What is this all about?
Here are the top 5 May 17 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
Walk off 1961 home vs. Cubs, down 3-2 in the 9th, runners on the corners, Ed Bailey singles home Cepeda off of Don Elson. Two batters later Jim Marshall drew a walk that ended the game. We got Bailey 3 weeks prior from the Reds for Don Blasingame and Bob Schmidt, Bailey hit the ball in '62 and '63, with OPS+ of 121 and 147. In '65 we traded him to the Braves in February and got him back from the Braves in May. Which is weird.
Walk off 1963 home vs Mets, 3 and a half hours on a Friday night at the Stick, with one out in the 11th Joey Amalfitano homered off of future Giant manager Roger Craig to win it for the good guys. Amalfitano too a circuitous route to the only walk off homer of his career. He got 29 plate appearances for New York in '54-55 and then went back down for years, not getting back to the bigs until '60 (we released him entirely and resigned him in the interim). He's a Giant in '60-'61 but then gets drafted away by the expansion Colt 45s and plays in Houstin in '62 - but wait, wait, we deal for him in the offseason for Manny Mota. And here he is, nearly a decade after being signed by the New York Giants beating Roger Craig on a Friday night at the Stick.
Walk off 1981 home vs Expos, bases loaded in the bottom of the 12th in a 4-4 game, Jack Clark singles home Mike Sadek off of Steve Ratzer to win it. Clark had a career San Francisco OPS+ of 134, Through 2016 he remains the 15th greatest San Francisco Giant of all time.
1995 home vs Cubs, down 1-0 in the 7th - until Barry Bonds hits a 2 run homer off of Kevin Foster. That 2-1 lead holds up. Just another 170 OPS+ season for Bonds in '95. It's an 8+ WAR season for Barry, his 10th best as a Giant.
1997 at Cubs, down 1-0 in the 8th, former Cub Rick Wilkins hits a 3 run homer off of Amaury Telemaco, we win the game 4-1. We got Wilkins at the deadline in '96 from Houston for Kirt Manwaring and will release him 2 and a half months after this home run.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
