All Time San Francisco Giants Starting 9: 1958-69

Here would be the top lineup, position by position, year by year, for the San Francisco Giants from their first year, 1958, until the end of the 60s.  Note, I'm strictly adhering to the dominant position for each player in each season (you won't see Mays at each OF position; he played center).

The number is my WAR, made from combining baseball-reference and Davenport.  



C Tom Haller 1967 4.0
-Haller had 5 of the top 6 seasons.

1B Willie McCovey 1969 8.05
-McCovey had 5 of the top 6 seasons

2B Ron Hunt 1968 5.15
-Hunt was 1-2.

SS Daryl Spencer 1958 3.85
-The only representative from that first SFG team to hold his spot through a dozen years.

3B Jim Ray Hart 1966 5.85
-Hart had the top three seasons.

LF Willie McCovey 1963 6.05
-McCovey beats out Cepeda at both positions.

CF Willie Mays 1964 10.95
-The 8 best Giants position player seasons in this period were from Mays.  8.  The 60s Giants weren't Mays, McCovey, Cepeda, the 60s Giants were Mays.

RF Bobby Bonds 1969 5.95

P Juan Marichal 1965 10.75
-Marichal has 6 of the top 7 slots.

RP Frank Linzy 1965 4.25

And the worst Giant season....

RF Jesus Alou 1966 -2.45

The Top 22 San Francisco Giants of All Time

Updated through 2014.  This is career value as a San Francisco Giant only; the number is my WAR number (B-Ref+Davenport/2). It's every player with 20+ career WAR in San Francisco.

1.       Bonds 114

2.       Mays 106.25

3.       Marichal 68.6

4.       McCovey 63

5.       WClark 39.3

6.       Perry 38.55

7.       Kent 36.2

8.       Thompson 32.75

9.       Cepeda 32.35

11.   Cain 31

11.   Williams 30.8

12.   Bo Bonds 29.9

13.   J Clark 28.2

14.   Barr 26.85
15. Posey 24.85

16.   Speier 24.25
17. Sandoval 23.15

18.   Evans 23.05

19.   Lincecum 21.4

20.   Hart 21.8

21.   Lavelle 21.45

22.   Schmidt 20.05

   2013: Lincecum's second straight sub replacement season keeps him from advancing.  Cain wasn't much better in 2013, but his year was enough to move him into the top 10.  Posey is now at 18.75 and we'll see him crack the top 20 after 2013.  This is bad hoodoo, but if Posey doesn't finish his Giants career in the top 5 it would be an enormous surprise.  

   2014: Cain gave back a little bit but still held his spot.  Lincecum gave back a lot, for the third straight year, but still kep his spot.  The big news is Posey, now, for overall value, one of the top 15 San Francisco Giants ever and Sandoval, in what might be his last season as a Giant, cracking the top 20. At some point I'll consider more than overall value and compose a larger list also including New York Giants.  

Wrapping it Up - the 2013 San Francisco Giants

You can get to 2012 here.

The 2013 Giants were not good - with 74 pythagorean wins, this is the 12th worst San Francisco Giants club ever.  Each year, I break down the performance by WAR (B-Ref+Davenport) to put the season in perspective. The number next to each player represents his WAR.

C BPosey 5.35
-a more than 2.5 win drop from 2012; this now becomes the second greatest season ever for a SFG catcher

1B BBelt 4.85
-2 win gain for Belt in his best season yet.

2B MScutaro 2.4
-almost identical to his performance the season before

SS BCrawford 1.85
- a drop of over a win from '12.

3B PSandoval 2.15
-a drop of over a win from '12

LF GBlanco 1.95
- a 3 win drop from Melky Cabrera's 2012.

CF APagan 1.05
-a 3.5 win drop from '12.  You see why we only won 74 pythag?

RF HPence 5.7
-The Giants best player in 2013; and a nearly 6 win gain.

OF JPerez 1.05
-The only other position player worth noting; Perez was worth a win in under 100 PA, he should be a real contender for more playing time at least as a useful 4th OF next year.

P MBumgarner 4.6
-almost a 2.5 win gain for Bumgarner, he was not quite as good as Cain, last year's ace.
 
    Things are about to get ugly.

    MCain .95
-As in less than one WAR. Cain lost 4 wins.

    YPetit .55
-Petit, at half a win, was our third best starting pitcher (4th, really, Gaudin was a swingman and will appear in a second)

    TLincecum -.3
-Lincecum's a sub replacement level pitcher, two straight seasons.  You should not be rooting for his return.

    R.Vogelsong -2.05
    B. Zito -2.85

The previous worst season for any San Francisco Giants player was Terry Mulholland's -2.35 in 1995.

This is half a win worse.  Barry Zito's 2013 is the worst season for any San Francisco Giant ever. A fitting end to his Giants career (Vogelsong is bottom ten ever)

Notable Rest:

P CGaudin 1.6
   S Romo 1.95
   S.Casilla 1.65
   J.Lopez 1.35
   J. Machie 1.15

2013 MLB Awards

Final results are in for the 2013 season.  Here is my ballot for MVP/Cy followed by the best player at each position in both leagues.

NL MVP
1. Paul Goldschmidt
2. Clayton Kershaw
3. Carlos Gomez

NL Cy
1. Clayton Kershaw
2. Cliff Lee
3. Jose Fernandez

AL MVP
1. Mike Trout
2. Miguel Cabrera
3. Chris Davis

AL Cy
1. Hisashi Iwakuma
2. Max Scherzer
3. Anibal Sanchez

NL All Stars
C Yadier Molina
1B Paul Goldschmidt
2B Matt Carpenter
SS Andrelton Simmons
3B David Wright
LF Carlos Gonzalez
CF Carlos Gomez
RF Hunter Pence
P Clayton Kershaw

AL All Stars
C Joe Mauer
1B Chris Davis
2B Robinson Cano
SS Jhonny Peralta
3B Miguel Cabrera
LF Alex Gordon
CF Mike Trout
RF Shane Victorino
DH David Ortiz
P Hisashi Iwakuma




  

#FarewellCandlestick: The 100 Greatest Moments in Candlestick Park History #92

#93 is here.

#92 December 7, 2003 6 Scores for Garcia

Terrell Owens scored twice on his 30th birthday, Kevan Barlow ran for over 150 yards - and Jeff Garcia accounted for six touchdowns, 4 through the air and two on the ground as the Niners hung 50 on Arizona.

#91 is tomorrow

#FarewellCandlestick: The 100 Greatest Moments in Candlestick Park History #93

#94 is here.

#93 June 29, 1980 McCovey Beats the Dodgers One Last Time

In mid June of 1980, Willie McCovey announced that he'd retire at the All-Star Break, a week later, he pinch hit a walk off double to beat the Dodgers in the first game of a doubleheader. One last great moment for probably the most beloved of all Candlestick Giants.

#92 is tomorrow.

#FarewellCandlestick: The 100 Greatest Moments in Candlestick Park History #94

#95 is here.

#94 September 3, 1973 The Bobby Bonds Walk Off

You love a walk off homer, right?  How about this - a walk off homer that reverses the game; meaning you're losing - but then hit a walk off homer and win?  Now how about if that happens against the Dodgers?

In Candlestick history - that happened once.  The Giants trailed 8-1 in the 7th giving LA a 99% win expectancy.  The Giants scored 6 in the 7th, but still went into the 9th down 8-7; we loaded the bases and then Bobby Bonds hit a walk off grand slam reversal to beat the Dodgers.

How cool is that?

#93 tomorrow.

#FarewellCandlestick: The 100 Greatest Moments in Candlestick Park History #95

#96 is here.

#95 September 11, 2011 Ted Ginn Returns 2 4th Quarter Kicks



On Jim Harbaugh's debut as 49er head coach, Ted Ginn took 2 kicks back for scores, a 102 yard kickoff and a 55 yard punt, both with less than 4 minutes to go against Seattle.

Tomorrow #94

#FarewellCandlestick: The 100 Greatest Moments in Candlestick Park History #96

#97 is here.

#96. September 20, 2009 Frank Gore Goes for 207

The two greatest yardage days for a 49er running back both belong to Frank Gore, and both were in Candlestick games against Seattle.  In this one, Gore had touchdown runs of 79 and 80 yards, finishing with 207 rushing and a career high 246 from scrimmage.  The Niners won their 2009 home opener and moved to 2-0 on the not yet disappointing season.

#95 is tomorrow.

Supercontest - Week 4

I'm 5-10 overall.

Houston +2.5 Seattle loss
Buff +3 Balt win
S Diego +2.5 Dallas win
Oak +3 Wash loss
Cle +4 Cinc win

Edit on Thursday AM.

3-2
8-12

Athlete of the Month - September, 2013

August is here.

Peyton Manning.  Runners-up: Serena Williams, Floyd Mayweather, Josh Donaldson

9 months down.

January - Colin Kaepernick

February - Joe Flacco

March - LeBron James

April - Justin Upton

May-Clayton Kershaw

June - Patrick Kane  

July - Andy Murray

August- Mike Trout
September - Peyton Manning

#FarewellCandlestick: The 100 Greatest Moments in Candlestick Park History #97

#98 is here.

#97 July 10, 1984 The All-Star Game





The second All Star Game held at Candlestick; Fernando Valenzuela and a 19 year old rookie Dwight Gooden struck out the AL side in consecutive innings (Fernando got Hall of Famers - Winfield, Reggie, Brett) Gooden was baseball's phenom in '84, the youngest player in All Star history.  The NL won and a Giants legend from a prior era, Carl Hubbell, threw out the first ball.

#96 is tomorrow.

College Football Picks - Week 4

Last week is here. I'm 12-18-1 overall.

Iowa St. +2.5 Tulsa win
UCF +7.5 SCarolina win
N Illinois -3 Purdue win
UConn -1 Buffalo loss
Ariz +10.5 Wash loss
NMex +2.5 UNLV loss

3-3
15-21-1

#FarewellCandlestick: The 100 Greatest Moments in Candlestick Park History #98

#99 is here.

#98. October 17, 1989 The Earthquake



Scheduled to be the first World Series game in Candlestick Park in more than a quarter century (question, why did the Gatlin Brothers sing the National Anthem? Was Huey Lewis in a Thai prison?) instead an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale postponed for ten days what would be an A's win leading to a series sweep.

Is it a great moment?  It's an important moment, a moment the history of baseball can't be written without, and if we remove the loss of life and the general devastation and just make it a game postponing thunderstorm, the first scheduled WS game at Candlestick since '62 probably makes the list, so this does as well.

#97 comes tomorrow.

#FarewellCandlestick: The 100 Greatest Moments in Candlestick Park History #99

#100 is here.



#99. August 22, 1965 The Johnny Roseboro Incident

Juan Marichal, the greatest pitcher in Candlestick Park history, hit the Dodgers catcher, Johnny Roseboro, over the head with a bat.

And we won the game.

When you put it like that, it sounds like this should be higher.

A black mark, obviously, on Marichal's career, but an indelible moment in the greatest rivalry in baseball.

Back tomorrow with #98

#FarewellCandlestick: The 100 Greatest Moments in Candlestick Park History #100

There are roughly a hundred productive days left in the life of Candlestick Park; my home stadium by birth (for better and worse).

Over the next 100 days, I'll count down the 100 greatest moments in the history of Candlestick.  Ideally, the three which come in at the bottom will wind up knocked off this list before the stadium gets blown up.  A big regular season Niner win; two home playoff wins gets that done.

Here we go.

#100. August 29, 1966 The Beatles Last Concert



Here's the set list:

Rock And Roll Music,
She's A Woman, 
If I Needed Someone, 
Day Tripper, 
Baby's In Black,
I Feel Fine, 
Yesterday
I Wanna Be Your Man, 
Nowhere Man, Paperback Writer 
Long Tall Sally.

Why so low?  Why is the last concert by one of the great artists in the history of western civilization #100 on the list?  

I don't own a George Harrison t-shirt.  That's not the church at which I pray.  

Back tomorrow with #99. 

NFL Supercontest - Week 3

I went 4-1 last week. I'm 4-6 overall.

Arizona +7 NO loss
St Louis +4 Dallas loss
Jacksonville +19 Seattle loss
Indianapolis +10 SF win
Pittsburgh +2 1/2 Chicago loss

1-4
5-10

College Football Picks - Week 4

Good week last week I'm now 11-12-1.  Here are this week's picks.

FAU +5.5 Mid. Tenn St. loss
WVA +6.5 Mary loss
Hawaii +2.5 Nevada loss
Kansas St. +5.5 Texas loss
Wyo -4 AForce win
Idaho +32.5 Wash St loss
NMexSt. +43.5 UCLA loss

1-6
12-18-1

2013 Emmy Predictions

Here are my Emmy predictions, who I think will win/who should win.

Comedy Series Will: Louie Should: 30 Rock

Modern Family is the solid, maybe overwhelming favorite - but this would be its fourth win, putting it in a very small cohort (30 Rock only won three times, for example) and Modern Family isn't that kind of show.

The problem is the rest of the field is then wide open, you could make an argument for each of the remaining nominees (my choice, 30 Rock, is probably the least likely; my vote, had it been nominated, would have gone to Arrested Development...and if I had a vote.)

Louie has a ton of noms, suggesting that it's the most likely of the non Modern Family candidates.  If it wins for writing/directing early in the night look out.

Comedy Actress: Will: Julia Louis-Dreyfus Should: Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Veep is terrific; with no 30 Rock or Arrested Development on the upcoming season's lineup, it's the best sitcom on television.  JLD just kills it every week; this is not a "we really liked Elaine so let's pick Julia" award; she's tremendous.

Comedy Actor: Will: Louis CK Should: Jason Bateman

Louis CK is that entire show, and if I'm picking it to win best comedy, he has to win best actor.  If you decide to invest in the comedy series upset and this category goes to anyone else, strongly hedge that bet.

Any result in the category, even Cheadle, whose show isn't very good (and certainly isn't very funny) delivers constantly, as you'd expect.  Arrested Development got overlooked, probably hit by some backlash as to the level of anticipation about its release and a challenge viewers had in piecing together the Netflix model, so my vote goes to its nominee, Bateman.

Comedy Supporting: Will: Jane Krakowski Should: Jane Krakowski
                                   Will: Ty Burrell Should: Tony Hale

Julie Bowen's won twice in a row, but my projected Modern Family fatigue hits her in this scenario, and with Fey and Baldwin not winning for 30 Rock, its farewell award as the best comedy since Arrested Development goes to Krakowski.

I'll say Burrell gets Modern Family's only trophy from these categories; Hale is terrific on both Veep and AD, this is a Veep nom. but my ballot would reflect an awareness of both roles.

Drama Series Will: Breaking Bad Should: Mad Men

Breaking Bad is the second best drama on television and one of the ten greatest dramas ever produced; it will win.  I don't share the collective wisdom that this was a down year for the best drama on television and one of the five best ever produced, so my vote goes to Mad Men

Drama Actor: Will: Bryan Cranston Should: Bryan Cranston

Jon Hamm should have at least one and probably two Emmys by now, but even a Mad Men as best show on television extremist would not select his over Cranston this year.  If there is an upset, it's Kevin Spacey.

Drama Actress: Will: Kerry Washington Should: Claire Danes

An African-American has never won this category and Washington has an increasingly large profile.  It would be a solid upset over Danes, television's best dramatic actor.

Drama Supporting:  Will: Mandy Patinkin Should: Mandy Patinkin
                               Will: Anna Gunn Should: Anna Gunn

Aaron Paul is the favorite, but he's won twice, and with Homeland losing the awards it won a year ago in this prognostication, my vote goes to Patinkin, on whom I've had a dude crush since at least Princess Bride.

Maggie Smith is probably the favorite, but I'll say this is the year Gunn gets the award.

Movie/Mini: Will: Behind the Candelabra Should Top of the Lake
Actress: Will/Should: Elisabeth Moss
Actor: Will: Michael Douglas Should: Matt Damon
Reality Comp: Will: The Amazing Race Should: Top Chef
Variety Series: Will: Daily Show Should/Colbert Report

           Not offering predictions on the writing/directing awards (but watch Louie) or the mini supporting categories.    

75 Greatest Baseball Moments in Candlestick Park History

A year ago I put together this look at the 72 greatest football moments in Candlestick Park history. My eye was on saving 3 for the final season rounding it out at 75.

It wasn't just football they played at the Stick; its been 14 years, but there used to be a baseball park there too. Here are the 75 greatest baseball moments at Candlestick.  At least one for each year of its existence.  In chronological order.  I may combine the baseball and football lists and rank them qualitatively when the season nears an end, probably shaving down to 100.

1.       4-12-60 Giants v. Cards

-First game at Candlestick, Sam Jones throws 3 hitter. 

2. 7-11-61 All Star Game

-NL gets two in the tenth to win, Stu Miller cements Stick national reputation by getting blown off the mound. Mays doubled in the tying run in the tenth and then scored the winning run.

3.       4-16-62 d. Dodgers

Scored 19 against LA.  Billy O’Dell threw a complete game despite giving up 19 baserunners. Mays hit his 4^th of the first six games of season.

4.       5-27-62 Swept a doubleheader against the Mets, got into a brawl

5.       8-12-62 Best Giants team ever down 5.5 to LA when Dodgers came in for 3, this finished off a sweep to get us to 2.5. Marichal threw a 4 hitter and struck out 8.  That’s the Giants are watering the basepaths to slow down Wills game.

6.       9-30-62 Even with 101 wins we went into the last day of the season down 1, but LA lost and we beat Houston 2-1 to force a playoff, Mays homered in the 8^th to break the tie.

7.       10-1-62 Beat Koufax 8-0 0 Mays hit two homers, Billy Pierce threw a three hitter, the Giants take the first game of the 3 game playoff.

8.       10-5-62 Game 2 of the Series, Jack Sanford throws a three hitter, Willie McCovey homers, we even up the WS with a 2-0 win over NYY

9.       10-15-62 down 3-2 SFG stays alive in Game 6, Piece throws the ever popular 3 hitter, Cepeda gets 3 hits by himself.  We force game 7

10.   6-15-63 Marichal no-hits Houston, first franchise no hitter since Hubbell. 

11.   7-2-63 Marichal beats Spahn, 1-0 in 16, both pitchers going the distance.  Marcihal struck out 10, Mays walk off HR in the 16^th.  Magic.

12.   8-27-63 Mays’s 400^th HR  We beat Cards 7-2.

13.   4-14-64 Mays hit two opening day homers off Spahn, we win 8-4

14.   8-22-65 The Marichal/Roseboro game. We beat Koufax, Mays hit a three run HR.

15.   9-8-65 Fewer than 9,000 paid to see us take first place for the first time all season, in the middle of a 14 game winning streak, beating Houston 12-3. Mays homered twice. 

16.   5-4-66 Mays hit his 500^th on the road in ’65, but this was his 512^th, breaking Mel Ott’s NL record, and it was against the Dodgers in a 6-1 win.

17.   5-26-66 Marichal nearly repeated that Spahn duel, he went 14, shutting out Phillies, striking out 10. A Davenport triple/Barton sac fly got us the walk off 1-0 win.

18.   7-22-66 The most strikeouts by a SFG pitcher in one game?  15 – Gaylord Perry, here, against the Phillies. We won 4-1. 

19.   9-27-67 In front of less than 4,000 paid, McCovey hit his second grand slam in four days, we beat the Mets 7-2 and were 2 out with 5 left. 

20.   9-17-68 Gaylord no-hit the Cards, 1-0, striking out 9.  They no-hit us the next day. 

21.   9-16-69 Marichal threw his second shutout in 4 days, against the Braves 2-0, and we went into first place with 2 ½ weeks left. 

22.   9-21-69, 41,000 paid, our biggest crowd in 2 ½ years, and we beat LA 4-3 in 10 to keep a half game lead with a week and a half left.  LA intentionally walked McCovey with nobody on and 2 out in the 10^th – then gave up back to back unintentional walks and lost the game on an error.

23.   7-18-70, Mays’s 600^th HR, like his 500^th, was on the road the previous year – but his 3,000^th hit came in a home win 10-1, against the Expos.   

24.   8-28-70 Marichal’s 200^th win, one of only 4 pitchers since 1920 to win 200 before losing 100.  Only 6000 paid to see him beat Pirates 5-1.

25.   9-27-70 Russ Hodges’s last home game as the SFG announcer.  We beat Padres 3-2

26.   5-31-71 The high point of the division winning season; Mays hit his 11^th HR and scored winning run in the 11^th, we beat Mets 2-1 to go 23 over .500 with a 10.5 game lead. 

27.   10-2-71 Our first postseason game since the ’62 WS; we win Game 1 of the NLCS, 5-4 over the Pirates. Mccovey and Fuentes both homered in the 5^th. 

28.   7-21-72 The first sub .500 SFG team, Mays hit his 650^th HR against us and the Mets beat us.  His last Stick HR.

29.   4-12-73 McCovey hit two homers in the same inning, we beat Houston 9-3 to go 6-1 on the season. 

30.   5-1-73 The high water mark of ’73, we went to 19-6 with a 4 game lead when, down 7-1 to the Pirates with 2 outs in the 9^th we scored 7 runs and won 8-7.  We had a -0 Win Probability.  But Chris Arnold hit a grand slam, his only HR of the year – and Bobby Bonds finished with a 3 run triple.

31.   7-15-73 McCovey hit 2, including his 400^th, in a 12-0 win over Bucs.

32.   9-16-74 we were only 5 back when fewer than a thousand paid to see us beat the Braves in a 98 minute game.

33.   8-24-75, Candlestick’s third no-hitter, Ed Halicki walking two in beating the Mets 6-0 in the back half of a doubleheader. 

34.   6-23-76 Darrell Evans Candlestick debut as a Giant, a HR/Triple in the first game, a grand slam in the second game – Giants sweep doubleheader against Padres.

35.   4-15-77 Mays and Marichal didn’t come back – but McCovey did, this is his return to Candlestick as Giants first baseman.  He walked twice, but we lost to Dodgers.

36.   5-14-78 How about a double header sweep of the Cards, both games going extra innings, that put us in first place?  Game 1 was 5-4, Terry Whitfield hit a walk off homer in the 12^th.  Game 2 was 4-3, Whitfield doubling and scoring winning run in the 10^th.

37.   5-28-78 56,000 paid to watch the Giants go up 1.5, we beat LA 6-5 on a Mike Ivie grand slam.

38.   9-3-78 a doubleheader sweep of the Phillies put us 23 over .500 and a game out of first, as close as we had been so late in the season in years.  Bob Knepper had a complete game in Game One, Hector Cruz had a two out, two run single in the bottom of the 8^th to give us a come from behind win in game two.

39.   4-10-79 all downhill after the home opener, Vida Blue beat Gaylord Perry in a complete game, John Tamargo hit a walkoff homer off another former Giant, John D’Acquisto, and we beat Roger Craig’s Padres 4-2.

40.   4-17-80 another season where the home opener is the highpoint, another complete game for Vida to beat the Padres. McCovey had three hits.

41.   10-4-81 we hovered around .500 all season, the very last day that’s where we stood, a win would knock us over – we scored 3 in the 8^th to beat the Padres 4-3.

42.   8-6-82 On July 30, the Giants were 13.5 out.  We went on for the best run of Giants baseball in a decade with a ten game winning streak to get us to 4 back.  The Giants were down here 6-0 to Nolan Ryan in the 6^th, giving the Astros a 98% win expectancy.  Chili Davis and Jack Clark homered to get us to 604, and still down 2 in the bottom of the 9^th, Clark and Reggie Smith homered and three singles later we won 7-6

43.   8-8-82, two days later we swept a doubleheader from the Astros.  We scored 2 in the bottom of the 9^th to win game 1 3-2, that got us over .500 for the first time all season. 

44.   9-30-82, we went into the last 3 days of the season 1 game out after scoring 2 in the bottom of the night to beat Houston 7-6. Ron Pruitt had two hits as a Giant, one of them was a 2 out, 2 run, 9^th inning single to put us right in the middle of the pennant race.

45.   10-3-82, the Dodgers knocked us out with wins in the first two games of the last series of the season, but we knocked them out with a  3 run Joe Morgan homer in the 7^th

46.   6-15-83 Darrell Evans hit 3 homers against Houston

47.   7-10-84 The last All Star Game at the Stick, the NL won, Dwight Gooden became the youngest player, 19, in ASG history, striking out three in two innings.

48.   4-9-85 the everpopular opening day as the best moment of the season, Vida got the win in relief, Chris Brown broke a 3-3 tie against, who else, the Padres with a walk off single. 

49.   6-22-86 47,000 to see the Giants sweep a doubleheader over Houston to go up 1.5 in the West. Mike Krukow struck out 7 in a complete game one and Robby Thompson scored the winning run in game two as the Giants won a game in which Mike Scott, in his career year, was the opposing pitcher.

50.   10-10-87 Game 4 of the NLCS, down 2 games to 1. In the playoffs for the first time in 16 years.  We’d lost the night before, needing to win to even the series. Krukow threw a complete game; Jeffrey Leonard grabbed the sports headlines with his one flap down home run trot and we tied the series.

51.   10-11-87 Game 5 of the NLCS, Joe Price threw 5 innings of one hit ball in relief of Rick Reuschel and we moved one game away from our first World Series since 1962.  We didn’t score another run.

52.   7-9-88 Not exactly revenge, we scored 21 against the Cards.  Chris Speier hit for the cycle.

53.   8-10-89 On a Thursday afternoon, Dave Dravecky came back after months of cancer treatments to go 8, beat the Reds 4-3 and put us up 3. 

54.   10-7-89 Game 3 of the NLCS, with the series tied, we were down 4-3 in the 7^th inning, Robby Thompson hit a two run HR that held up.

55.   10-8-89 Game 4 of the NLCS, Greg Maddux is one of the great pitchers who ever lived, but we blitzed him in this series. He didn’t get out of the 4^th here; Matt Williams broke a 4-4 tie with a two run homer in the 5^th for the final score. 

56.   10-9-89 Game 5 of the NLCS, our first pennant since ’62. Will Clark hit a two run single to break a 1-1 tie in the 8^th and Steve Bedrosian held on in the 9^th.  The Giants win the pennant.

57.   10-17-89 The Earthquake

58.   9-18-90 Out of it from the beginning of the season, this was the culmination of a 9 game winning streak that got us to 5 over .500.  Kevin Mitchell homered off Ed Whitson and we beat the Padres.

59.   7-29-90 8 2/3 no hit innings by Scott Garrelts in front of 55,000 fans beat the Reds and got us to 5.5 back.

60.   8-9-91 Another lost season, beat the Dodgers 1-0 in 13 on a Mitchell HBP.

61.   5-21-92, John Burkett/Michael Jackson combined to give up 2 hits and no walks, we beat the Pirates 1-0 to take our biggest lead of the entire season, 2 games.

62.   4-12-93 Barry Bonds homered in his first Candlestick at bat, Giants beat the Marlins on an 11^th inning Darren Lewis single.

63.   5-2-93 Bonds homered and hit a game winning 11^th inning single as the Giants took over first place against the Expos.

64.   6-24-93, Bonds homered, Clark homered, Thompson hit 2, the Giants beat the Rockies 17-2 to go up 9 games in the west and 25 over .500. 

65.   9-24-93 Clark homered in the 10^th to beat the Padres; after losing our lead we moved back to 1.5 out with 9 left.

66.   9-28-93, we won our 7^th straight, our 100^th game and caught the Braves, 6-4 over the Rockies – another homer for Clark.

67.   7-26-94 Twenty days before we were 8.5 back, after beating LA 12-5 we had shaved 7 games off the lead. Matt Williams hit his 38^th homer in 101 games and Barry Bonds stole his 300^th career base.

68.   5-2-95 Scoreless through 14 innings, LA scored 3 in the top of the 15 and we came back with 4, 3 on a Robby Thompson homer, in the bottom to get them.

69.   4-27-96, Bonds became the 4^th member of the 300/300 club, taking John Burkett deep in a Giants win over the Marlins.

70.   9-18-97 We were up 6 in July but down 2 to LA when the Dodgers came in, we won the night before and then caught LA here; Bonds homered and tripled, Rod Beck got out of a bases loaded, no out spot in the tenth, and Brian Johnson walked them off with a 12^th inning homer.

71.   9-27-97 We clinched the west by beating the Padres; Wilson Alvarez struck out seven.

72.   9-22-98 Down 5 in the Wild Card with ten left we went  on a run to force a one game playoff; in that run came this 14-2 win over the Pirates where Bonds was a double short of a cycle.

73.   9-11-99 A 3-2 win over the Braves included Bonds’s 2000^th hit

74.   9-29-99 last win at the Stick, Livan Hernandez got it, the unlikely Bronswell Patrick got his only MLB save.  Bonds and Kent both homered and we won 5-1.

75.   9-30-99 Why were we on the road to end the season?  We lost the last game at the Stick, to the Dodgers, 9-4. Shawn Estes was the last ever losing pitcher; Julian Tavarez the last ever Giants pitcher.  Last Giants out, Marvin Benard.  Last Giants hit, a single by Ramon Martinez. They scored the last run and hit the last homer.  Jay Canizaro scored our last run.  Benard hit our last homer.