


2001

On the final Friday night, the Giants were two back of the Dbacks for the NL West and two behind the Astros for the wild card. In a wild one at Pac Bell, the Dodgers beat the Giants 11-10 and eliminated their archrival.


Red Sox-Yankees

I couldn't find any. I'll admit I didn't check it out as thoroughly as I should have. If anyone knows of any, let me know.


Advantage: Giants-Dodgers by far.

The Cult of Personality

Ed Linn's The Great Rivalry, a book that chronicles the Yankees and Red Sox rivalry, draws on the great players and personalities of Ruth, Williams and DiMaggio that helped define that great rivalry. Likewise, the Giants and Dodgers have showcased McGraw vs. Robinson, Mays and Koufax, Marichal and Roseboro.

Both rivalries have seen "traitors" like Durocher and Clemens and have witnessed the greatest of players and managers.

And then there’s the “Curse of the Bambino.” The media has said so many times, people are starting to believe it.

Advantage: Red Sox-Yankees.

The Passion

Well, I suppose we could try and measure the number of fights, most skulls cracked, amount of blood spilled. But let's settle this peacefully and agree both rivalries are full of passion.

Advantage: Draw.

Literature

Lee Allen did a great job with The Giants and The Dodgers. Andrew Goldblatt wrote the only comprehensive account with The Giants and the Dodgers, Four Cities, Two Teams, One Rivaly. Don Dellilo’s Pafko At The Wall is a classic and some consider it one of the greatest sports short stories.

Ed Linn and Harvey Frommer have written good books on the subject. David Halberstam (The Summer of ‘49) waxed poetic about his favorite feud.

Advantage: Red Sox-Yankees based on more books sold.

Geography

East coast bias and all that.

Advantage: Red Sox-Yankees.

Media:

ESPN is playing up the Sox-Yanks rivalry big time. FOX is showing the game. Steve Kroner of The Chronicle writes about the rivalry. I’m hearing nothing about the Giants and Dodgers.

Advantage: Red Sox-Yanks

Conclusions

Don't leave it up to sportswriters to tell you which is the greatest. Often times, they're more biased than the fans. And who can really say which is the greatest rivalry? Ultimately it’s what each individual believes.

Personally, I can understand why the spotlight is so hot on Fenway right now and why many people think the Yankees-Red Sox is the greatest.

But they need to remember when they go to bed tonight, another great rivalry, with just as grand a history and fierceness, will be played out in San Francisco.

Giants On The Cover Of The Sporting News

In May 1965, The Sporting News, breaking from their long-standing tradition of publishing text-based, multiple story covers, began to print one subject cover stories with a full length photo shot.

This is the fifth in a continuing series of reviews of those issues with a Giant(s) on the cover.

June 17, 1967
Juan Marichal
Cost: 35 Cents

Picture: Marichal in San Francisco away uniform, mid-pitch.

Caption: Juan Marichal, Giants’ Mr. Juan-derful

Page Three article entitled, Juan Not Wan, He’s No 1 As Winner, written by Harry Jupiter.

Article talks about Marichal’s slow start caused by control problems. 0 and 3 with two poor outings. With Koufax retired, Jupiter makes the case Marichal is game’s number one pitcher.

Marichal signed a contract for $100,000, earning a $25,000 raise.

June 3 win against New York ran his record to 19-0 against Mets.

Career ratio of strike outs to walks around 4 to 1.

Conclusion of 1967 season.

The Giants won 91 games but finished in second place, 10.5 games behind Cardinals. Marichal missed about 10 starts. He pulled a hamstring muscle warming up at Shea Stadium on August 4 and never fully recovered. Bob Stevens, in the September 16 issue, documents Marichal’s woes. The injury prevented Marichal from trying to win 20 games for the fifth straight season. The last pitcher to do so was Warren Spahn.

Marichal's final stats were 202 IP, 14 and 10, ERA 2.76. (The league ERA dropped from 3.68 in ’66 to 3.27 in 1967).

The subject of trade rumors during the off-season, Marichal had a great 1968 season, going 26 and 9 in 326 innings. His ERA+ was 122. Nothing spectacular, but then again Bill James's Abstracts were still over a decade away.

Robert Whiting

This past Tuesday night I went to see Robert Whiting speak in front of about 40 people at the Japan-American Society of Washington, D.C. The author talked about his book, The Meaning of Ichiro: The New Wave from Japan and the Transformation of Our National Pastime and Japanese baseball for about 30 minutes before answering questions. Half the audience asked him about the cultural aspects of his book and the other half were interested in the baseball side.

After the formal presentation, Whiting, sounding and looking like he had the flu, fielded more questions and signed copies of his new book. He may be guilty of "clientitis," but Whiting is certainly a fascinating figure who has a tremendous knowledge of Japanese baseball. You Gotta Have Wa is a classic and his new book is excellent. It includes several interesting pages on Masanori Murakami and Shinjo.

A Day In The Bleachers

“On the subway home, Arnold and I confessed to each other that we would never again give our hearts or our ticket money to another baseball team. But within the year, the two of us were listening to the San Francisco Giants’ games late at night via the artful Les Keiter’s reconstruction on the radio.

After all, there was still Willie Mays to cheer for.”

Ray Robinson, New Foreword to the 50th Anniversary Edition of A Day in the Bleachers by Arnold Hano.

The memories are coming. The memories are coming.

2004 is the 50th anniversary of the Giants last World Series title. The memory march has already begun with a few articles and vid clips on ESPN. The Giants will honor some of the members of the team in a ceremony scheduled for late July.

All good mind you, but wouldn’t it be great if someone, say a writer who covered and knew the Giants back then, brought us an in-depth account of something spectacular from the ’54 season? What if he was at one of the World Series games? What if he was in the bleachers when Willie robbed Wertz in the eighth inning of Game One?

Such a book, A Day in the Bleachers, was written by Arnold Hano. The first edition was published in 1955. The copy I bought from a used book store several years ago was a reprint in 1981. Now comes a re-release by Da Capo Press with a new foreword by Ray Robinson and a new afterword by Hano.

I’m really prejudiced because Hano wrote the first baseball book I ever read, Willie Mays in 1966. But ADITB has always gotten good reviews and is one you might want to read as we trip down memory lane this year. Really good to hear something from Hano who had a unique perspective on the Giants. In many ways, he was like today's blogger - equal parts fan, observer and writer.

Thank you Mr. Hano and thank you Da Capo Press.

660!

Congrats to Barry for reaching 660 yesterday. The wife and me watched all four games this past week on ESPN. Today I got home from work a little early and listened to the game on the Internet. I also ran in to the living room to see the break-ins on ESPN which actually came before the radio call.

5:47 EST. ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption is on and Tony and Mike are discussing the question “Is The Bonds 660 Chase overblown?” These two loud mouths argue it is. No sooner do they get off the subject and their show is interrupted by the cut-in for Bonds. I have a love-hate relationship with PTI so I’m thinking, come on, Barry do it now. And he did!

Quite a day. Rained all day here, work threw me some curve balls, miserable Monday, but 660 and the Home Opener win brightened things up. Congrats Barry. It was well worth the wait.

Baseball As America Exhibit

I think there are only three things that America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization: the Constitution, jazz music and baseball. They're the three most beautifully designed things this culture has ever produced. — Gerald Early, Scholar

I visited the Baseball as America exhibit at the Museum of Natural History in D.C today. It’s the first traveling exhibit featuring artifacts from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Having visited Cooperstown in 1997, my anticipation was somewhat tempered but this is an outstanding set of items. Some have not been previously made available for public viewing and they all seemed new to me.

The Polo Grounds, at least the 155th Street location, is well represented. There’s an old turnstile, Blanche McGraw’s seat from Section 19, Jack Norworth’s handwritten manuscript for "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," (inspired by a New York subway poster that read "Base Ball Today -- Polo Grounds) and the bat Bobby Thomson used to hit "The Shot Heard 'Round the World."

Some SF items too, including a Giants/A’s hat and a large picture of fans pouring into Pac Bell (speaking of
history).

If you’re visiting our nation’s capital, it’s worth a look. The exhibit runs from April 3 through September 30 and is free. Enjoy!

Barry Watch

I think I pulled a first this week. Watched every inning, almost every pitch, of all three Giants games. Now, those of you blessed with living west of the Rockies may think that’s nothing, but for those of us three time zones away, it’s something. The actual kicker is the broadcast. May not have ever happened before, that is the first three games of the season.

Thankful of ESPN’s coverage. I know Chris Berman has his faults. As corny as they are, I love his play on names, his back-back-back home run calls and his Giants-based meanderings. Wanted to hear him say back-back-back for Barry but the home plate umpire lowered his strike zone for Clemens. Ridiculous.

It’s been noted that David Aardsma is now first among major league player names, but do you know who Aaron replaced? I don’t think you can google that one folks. Gotta turn to SABR and our man David Vincent.

"For the first time since his debut in 1954, Hank Aaron is not first in the alphabetical list of players. Giants pitcher David Aardsma made his major league debut on Tuesday night in Houston to become the new alphabetical leader among players.

Aaron had supplanted John Abadie at the top of the list and had held that spot for 1 week shy of 50 years."

Call me a curmudgeon, but I’m disappointed the Padres’ park opener is not a day game. Also disappointed there’s no ESPN coverage. Maybe Barry will tie Willie in San Diego and pass him in San Francisco in the home opener.

Barry Watch and Re-releases

Got a Giants hangover this morning. Game ended at 11:50 pm here in the east. Good win. Nerve wracking but the bull pen came through. Durham made a great play in the bottom of the ninth.

For the fun of it, I tracked Mays’s march to Jimmie Foxx and 534. See at end of today's notes.

Note: Apologies to David Aardsma. I spelled his name incorrectly yesterday, assuming Professor Tygiel had it right!!

Great game and good luck kid!

Excellent interview with Charles Einstein by Rob Neyer on Say Hey Willie. His book, Willie’s Time has been republished by SIU Press.

And speaking of reprints, Da Capo Press has released A Day in the Bleachers by Arnold Hano. Highly recommend this one.

Mays March To 534 Recap, 1966

532

August 12

After a 14 game road trip, Giants came home for 12 game home stand against Houston (4), STL (2) ATL (3) and CIN (3). SF was one game behind the Pirates and just one half game ahead of the Dodgers.

With the score 0-0, Mays hit his 532rd off Mike Cuellar in the bottom of the ninth to win the game.

533

Aug 14

The Giants lost the next night 3-0 then played a double dip. In the first game, Mays came to bat in the sixth with a man on and nothing but goose eggs on the scoreboard. Off Houston starter Barry Latman, Mays clouted number 533 to move within one of Foxx. The Giants won both games.

A 35, 144
T 2:27

534

Aug 16

With a day off on Monday the 15th, the Giants hosted the Cardinals. After scoring an unearned run in the second, Mays hit a bases empty shot over the right field fence off starter Al Jackson. It was his 29th homer of the year.

Gaylord Perry went the distance and picked up his 19th with against just two losses. SF won 3-1 to remain a game and a half behind the Pirates. (LA three back).

A 24,178
T 2:08

535

August 17

21,956 watched Juan Marichal fall behind to the Cards 3-0 after two innings. Mays came up in the fourth with no one on. The count was full off Ray Washburn when Mays launched his historic shot over the right field fence into the kid crowd that often assembled behind the fence at The Stick.

The Giants scored two in the eighth to tie the game at three. In the bottom of the ninth, Tom Haller (single) went to third on a safety by Jim Davenport. Jesus Alou won it with a pinch hit single.

The 4-3 win pulled the Giants to within one half game of the Pirates who lost 8-7 to the Mets. (LA three back).

A 21, 956
T 2:15