April 25 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 April 25 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1960 at St Louis, wild one at Busch, the Cards were up 5-1 going to the 7th (Giant turned Cardinal Daryl Spencer hit a 3 run homer) we scored 3 to cut it to 5-4, but then gave up 2 in the bottom to hit the 8th trailing 7-4. It wasn't enough - Mays had just tied the game at 7 with a base hit when Willie McCovey hit a two out, two run homer off Bob Duliba.  We won the game 9-8.  It was McCovey's 17th homer of his career.

Walk off 1980 home vs Reds, Tom Seaver against Vida Blue on a Friday night at Candlestick (I think I was there?  Was I there?  I think I was there. I was 9, I may have been there) it took a Darrell Evans 7th inning two run single to tie the game at 3, and two innings later, still 3-3, another Evans single, this one off Doug Bair, scored Roger Metzger to send everyone home (including me?  was I as this game?).  1980 Darrell Evans did what he almost always did in 8 years as the Giants third baseman, 20 homers, about 70 RBI, an OPS+ of around 120.  Just solid work year in and year out.

1982 home vs. Dodgers, you'll like this one - 8th inning, Giants down 3-2, two out, bases loaded, pitching for the Dodgers is a 25 year old Dave Stewart - batting for the Giants is Jeffrey Leonard..Leonard hits a grand slam, the Giants go up 6-3 and that's the final score.  Leonard was a Dodger farmhand, signing with the Dodgers in '73, but only had 11 plate appearances with the big club before being dealt away in '78.  The Giants got him from the Astros for Mike Ivie in '81.  Leonard only had 9 homers in '82, but this one beat his old team.

1999 home vs Rockies, down 5-4 in the 7th, Armando Rios hits a 2 out, 2 run homer off Mike DeJean. We go on to win 7-6.  Rios hit the ball in San Francisco, he had an OPS+ of 145 in '99 and finished his Giants career averaging 123.  We moved Rios and Ryan Vogelsong to the Pirates in '01 for Jason Schmidt in what turned out to be a startlingly good trade, Rios fell apart immediately and was out of the league in two years.

2003 at Phillies, the Giants were 17-4 coming in - 8th inning, 2-2, bases loaded, 2 out - future Giant Pat Burrell's three base error on a JT Snow fly ball scored everyone, we went up 5-2 and took the game 7-4.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!