What is this all about?
Here are the Top 5 April 20 moments in San Francisco Giants history
1964 home vs Reds 8th inning, 2-2, bases loaded, 2 out, Reds left fielder Bob Skinner misplayed a Tom Haller fly ball, allowing Mays to score the go ahead run in what turned out to be a Giants 5-2 win. Haller was the starting quarterback for the University of Illinois when he signed with the Giants in '58; three years later he was catching for the big club. Haller could hit, except for his rookie season and the last year of his career his OPS+ was over 100 each year. We moved him to the Dodgers in '68, it was the first west coast trade between the two organizations. He came back as a bullpen coach in '77 and worked his way up to VP of Baseball Operations until being let go in '85.
1976 at Atlanta, we were down 8-1 after 3, but 3 in the 6th, 1 in the 7th, 1 in the 8th had us down 11-10 in the 9th inning, Dave Rader doubled home Chris Speier off Elias Sosa to tie the score.
1976 at Atlanta, same game in the 10th, Sosa's still in the game for the Braves - he gives up a 1 out homer to Gary Matthews for the final margin of victory. A year later Matthews, who came up to the Giants when he was 21 and won the rookie of the year in '73, would be a Brave, signing with Atlana after the season as a free agent.
1984 home vs Reds, down 4-2 in the 8th, 1 out, bases loaded for Scot Thompson - he pinch singles home 2 off Tom Hume to tie the game - we'd go ahead on a Hume wild pitch and win 6-4. Thompson was an actively bad major league player, sub-replacement for his 8 year career (so, of course, why not sign him as a free agent). This was his first of two Giants seasons, his second ever Giants hit.
2012 at Mets, 3-3 in the 10th, 2 on, 2 out, Hector Sanchez singles off Frank Francisco, scoring Melky to give us the 4-3 lead, which would be the final score. Sanchez had an OPS+ of 75 in five seasons as a backup catcher in San Francisco; my bet is no other organization ever gives him 600 PA.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
