Yesterday
Here are the top 5 June 28 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1968 home vs Reds, 6.5 out of first, down 3-2 with 2 out in the 7th, Jim Ray Hart hits a 2 run homer off of Tony Cloninger. We'll win it 4-3. This is the last year of 5 where Hart gets all of the third base at bats, he splits the job next year with Jim Davenport.
Walk off 1970 home vs. Braves, 16.5 games out of first place, first half of a doubleheader, 4-4 in the bottom of the 10th, Al Gallagher ends it with a 2 run homer off Bob Priddy to give us the win. Gallagher came up through the system, he was our top pick in '65, this is his rookie year, he split time at third with Jim Ray Hart, with the club until early '73 when we moved him to the Angels for Bruce Miller. That did it for Gallagher, he didn't play a big league game after '73.
1973 at Dodgers, we're 14 games over but still 6 behind the first place Dodgers, sold out Saturday night in LA, Jim Barr throws a complete game 4 hitter to beat Don Sutton, the big moment coming in the first inning when Willie McCovey doubles home the only run we'd need on our way to a 5-0 shutout win. In baseball, particularly in decades past, it was super common for players to be drafted more than once - drafted, say, out of high school, but decide to go to college instead and then get drafted again. The Giants drafted Barry Bonds, for example, in '82, but he went to Arizona St instead and 3 years later was taken by the Pirates. Jim Barr got drafted 5 times from '66-70 before signing with the Giants, the 6th team to select him, he got a cup of coffee in '71, was starting before the '72 season ended and was fully a member of the rotation beginning here in '73. He'd stay in our rotation until leaving as a free agent after the '78 season. Like Knepper or Speier or Aurilia, we brought him back for the end of his career, he pitched for us in both '82 and '83.
Walk off 1980 home vs. Dodgers, 70 games in, a dozen out of first, 3-3 with two out in the 11th, Terry Whitfield singles home the winning run off of Rick Sutcliffe. This is the last year before Whitfield goes to Japan - he returns in '84 with the Dodgers, for whom he plays 3 seasons until the end of his career.
Walk off 1984 home vs. Pirates, still 90 games to go in the season but we're 16 out of first place, we scored 14 the day before against the Reds and now play a 3 hour weekday night game against Pittsburgh, in the bottom of the 11th, the score tied at 3, Steve Nicosia doubles home Joel Youngblood off of Don Robinson to win the game. Nicosia was a career Pirate (backup catcher on the We Are Family team in '79) until the year prior, when we got him for Milt May in mid August, He's our backup catcher this year, leaves following the season and finishes his career in '85. Robinson was also a career Pirate who was also on that World Champion team in '79, and he will move to the Giants in '87.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
