Yesterday
Here are the top 5 August 17 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1969 home vs. Cubs, we're 2.5 out, here's a Sunday doubleheader, 3-3 with 2 out in the 7th, Bobby Bonds singles home 2 off of Bill Hands, we're gonna win it 5-3. Through 2016 I have Bonds as the 20th greatest RF in MLB history.
1970 at St Louis, 20.5 out, season's done, I'm less than a month and a half from birth, 2-2 in the 6th, Hal Lanier singles home the go ahead off of Reggie Cleveland. We win this one 5-2. Lanier was all glove, no bat - in fact, given how bad his bat was (career OPS+ 50) he needed a helluva glove just to stay in the bigs, and it was pretty good. Probably not good enough to justify 3700 Giants plate appearances.
1976 home vs. Pirates, we're 26 games out of first place, so let's just get to the end as quickly as we can, 6-6 with 2 out in the 8th (after Steve Ontiveros doubled and kept running, scoring on a 2 base Frank Taveras error) Gary Thomasson homers off Bob Moose, we're gonna win it 7-6. Three years prior Thomasson hit his second career home run off Moose, this is his 18th. Thomasson hit 20 more as a Giant, we sent him to Oakland just before the start of the '78 season in a 7 for 1 trade to get Vida Blue. That deal is one of my first clear Giants memories.
1981 at Pittsburgh, we're 11 out, so it's probably too late for this club, Vida Blue pitched into the 10th inning, giving up just 6 hits, 37 year old Joe Morgan won the game with a 3 run 11th inning double that broke a 1-1 deadlock. We win the game 5-1. Through 2016 Joe Morgan is the 4th greatest second baseman who ever lived, and the greatest who played post WWII. He never had a full MLB season with an OPS+ under 100. He played 224 games as a Giant, for those of us old enough to recall his acquisition was one of the great moments in that era of Giants baseball.
Walk off 2004 home vs. Montreal, we got walked off in back to back games in Pittsburgh a week ago, but we come into this one having won 5 straight, are 5.5 back in the west and half a game up in the wild card. Jason Schmidt goes 8, giving up just 4 hits, it's 4-4 in the bottom of the 9th, JT Snow singles home the winning run off of Luis Ayala. Through 2016, Schmidt's the 22nd greatest San Francisco Giant of all time.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
