6 G i a n t s GIANTS ON THE MOVE n 1776 a Spanish mission was established by Franciscan monks on the West Coast of the United States in what is now northern California This settlement was named Yerba Buena Spanish for good herb on account of an herb that grew there and was used as medicine Eventually Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco after Saint Francis The town grew slowly for 72 years until gold was discovered nearby in 1848 Then over the next 18 months thousands upon thousands of gold-seeking Forty-niners poured into the area quickly turning San Francisco into the largest American city west of the Mississippi River Only a few of the new arrivals struck it rich but most stayed in the area and helped build it up into a great cultural and economic center More than 100 years later in 1958 a new migration occurred when the Giants and Dodgers of professional baseball’s National League NL decided to move west from their original homes in New York City the Giants settling in San Francisco and the Dodgers in Los Angeles The I
Long known as a fashionable city San Francisco represented an attractive destination when big league baseball started to spread west
ALL-TIME GIANTS G i a n t s 8 San Francisco Giants (cid:39)(cid:32)(cid:43)(cid:26)(cid:31)(cid:28)(cid:41)(cid:1)(cid:76)(cid:1)CHRISTY MATHEWSON A powerful right-hander Matty routinely tied batters in knots with his baffling fadeaway pitch The Giants all-time leader in earned-run average ERA shutouts wins complete games strikeouts and innings pitched Mathewson posted 4 seasons with 30 or more wins during his career Along with greats Honus Wagner Walter Johnson Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb Mathewson was part of the initial induction class into the Baseball Hall of Fame A college-educated man Mathewson was also an accomplished checkers player and he once beat world champion Newell Banks who reigned as checkers king from 1917 to 1922 and from 1933 to 1934 STATS Giants seasons 1900 16 Height 6-foot-1 Weight 195 (cid:115)(cid:0)(cid:18)(cid:12)(cid:21)(cid:16)(cid:23)(cid:0)(cid:67)(cid:65)(cid:82)(cid:69)(cid:69)(cid:82)(cid:0)(cid:83)(cid:84)(cid:82)(cid:73)(cid:75)(cid:69)(cid:79)(cid:85)(cid:84)(cid:83) (cid:115)(cid:0)(cid:17)(cid:18)(cid:0)(cid:67)(cid:79)(cid:78)(cid:83)(cid:69)(cid:67)(cid:85)(cid:84)(cid:73)(cid:86)(cid:69)(cid:0)(cid:18)(cid:16)(cid:13)(cid:87)(cid:73)(cid:78)(cid:0)(cid:83)(cid:69)(cid:65)(cid:83)(cid:79)(cid:78)(cid:83) (cid:115)(cid:0)(cid:18)(cid:14)(cid:17)(cid:19)(cid:0)(cid:67)(cid:65)(cid:82)(cid:69)(cid:69)(cid:82)(cid:0)(cid:37)(cid:50)(cid:33) (cid:115)(cid:0)(cid:34)(cid:65)(cid:83)(cid:69)(cid:66)(cid:65)(cid:76)(cid:76)(cid:0)(cid:40)(cid:65)(cid:76)(cid:76)(cid:0)(cid:79)(cid:70)(cid:0)(cid:38)(cid:65)(cid:77)(cid:69)(cid:0)(cid:73)(cid:78)(cid:68)(cid:85)(cid:67)(cid:84)(cid:69)(cid:69)(cid:0) (cid:8)(cid:17)(cid:25)(cid:19)(cid:22)(cid:9) Christy Mathewson Pitcher
relocations meant that for the first time major league baseball would be played from coast to coast The Giants brought a long history and a winning tradition with them to San Francisco The club had been formed in 1883 as the Gothams and it played its first games just north of New York’s Central Park on a field that had once been used for polo games From then on that field and a stadium later built a little farther north were known as the Polo Grounds In 1885 the Gothams made a strong run at the NL pennant finishing 2 games behind the powerful Chicago Cubs after winning 85 games and losing only 27 a remarkable 759 winning percentage Pitchers Tim Keefe and Mickey Welch combined for 76 of the team’s wins and first baseman Roger Connor batted a league-leading 371 According to legend New York manager Jim Mutrie was so thrilled by his team’s success that he greeted them in the dugout one day as My big fellows my giants The new name caught on with sportswriters and fans The Giants won their first pennant in 1888 led by Connor Keefe and future Hall-of-Famer Buck Ewing who is considered by many baseball historians to be the best catcher of the 19th century Ewing G i a n t s 9
