Jaybird's Jottings

Random Recap, October 3, 1913

Note: I am changing the frequency of the random recap. Instead of one every nine days, I will do them more often or less often, depending on that old enemy time.

I’m also no longer going to do just a random box score by itself. If the random recap is from 1969 to 2003, I will provide the box score from retrosheet in addition to the recap.

And away we go…

October 3, 1913
Game 154 of 156
Second Game of Doubleheader

With the pennant clinched the week before and his Giants coasting, skipper John McGraw didn’t bother to manage this doubleheader held at the Polo Grounds. He was in Philadelphia scouting the A’s who had also clinched.

This 154th game of the season was the second game of a double dip. Resting his regulars, McGraw, or whoever took his place, penciled in a lineup that, at first glance, looks very undistinguished.

But two names do stand out. Jim Thorpe, the legendary athlete who won both the pentathlon and decathlon in the Summer Olympics the year before, led off and played centerfield. Eddie Grant batted and played third. Grant was killed in action in WWI in 1918 and was immortalized at the Polo Grounds three years later with a plaque and monument placed in deep centerfield.

This game was not much of a game. Philadelphia also started some utility hands and in the ninth inning, the Giants lost track of the number of outs. The game ended after nine in a 4-4 tie (For a great research piece on tie games, read Clifford Blau’s The History Of Major League Tie Games.

Lineup/Position/Regular/Position

Thorpe CF /Burns LF
Cooper LF/ Shafer and Herzog 3B
Grant 3B/ Fletcher SS
McCormick RF/ Doyle 2B
Stock SS/ Merkle 1B
Crandall 2B/ Murray RF
McLean C/ Meyers C
Hartley C/ Snodgrass CF
Wilson C
Wiltse 1B
Schupp P
Schauer P

Odds and Ends:

The Giants played 22 doubleheaders in 1913.

Sports columns did not usually contain by-lines.

The Washington Post printed a one column report with both box scores.

The Los Angeles Times covered baseball and the Giants but not this particular game.

The New York Times, on October 5th, wrote a wonderful article on famous citizens who attended games at the Polo Grounds.

How did the season end for the Giants?

The A’s won the series four games to one. Frank “Home Run” Baker, who earned his nickname by hitting two game-winning home runs against the Giants in the 1911 Series, once again proved to be a thorn in New York’s side. The native of Trappe, Maryland hit .450 and drove in 7 runs.

Bonds On The Cover

Barry Bonds, in his poignant, pointing-to-the-heavens pose, will grace the cover of Total Baseball, Completely Revised and Updated: The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia. Historian John Thorn has updated this classic, due for release in April.

Three seasons have past since Total Baseball VII was published (Interesting the latest one is not being touted as TB VIII). Total Baseball was once a must-have for stats lovers, but with more and more information available at sites such as baseball-reference.com, it’s gotten harder and harder to shell out 45 bucks for a baseball encyclopedia.

If you can’t wait or afford TB8, consider Gary Gillette’s The Baseball Encyclopedia. With a price tag of $19.99, it will please your budget officer. And with a little luck, we’ll see it before P’s and C’s report to spring training.

For SABRites, there’s no more waiting for a publication they’ve been looking forward to. Deadball Stars of the National League, a freebie for members, has been shipped. I got my copy in the mail yesterday and have already read some of the write-ups on Giants.

DSOTNL is another wonderful labor of love by the great researchers at SABR. Tom Simon and SABR’s Deadball Era Committee have put this one together. From my first go around, it looks like it lacks sabermetric-stats, but everything else looks great. There’s even the nice touch of the player’s signatures.

The book is 367 pages with about one photo for each flip of the page. It’s organized by team, in order of their cumulative record for the Deadball Era (1901-1919). McGraw’s Giants lead off, thanks to their 1652-1165 record (586 winning percentage). That’s a dozen wins more than the second place Cubs.

There’s 23 stories on Giants, an interesting number if you are a Jints fan. It was on September 23, 1908 that one Fred Merkle took a shortcut into history.

What you might not know is that Merkle went on to have a decent career. In fact, he made the Giants all-era team in this book and is the subject of a heart-warming story in the foreward by Keith Olbermann.

Congrats Mr. Merkle and thank you SABR.

Giants' Fans Memories

This is a continuing series of Giants' Fans Memories. For details, please see my website (History Section).

If you would like to participate, please email me.

Alan Arbizu

Alan Arbizu, 27, is a Software Engineering living in San Jose, California. He writes about the Giants at his blog Arbizu.org

I became a baseball fan because of my grandfather. My dad was not an avid sports fan although he had played soccer and basketball while growing up in Central America. I think since he did not grow up with baseball, he wasn't predisposed to pass on the game to me. My grandfather, however, my mother’s father, had been living in the US since just after World War II, when he had served in the US Navy. He settled in San Francisco and married my grandmother.

I got to hear stories of the San Francisco Seals and the old Pacific League and Dominic DiMaggio. I felt like I had discovered … (Click on History Section).

Damn SBC Park!

“The Polo Grounds look strangely new, and it will be some time before the fans will get accustomed to the new surroundings.” - New York Times, June 29, 1911

A few minutes after midnight, on April 14, 1911, the baseball park where the Giants played their home games in Upper Manhattan, was engulfed in flames. The fire almost completely destroyed the wooden structure.

In the two months leading up to the opening of the new facility on the same site, ailing Giants’ owner John Brush hoped the new concrete and steel, double-decked structure would be called Brush Stadium.

"Fans and news reporters," historian Stew Thornley (Land of the Giants) notes, "had other ideas" and the name Polo Grounds prevailed.

Almost a century later, controversy again swirls around what to call the place the Giants play their home games. Rich Draper, a mlb.com reporter who covers the Giants, has written a front page article about it entitled “Giants' new year rings in SBC Park.”

Draper’s attitude is basically: get over it, it’s now called SBC Park.

That’s obviously the case. The times have changed and there’s not a whole lot fans and news reporters can do about it.

But, I took major exception to something he said in the article about the fan reaction:

”The majority of Giants aficionados don't care what the park is called.”

Now, I realize the Giants’ fan base has changed somewhat since the move from windy Candlestick Point to the milder McCovey Cove. Still missing are some of the hard core fans, replaced by the Johnnies Come Lately with their annoying cell phone chatter. They probably don’t care much about it. They just want their killer seats.

But from what I have seen, at places like Fanhome.com and the Fan Forum at the Giants official site, the majority doesn’t like the name change one bit.

I offer these select comments.

From Fanhome

Topic: Damn SBC Park

I agree that "the bell" has a nice ring to it. I refuse to call it SBC Park. That sounds horrible. Let's get a movement going for "the bell"!

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

That just breaks my heart...

Pac Bell it shall forever be to me.

From Fan Forum at the Giants official site

Topic: SBC Is Now Home (Jan 7)

BARF. I was watching the news last night and its official. its no longer pacific bell park. its now sbc park. its just not working for me..... its always and forever...Pac Bell Park......

..has it occurred to these companies that this kind of naming right business actually gives you a NEGATIVE image, at least as far as the die-hards are concerned?

In due time, the fans will have no choice but to get used to SBC Park. But they do care what the park is called.

Damn SBC Park!

Random Box Score, June 19, 1989

Here’s the latest Random Boxscore but first a brief note about how I select the game.

I go to Random Generator and put in 1969-2003 in the number range. 1969 is the starting point because retrosheet.org does not have boxscores for every game prior to the ’69 season (As they add, so will I).

Then I put in the number of games the Giants played that season including post season if applicable.

On to the game.

Box scores and PBP courtesy of retrosheet.org

Note: retrosheet needs the following games:

From the 1958 season, September 23.

From 1947 to 1957, please check the site's front page under "Retrosheet's Most Wanted."

For details, see the retrosheet web site or contact Dave at [email protected].

San Francisco Giants 3, Houston Astros 2

Game Played on June 19, 1989 (N) at Candlestick Park

HOU N 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 - 2 10 1
SF N 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 x - 3 8 0

Houston Astros AB R H RBI BB K PO A

Hatcher lf 5 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
Young cf 4 0 2 0 0 0 3 0
Doran 2b 4 0 1 0 0 0 3 3
Davis 1b 4 1 1 1 0 1 7 0
Puhl rf 4 0 1 0 0 0 2 0
Caminiti 3b 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 4
Ramirez ss 4 0 2 0 0 1 0 1
Biggio c 3 0 1 0 0 0 6 0
Knepper p 2 1 2 1 0 0 1 0
Reynolds ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Darwin p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Gross ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 36 2 10 2 0 4 24 8

FIELDING -

DP: 1.

E: Ramirez (19).

BATTING -

2B: Puhl (14,off Robinson).

HR: Knepper (1,5th inning off Robinson 0 on, 0 out); Davis (16,6th inning off
Robinson 0 on, 0 out).

SH: Biggio (5,off Bedrosian).

BASERUNNING -

SB: Young (25,2nd base off Robinson/Manwaring).

SF Giants AB R H RBI BB K PO A

Butler cf 4 1 1 0 0 0 4 0
Thompson 2b 4 1 2 1 0 2 3 5
Clark 1b 4 0 1 0 0 1 11 1
Mitchell lf 3 0 1 1 1 0 2 0
Maldonado rf 1 1 0 0 1 0 2 0
Sheridan ph,rf 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Litton 3b 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Riles ph,3b 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Manwaring c 4 0 1 1 0 1 5 0
Uribe ss 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 2
Robinson p 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
Oberkfell ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Bedrosian p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 32 3 8 3 3 6 27 8

BATTING -

3B: Thompson (7,off Knepper); Uribe (4,off Darwin).

HBP: Maldonado (2,by Knepper).

BASERUNNING -

SB: Maldonado (3,2nd base off Knepper/Biggio); Uribe (4,2nd base off Knepper/Biggio).

PITCHING
Houston Astros IP H HR R ER BB K
Knepper L(3-8) 6 7 0 3 3 2 3
Darwin 2 1 0 0 0 1 3
Totals 8 8 0 3 3 3 6

San Francisco Giants IP H HR R ER BB K
Robinson W(6-4) 8 9 2 2 2 0 4
Bedrosian SV(7) 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 9 10 2 2 2 0 4

HBP: Knepper (2,Maldonado).

Umpires: Fred Brocklander, Bob Engel, Paul Runge, Dutch Rennert

Time of Game: 2:40 Attendance: 22386

Starting Lineups:

Houston Astros San Francisco Giants
1. Hatcher lf Butler cf
2. Young cf Thompson 2b
3. Doran 2b Clark 1b
4. Davis 1b Mitchell lf
5. Puhl rf Maldonado rf
6. Caminiti 3b Litton 3b
7. Ramirez ss Manwaring c
8. Biggio c Uribe ss
9. Knepper p Robinson p

ASTROS 1ST: Hatcher flied to Mitchell; Young singled to Uribe
(it was the 3-2 pitch); Doran singled to Mitchell (it was the
first pitch) [Young to second]; Davis popped to Clark; Puhl
grounded out (Clark unassisted); 0 R, 2 H, 0 E, 2 LOB. Astros
0, Giants 0.

GIANTS 1ST: Butler singled to Young (it was the 1-0 pitch);
Thompson tripled to Young (it was the 1-0 pitch) [Butler
scored]; Clark struck out; Mitchell singled to Young (it was the
0-1 pitch) [Thompson scored]; Maldonado grounded into a double
play (Caminiti to Doran to Davis) [Mitchell out at second]; 2 R,
3 H, 0 E, 0 LOB. Astros 0, Giants 2.

ASTROS 2ND: Caminiti popped to Thompson; Ramirez flied to
Maldonado; Biggio singled to Butler (it was the 1-0 pitch);
Knepper singled to Maldonado (it was the 0-1 pitch) [Biggio to
third]; Hatcher struck out; 0 R, 2 H, 0 E, 2 LOB. Astros 0,
Giants 2.

GIANTS 2ND: Litton flied to Young; Manwaring flied to Puhl;
Uribe grounded out (Caminiti to Davis); 0 R, 0 H, 0 E, 0 LOB.
Astros 0, Giants 2.

ASTROS 3RD: Young made an out to Clark; Doran popped to
Manwaring; Davis was called out on strikes; 0 R, 0 H, 0 E, 0
LOB. Astros 0, Giants 2.

GIANTS 3RD: Robinson walked; Butler made an out to Knepper;
Thompson was called out on strikes; Clark flied to Young; 0 R, 0
H, 0 E, 1 LOB. Astros 0, Giants 2.

ASTROS 4TH: Puhl doubled to Maldonado (it was the 1-0 pitch);
Caminiti grounded out (Thompson to Clark) [Puhl to third];
Ramirez struck out; Biggio grounded out (Uribe to Clark); 0 R, 1
H, 0 E, 1 LOB. Astros 0, Giants 2.

GIANTS 4TH: Mitchell grounded out (Caminiti to Davis); Maldonado
walked; Maldonado stole second (it was the 2-2 pitch); Litton
singled to Doran (it was the 2-2 pitch) [Maldonado to third];
Manwaring singled to Hatcher (it was the first pitch) [Maldonado
scored, Litton to second]; Uribe forced Manwaring (Caminiti to
Doran) [Litton to third]; Robinson grounded out (Ramirez to
Davis); 1 R, 2 H, 0 E, 2 LOB. Astros 0, Giants 3.

ASTROS 5TH: Knepper homered (it was the first pitch); Hatcher
popped to Clark; Young grounded out (Thompson to Clark); Doran
flied to Butler; 1 R, 1 H, 0 E, 0 LOB. Astros 1, Giants 3.

GIANTS 5TH: Butler grounded out (Doran to Davis); Thompson
singled to Hatcher (it was the 2-0 pitch); Clark singled to Puhl
(it was the 1-0 pitch) [Thompson to third]; Mitchell popped to
Davis; Maldonado was hit by a pitch (it was the first pitch)
[Clark to second]; Litton lined to Caminiti; 0 R, 2 H, 0 E, 3
LOB. Astros 1, Giants 3.

ASTROS 6TH: Davis homered (it was the first pitch); Puhl
grounded out (Uribe to Clark); Caminiti was called out on
strikes; Ramirez singled to Butler (it was the 2-2 pitch);
Biggio popped to Thompson; 1 R, 2 H, 0 E, 1 LOB. Astros 2,
Giants 3.

GIANTS 6TH: Manwaring flied to Hatcher; Uribe reached on an
error by Ramirez (it was the first pitch); Uribe stole second
(it was the 1-2 pitch); Robinson was called out on strikes;
Butler grounded out (Doran to Davis); 0 R, 0 H, 1 E, 1 LOB.
Astros 2, Giants 3.

ASTROS 7TH: REYNOLDS BATTED FOR KNEPPER; Reynolds flied to
Maldonado; Hatcher flied to Butler; Young singled to Maldonado
(it was the 2-2 pitch); Young stole second (it was the 0-1
pitch); Doran grounded out (Thompson to Clark); 0 R, 1 H, 0 E, 1
LOB. Astros 2, Giants 3.

GIANTS 7TH: DARWIN REPLACED REYNOLDS (PITCHING); Thompson struck
out; Clark flied to Young; Mitchell walked; SHERIDAN BATTED FOR
MALDONADO; Sheridan struck out; 0 R, 0 H, 0 E, 1 LOB. Astros 2,
Giants 3.

ASTROS 8TH: SHERIDAN STAYED IN GAME (PLAYING RF); Davis grounded
out (Thompson to Clark); Puhl flied to Mitchell; Caminiti popped
to Butler; 0 R, 0 H, 0 E, 0 LOB. Astros 2, Giants 3.

GIANTS 8TH: RILES BATTED FOR LITTON; Riles popped to Doran;
Manwaring struck out; Uribe tripled to Young (it was the 1-2
pitch); OBERKFELL BATTED FOR ROBINSON; Oberkfell flied to Puhl;
0 R, 1 H, 0 E, 1 LOB. Astros 2, Giants 3.

ASTROS 9TH: BEDROSIAN REPLACED OBERKFELL (PITCHING); RILES
STAYED IN GAME (PLAYING 3B); Ramirez singled to Butler (it was
the 1-1 pitch); Biggio out on a sacrifice bunt (Clark to
Thompson) [Ramirez to second]; GROSS BATTED FOR DARWIN; Gross
grounded out (Thompson to Clark) [Ramirez to third]; Hatcher
flied to Butler; 0 R, 1 H, 0 E, 1 LOB. Astros 2, Giants 3.

Final Totals R H E LOB
Astros 2 10 1 8
Giants 3 8 0 9

NL West

Team Name G W L PCT GB RS RA

San Francisco Giants 69 41 28 .594 - 304 221
Houston Astros 69 39 30 .565 2.0 279 264
Cincinnati Reds 67 37 30 .552 3.0 269 280
Los Angeles Dodgers 68 34 34 .500 6.5 221 210
San Diego Padres 71 34 37 .478 8.0 232 273
Atlanta Braves 68 27 40 .402 13.0 235 270

Keystone Combos

Matthew Namee, a research assistant for Bill James, has written an excellent pair of articles on second base-shortstop combinations. Entitled "Baseball's Greatest Keystone Combinations," it’s posted at Aaron’s Baseball Blog.

Two Giants tandems made the list. Jeff Kent and Rich Aurilia came in at number ten, followed by Larry Doyle and Art Fletcher.

Namee also wrote "Worst Multi-Year Keystone Chasm." Tito Fuentes and Hal Lanier show up, no surprise to those who have seen their horribly low OPS + figures. (When I was a kid I liked Fuentes just for his name. Looks like ignorance was bliss.)

When I read Namee's article, I was reminded how the lack of a good hitting combo hurt the Giants in the pennant race of 1885. Not so much at short but second base, ouch. David Nemec, in his The Great American Baseball Team Book (1992) notes:

Biggest Disappointment (Giants 1883-1892): Joe Gerhardt, 1885, hit .155 as club’s regular second baseman to contribute heavily to its losing the pennant by a narrow, two-game margin.

Nemec, a 19th Century baseball expert, also talks about it in The Great Encyclopedia of 19th Century Major League Baseball. Gerhardt was “a great fielder,” Nemec notes on page 262, but his 155 BA and 78 total bases “are all-time season lows for an infielder or outfielder in 100 or more games.”

Gerhardt didn’t have any hidden power or on-base skills either (30 OPS+). His partner, John Monte Ward, was considered a good fielder but came in with a 75 OPS + in 1885.

This season, it appears the Giants will have a keystone combo of Ray Durham and Neifi Perez. Durham, no problem. Not the rangiest (is that a word Jay?) second baseman but good sabermetric numbers at the plate.

Perez has very good range but his prowess at the plate is a major concern. Durham and Perez's combined numbers probably won't stink up the place but methinks Giants fans will long for the days of Kent and Aurilia, circa 1999-2001.

Giants Scorecards Needed

Attention Score Keepers.

You've got 'em and the baseball world needs them.

That's right, those play by play accounts you kept on scorecards of Giants games are needed at Dave Smith's wonderful website Retrosheet.org.

The following games are needed:

From the 1958 season, September 23.

From 1947 to 1957, please check the site's front page under "Retrosheet's Most Wanted."

For details, see the retrosheet web site or contact Dave at [email protected].

Thanks!

Jay

Talkin' Baseball

It’s been a while since I gave a prepared speech. But this morning I overcame the jitters and gave a 10-minute presentation to about 15 folks. The occasion was Talking Baseball, a book-and-baseball discussion group held the second Saturday of each month at Border's Books in Columbia, Maryland.

Head honcho Dave Paulson initially asked me to speak about an article I wrote, entitled "Great Giants Pennant Races, Don’t Forget The First One." (At The Giants Journal, click on History, then Pennant Races) I balked because it had been a while since I wrote the article and I did not feel comfortable answering questions. We settled on my website and blog.

I covered these main points.

I began The Giants Journal in Feb 1999. Designed with HTML and I used AOL FTP. Blogging is a lot easier as far as file maintenance.

If traditional magazines rejected my articles, I could always post them to my web site.

Starting about six months ago, I noticed blogs were the place to go for baseball information and analysis.

Explained the difference between a website and a web log. Not easy to do, there’s overlap. Web sites have static pages. Blogs have posts, easier to navigate. Showed examples.

After the question and answer session was over, the mostly over 40 group of baseball fans and history buffs began to talk about ways fans used to receive scores, i.e., newspaper Extras.

I mentioned being overseas and getting the Stars and Stripes newspaper a day late. A friend of mine topped that saying he had to sometimes wait a week.

That's a long ways from today's real time world.

Random Recap

In my December 31st post, I wrote

Came up with an idea yesterday, one I hope you will like. It’ll be called Random Box Scores and it will be just that. Every week or so, I will head over to retrosheet.org and randomly select a Giants Box Score.

I have now decided to also do a Random Recap of a Giants game. A tip of the hat goes out to SABR, whose members now have access to The New York Times, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times via ProQuest.

I will pick a game at random and write up an article. The plan now is a rotation of a Random Boxscore, then nine days later a Random Recap.

On to the first random recap.

Giants at St Louis
July 12, 1901

Overview:

Christy Mathewson was one of the few bright spots for the New York Giants in 1901. The franchise had fallen into a state of disrepair. Gone were the glory years of back-to-back championships in 1888 and 1889. The resurgence, to be lead by skipper John McGraw and Mathewson, was still a few seasons away.

This summer game drew a crowd of 5,000 to League Park in St Louis, not bad for a weekday. In a special report to The New York Times (no by-line), the article notes three factors that drew in the crowd.

The first was the “exciting pennant race” between St Louis and New York. The Cardinals were in second place. The Giants were in fourth, five games back.

The second was St Louis’ good play of late, winners of 7 of 10.

The third factor was undoubtedly the biggest. Mathewson, the “Boy Wonder” as Baseball Library describes him , was having a great rookie season (pitched in 6 games in 1900). On May 15th, the tall and handsome righty grabbed headlines by winning his third straight shutout, a win that put the Giants in first.

In the July 12th game, Mathewson went up against Jack Powell. Teams used relievers in those days but not very often. Mathewson and Powell went at it for 11 innings. Mathewson struck out eight, gave up five hits and one walk but lost 3-2. The Cards scored the winning run in the bottom of the 11th. With no out, future Hall of Famer Bobby Wallace knocked in Dan McGann with the winning run.

Notes:

Box scores back then showed

R 1B PO A E

Walks, called first base on balls, were given below the linescore.

The time of the game was 2 hours and 5 minutes.

Retrosheet reveals a three man rotation for the Giants, although at times it was just Mathewson and Dummy Taylor, who had started the season opener.

The Giants were in the middle of a 17 game road trip. They played 3 more at St Louis. Mathewson pitched the final game on July 15th. He got his revenge for the tough loss three days earlier, tossing a no-hitter. At just 22 years old, his future was very bright.

The Giants finished in next to last place in 1901 but great times were around the corner. Mathewson's excellent 1901 season (137 ERA+) foreshadowed the coming of one of baseball’s greatest dynasties.

Sources:

New York Times via ProQuest
Retrosheet
Baseball-reference
Total Baseball, Seventh Edition

Giants Fan Sites: The Pioneers

Before web logs came along, fan web sites were the place to go for news, links, rants and raves on a team. After I got started with The Giants Journal in February 1999, I remember finding a handful of good Giants fans sites. Between those sites and discussions boards like alt.sports.baseball.sf-giants, a Giants follower could get his or her fill of the stuff they needed to stay in the know about The Big Fellows.

A computer or two later, things have changed considerably. Our Packard Bell Pentium, a speed demon when we bought it in the summer of 1996 (100 MHZ and 8 RAM), is museum material. Baseball Primer has replaced rec.sport.baseball as the place to go to for cutting edge analysis. And technology has made it easier to start up your own site.

Still fascinated with computing and the World Wide Web, and still cutting my teeth on the Giants, I have stuck around to be a part of the next phase of fandom on the web. The newcomers bring a fresh world of knowledge and their nifty sites make it easy to forget those who came before.

So before it is too late, I’d like to tell you about some of the first regulars here at the Giants Cyber-Café.

....I’d like another mocha java. Er, make it a fruit smoothie. Thanks!....

EEEEEE! A Newsletter By and For Annoyed Giants Fans

Gregg Pearlman started EEEEEE! in the summer of 1996. The Giants sucked back then so the name of his site fit perfectly.

I reckon I surfed into Gregg’s site around the early part of 1999. Truth be told, I didn’t like the gray background of his site, but I loved everything else. In terms of writing, his was the most prolific Giants’ site at the time. Gregg got himself a team of writers and they covered the Lads like a blanket.

Gregg was a regular at the discussion boards and provided thoughtful insight on the Giants. His site is not as active as it once was, but contains enough writing to keep you occupied for quite a long time.

EEEEEE! didn’t go for the whistles and bells. They gave you great content and was arguably the best Giants’ site of its time.

Dave Farmar’s Giants Page

Put in Dave Farmar at google and the first search hit you'll get is his now retired site. It goes back to at least early 1996. Dave had, hands down, the most comprehensive list of Giants links. His design made good use of the orange and black color scheme and went far beyond the typical site in terms of something cool to look at.

Dave’s site retired in 2000. His front page is frozen in time, showing the final standings for that great season. He must have figured the 11 game finish ahead of the Dodgers was the best time to go out.

And you gotta love this entry:

alt.sports.baseball.la-dodgers (Please Flame)

Valerie’s San Francisco Giants Page

Giants magazine raved about Val's site in the summer of 2000.

"Produced by Giants faithful Valerie, this is the most comprehensive fan site out there."

As great as Val’s site still is, it also demonstrates a paradox. With great graphics, links, information, polls, scoreboards, forums, features, and her thematic set-up, her site has a lot to offer.

But without the front page running commentary a blog provides, something is lacking. Ton Zijlstra explains:

"The difference between a website and a weblog is like the difference between a photo and film. Yes, it's both pictures, but the richness of the message conveyed is much bigger in the latter. It's the elapsing of time, grasped in the weblog, where in the more static website formats at best a number of stills is produced."

Having said that, sites like this one can still be vital and Val’s site is.

Giants Fans Beyond The Bay

Michael Wells was also a well-known early player. I love the title of his site because it fit me and many others – Giants Fan Beyond The Bay.

From his guestbook I found this entry

Name: Jay Roberts
E-mail address: [email protected]
Comments and Questions: Great job with the website. I am a SABR member too and was wondering if you were at SABR 28 in SF. Will have to meet you some day!
How Did You Find Us?: SABR-L
My Favorite Giant is: Bonds
Tuesday, November 10th 1998 - 06:27:37 AM

And this

Name: Charles
E-mail address: [email protected]
Comments and Questions: Is this web site still active?
How Did You Find Us?: Giants Journal
My Favorite Giant is: Rich Aurilia
Sunday, June 8th 2003 - 07:35:27 PM

San Francisco Giants Virtual Lounge

Gus’s site really made you feel you were in GiantLand. I remember being so captured by the way he got all the colors right. GVL is no longer active but is a must see for things like the 2nd Annual CyberGate tailgate party of GVL regulars at Candlestick. There’s also blogging type entries for the 1998 season.

Sarah’s J.T. Snow Page

I would imagine when Sarah found out that the Giants were bringing J.T. Snow back for the 2004 season, she let out a big yell. She's been around a while too and was one of the five sites recognized by GIANTS magazine (I don’t think GIANTS magazine has a website).

Looks like Sarah has not updated her site in a while although I did find a January 2004 entry in her guestbook.

Conclusion

Well there you have it, a brief review of those early pioneers. I don't doubt I missed a few. For one, I can’t find the complete list of sites (9 in all) that the Giants Virtual Dugout recognized on May 6, 1999.

I have a print out of the first site mentioned (mine) in the article (Surfing With The Fans), but didn’t keep the rest. I tried The Wayback Machine, an archive search engine, but was not able to find that article.

If someone does find it, I’d be very much obliged if you could send it to me.

Thanks,

Jay