New York Giants (1883-1957)

Historical Moments:
1883: John B. Day and Jim Mutrie, owners of the American Association's New York Metropolitans, form a National League team called the New York Gothams. On May 1, they play their first game at a field once used for polo matches at 110th Street and Sixth Avenue. The Gothams would go on to finish in 6th Place with a 46-50 record, in their inaugural campaign.

1884: In their 2nd season the Gothams post their first winning record finishing in 4th place with a record of 62-50.

1885: Manager Jim Mutrie makes his boast, and the Gothams become the Giants. Despite "being Giants", New York falls short of the pennant by 2 games with an 85-27 record.

1886: In their first full season known as Giants the team post a solid 75-44 record, but ends up with an ordinary 3rd place finish.

1887: The Giants look ordinary again as they slide to a 4th place posting a record of 68-55.

1888: After two seasons of .550-plus records that nevertheless result in finishing more than 10 games back, the Giants capture finally their first National League Championship, with an 84-47 record. The Giants would go on to defeat the American Association's St. Louis Brown Stockings in the 19th century version of the World Series 6 games to 4.

1889: The city of New York evicted the Giants from the original Polo Grounds, so the team played two games at Oakland Park in New Jersey and 23 games at Staten Island's St. George Grounds before moving in to the Second Polo Grounds at 155th Street and 8th Avenue in July. Despite being evicted the Giants went 83-43 for a narrow one-game victory over the Boston Beaneaters for the pennant. The Giants would go on to beat Brooklyn's American Association in a series played after the season. This would be the beginning of one of baseball's historic rivalries as the Bridegrooms would move to the NL in 1890 and would eventual become the Dodgers.

1890: The Giants are ravaged by the loss of players to the rival Players League, the Giants finished sixth place with a 63-68 record. They would recover several players when the PL folded at the end of the season. They also moved into the PL ballpark, and renamed it The Polo Grounds, in keeping with a tradition. They would play at that location for the next 67 years, except in 1911 when the stadium was nearly destroyed by a fire.

1891: With several of the lost star players returning after the failure of the Players League the Giants recover and finish in 3rd place with a record of 71-61.

1892: The Giants are a non-factor in the pennant race as the NL experiments with a split season, struggling to finish with a combined record of 71-80.

1893: George Davis' 33-game hitting streak establishes the franchise record as he leads the team with a .355 average and 119 RBI. Davis would also get a team record 27 triples, which still remains the franchise record. Despite the hitting of Davis the Giants would only finish in 5th Place with a 68-64 record.

1894: The Giants finish 3 games behind the Baltimore Orioles with an 88-44 record. Following the season the top 2 teams lock horns in a postseason series. The Giants would sweep the series, and would earn the right to be called National League Champions.

1895: Cy Seymour pitches both games of a doubleheader, and wins both. He allows seven hits total in the 2 games. The achievement is especially remarkable because of Seymour's reputation for wildness; he would issue 13 walks in a game two years later and led the league in free passes for 3 straight years. Prior to the season the Giants named SS George Davis manager making him at the age of 24 the youngest skipper in baseball history. However, the Giants would struggle, and Davis would be relieved of managerial duties in the middle of a disappointing 9th Place 66-65 season.

1896: The Giants struggle all season finishing in 7th place with a terrible 54-77 record.

1897: The Giants make a run for first place finishing 9 and half games short of the pennant while finishing in 3rd place with a solid 83-48.

1898: The Giants play inconsistent baseball all season going through 3 managers on the way to finishing in 7th place with a mediocre 71-63 record.

1899: The Giants struggle all season finishing in 10th place with a miserable 60-90 record.

1900: The Giants begin the 20th Century on a sour note finishing in last place with a 60-78 record.

1901: The Giants continue to struggle finishing in 7th place with a lousy record of 52-85.

1902: Off to a terrible start the Giants quickly churned through 2 managers, both of who considered shifting emerging star pitcher Christy Mathewson to another position. Owner Andrew Freedman managed to snag the aggressive John McGraw, the clubs 3rd Manager of the season, away from the fledging Baltimore Orioles of the AL and signed him as player-manager of the Giants in mid-season. Upon assuming the reins of the Giants, McGraw came up with an innovative solution for the problem of what to do with Luther "Dummy" Taylor, the only deaf-mute person to play in the majors in the 20th century. McGraw made his entire team learn sign language so they could communicate with him, and when they started using the skill in games, the earliest form of "signs" in baseball. Despite the innovative ideas from McGraw the Giants still finished in Last Place 53 and half games out of 1st with a 44-88 record.

1903: In John McGraw's first full season at the helm the Giants make a dramatic improvement reversing their record and finishing in 2nd Place with an 84-45 record, finishing only six and half out of the top spot in the NL.

1904: After crushing the rest of the league with a franchise-best 106 victories to capture the National League title, the Giants decline to participate in the newly created World Series because manager John McGraw and owner John Brush consider the American League a minor league. After crushing the rest of the league with a franchise-best 106 victories to capture the National League title, the Giants decline to participate in the newly created World Series because manager John McGraw and owner John Brush consider the American League a minor league. In truth McGraw and Brush had issues with AL President Ban Johnson when both were involved with AL franchises.

1905: Satisfied with the adoption of certain postseason rules, the Giants agree to play in the World Series after successfully defending their NL Championship with a 105-48 record. In the series played against the Philadelphia Athletics Christy Mathewson authors one of the greatest pitching performances in World Series history. The 25-year-old right-hander, who had 32 wins that season to register his third straight 30-win season, shut down the Athletics in the Giants 5-game series victory. In the space of just 6 days, Mathewson pitched 3 shutouts and permitted just 14 hits overall.

1906: The Giants follow up their first World Championship with an impressive 96-56 record, but finish 20 games behind the Chicago Cubs, who set an all-time single season win record.

1907: Despite another solid 24-win season from Christy Matthewson the Giants are non-factors in the NL Pennant Chase, finishing in 4th place with a record of 82-71.

1908: The New York Giants and the Chicago Cubs finished the regular season with identical 98-55-1 records and needed to play a decisive makeup game to determine the National League Championship. The Make up was need due to a play that has been termed Merkle's Boner. In a September 23rd Cubs-Giants game with runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, New York's Al Bridwell delivered an apparent game-winning hit. When fans stormed the field, Fred Merkle, who was on first, retreated to the dugout and failed to touch 2nd base. The Cubs eventually retrieved the ball and doubled up Merkle at second. Since order could not be restored, the game was declared a 1-1 tie. The "Merkle Game" was replayed on October 8th with the Cubs posting a 4-2 victory.

1909: Despite an impressive 92-61 record the Giants finish in 3rd place, and a distant 18 and half games out of first place.

1910: The Giants finish 13 games out of first despite another impressive record of 91-63 while finishing in 2nd place.

1911: The "running" Giants, establish a league record with 347 stolen bases, and persevered through the rebuilding of the Polo Grounds to post 99 wins good enough to capture the National League Pennant. The Giants had to play its home games through early June at the park of the American League's New York Highlanders after the Polo Grounds burned to the ground in April. The World Series was a rematch against the Philadelphia Athletics. The Giants donned menacing black uniforms like they had in their 1905 championship run. The previous series hero Christy Mathewson still anchored John McGraw's pitching staff, going 26-13 during the regular season. The Hall of Famer got New York off to a great start vs. Philadelphia in Game 1 by tossing a 6-hitter in the 2-1 Giants triumph. The Athletics rebounded to take Games 2 and 3 with Frank "Home Run" Baker clubbing dramatic home runs in both outings. In Game 4, Mathewson was outdueled by Chief Bender in 4-2 decision that gave the Athletics a commanding three-games-to-one lead. The Giants escaped the inevitable in Game 5 and scored a 4-3 triumph in 10 innings before getting clobbered 13-2 in the series' 6th and final game.

1912: The Giants, bolstered by lefty Rube Marquard's 19-game winning streak, lived a storybook campaign winning 103 games. However, the Giants magic would run out in the 10th inning of the final game of the World Series, when usually reliable CF Fred Snodgrass dropped a fly ball that opened the door for a 2-run n rally that gave the Boston Red Sox the World Championship. The Giants would fall behind 3-1 in the series, which included a Game 2 tie, but battled back to force an 8th, game. The Series came down to the 10th inning of the 8th and final game, as the Giants and Red Sox were deadlocked at 1-1 after 9 innings. The Giants took a 2-1 lead in the top half of the 10th and then all hell broke loose. Red Sox pinch hitter Clyde Engle opened the bottom half of the inning with a routine fly ball that Snodgrass was camped under and then dropped. Boston eventually won the game on a sacrifice fly in the 10th and ruined the Giants' magical season.

1913: Christy Mathewson pitches a phenomenal 68 straight innings without walking a batter before issuing a free pass to the Ed Konetchy of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Giants are led by three 20-game to another NL title with a 101-51 record. However, the Giants fall short in the World Series for the 3rd straight season losing in 5 games to the Philadelphia Athletics.

1914: The Giants fall ten and half games short of a 4th Straight NL Pennant, finishing in 2nd with an 84-70 record.

1915: The Giants stumble from the start of the season, and finish in Last Place with a 69-83 record.

1916: In a season characterized by dips and surges, the Giants go on a 17-game winning streak in May and a Major League Record 26-game winning streak in September. However the inconstant Giants finish no better then 4th place with an 86-66 record.

1917: The Giants would win 98 games to cruise to their 4th NL Pennant of the decade. However, the Giants' run of bad luck in the fall classic continued with their fourth straight World Series defeat as they fell to the Chicago White Sox in 6 games. Famed Olympian and footballer Jim Thorpe was on the Giants' team, but made only one appearance during the Series in Game 5.In the 6th and deciding game, the Giants were in a scoreless deadlock with the Chisox heading into the 4th inning. That's when the Giants' penchant for mistakes at inopportune times reared its ugly head again. This time, White Sox 2B Eddie Collins led off frame with a grounder to Giants 3B Heinie Zimmerman, who made a 2-base throwing error on the play. Joe Jackson's ensuing fly ball was then dropped by RF Dave Robertson, positioning White Sox at the corners. Sox CF Happy Felsch then grounded back to the pitcher, Rube Benton, who saw Collins break from 3rd and threw to Zimmerman in an attempt to get Collins hung up. Zimmerman ran Collins toward the plate, but the runner bounded past catcher Bill Rariden to make it a Zimmerman-Collins race to the plate. The White Sox 2B won the footrace and distracted the Giants' defense enough to allow the base runners to advance to 2nd and 3rd. Both runners would score on an ensuing base hit. That's all the White Sox would need to salt away the World Championship as they went on to win Game 6 by a 4-2 count.

1918: The Giants follow up their World Series appearance with a 71-53 record, good enough for 2nd Place, ten and half games out of the top spot.

1919: The Giants fall short of the NL pennant again finishing in 9 games out while landing in 2nd place with a solid record of 87-63.

1920: The Giants and Brooklyn Robins duel for the NL Pennant. However, the Giants fall 7 games short with an 86-68 record.

1921: After several turbulent years, which included the dismissal of two players for throwing games and the death of Eddie Grant (the first major leaguer killed in World War I); the Giants capture the pennant with a 94-59 record, and face the Yankees in the first Subway Series. In the World Series, the Yanks jumped out to a two-games-to-none lead after posting consecutive 3-0 victories. The Giants roared back from an early 2-0 deficit in Game 3 to post a 13-5 victory. John McGraw's club knotted the Fall Classic at 2 games apiece when it logged a 4-2 triumph in the fourth game, despite Babe Ruth's first World Series HR. Ruth, hobbled by knee and arm aliments, spirited the Yankees to a 3-1 victory in Game 5 when he started the go-ahead rally with a bunt base hit. However, the Bambino couldn't continue and the Giants took advantage of the situation to run off three straight victories to give the franchise its first World Championship since 1905. Art Nehrf got the National Leaguers over the top with his four-hit, 1-0 victory in Game 8. Following the Series, John McGraw had the Yankees evicted from the Polo Grounds, leading to the construction of Yankee Stadium, which opened 2 years later.

1922: The Giants, earned a trip to their the second consecutive World Series, by taking the National League pennant with a 93-61 record. John McGraw's club brought home its 2nd straight World Series Championship after defeating its fellow Polo Grounds tenants, the Yankees, in a four-victory sweep that actually took five games to complete due to a tie. The Giants managed to post 4-3 and 5-3 victories in the fourth and fifth games, respectively, to shut down the Yanks. It also helped that the Giants' pitchers shut down Babe Ruth over the final three outings, holding him hitless in 9 at-bats.

1923: Following the enclosure of the Polo Grounds, the Giants' dynasty rolls on with their 3rd NL Championship, and a 95-58 record. It was an all-New York World Series for the third straight year, but there were a few changes. First, the Yankees moved into their own ballpark, Yankee Stadium. The result looked like it would be the same for a while as the Giants took a 2-1 series lead after Game 3 in Yankee Stadium. The Giants won that World Series Game in the Bronx with a homer by Casey Stengel, which led the Giants and pitcher Art Nehrf to a 1-0 shutout. However, that would be the last shinning moment for the Giants, as the Yanks won the next 3 games to take the series in 6 games.

1924: For the Giants, the year is like the past three, culminating in a trip to the World Series. It was also the was the 8th time in 14 years, that the Giants had won the NL pennant, winning the flag by 1 and a half games over the Brooklyn Dodgers with a 93-60 record. George Kelly led the league with 136 RBI; while Frankie Frisch tied for the league lead with 121 runs scored and contributed 22 stolen bases. In the World Series the Giants would be matched up against the Washington Nationals, and the 2 teams would split the first 6 games setting up a dramatic Game 7 conclusion. In that 7th game, bad memories of Merkle, and Snodgrass returned to longtime Giants fans. Despite making 3 errors in the final contest, the Giants were done in twice by the infield at Washington's Griffith Stadium. The Giants took a 3-1 advantage into the 8th inning of that final contest. With 2 outs and the bases-loaded, Nats Bucky Harris hit a grounder that skipped over the head of 18-year-old 3B Freddie Lindstrom, 2 runs scored on the bad-hop single to tie the game. The contest remained deadlocked until the bottom of the 12th inning, when Giants catcher Hank Gowdy tripped over his mask and dropped a Muddy Ruel pop. The Nats catcher responded with a double down the 3rd base line. One batter later with runners on 1st and 2nd, CF Earl McNeely grounded to 3rd, but once again, the ball skipped over Lindstrom's head and Ruel came around to score the winning tally.

1925: The Giants bid for a 5th straight NL Pennant falls 8 and a half games short, as the Giants 86-66 record is only good enough for 2nd Place.

1926: The Giants suffer their first losing season in 11 years finishing in 5th place with a disappointing record of 74-77.

1927: After a sub .500 season the Giants get back in the Pennant race, and battle down with 2 other teams until the final week of the season. However, the Giants 92-62 record was only good enough for 3rd Place, 2 games in back of the NL Champion Pittsburgh Pirates.

1928: The Giants battle down to the final week of the season, but fall 2 games short again, finishing in 2nd Place with a solid 93-61 record.

1929: The Giants quest for a return to the World Series falls 13 and half games short as they finish in 3rd place with a record of 84-67.

1930: With baseball experiencing an offensive explosion (the National League batted .303 for the season), the Giants' .319 team average sets a baseball record. Bill Terry establishes a franchise record with a .401 average, making him the last National Leaguer to hit .400 or better. He also sets a franchise record and ties for the league lead with 254 hits. However, the Giants finish 5 games back in 3rd place with an 87-67 record.

1931: The Giants put together another solid, but unrewarding season as they finish 13 games out of first place while finishing in 2nd place with a record of 87-65.

1932: John McGraw's 30-year reign as the Giants' skipper comes to an end, as the frustrated and ailing manager steps down in June. He turns the team over to 1B Bill Terry, who would manage the team for the next 10 years. In the year of transition the Giants would finish in a tie for 6th Place with a disappointing 72-82 record.

1933: In its first full season under new manager Bill Terry, the Giants won the National League pennant, with a 91-61 record, on the strong pitching of NL MVP Carl Hubbell and Hal Schumacher. Hubbell established a franchise record with 46 1/3 consecutive shutout innings. The Giants entered the World Series as the underdog to the high-powered offense of the Washington Nationals. However, the Giants pitchers tacked up a 1.53 ERA en route to their four-games-to-one series victory. Hubbell and Schumacher, who had combined for 17 shutouts during the regular season, were selected to start the first two contests vs. the Nats. Mel Ott would deliver the series winning HR in 10th inning of 5th game at Washington's Griffith Stadium.

1934: Carl Hubbell strikes out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin in order in the first two innings of the All Star Game played at the Polo Grounds. The Giants were once again in the thick of the race of the pennant but fell 2 games short with a 93-60 record.

1935: The Giants finish in 3rd place, finishing just 8 and half games out of first place with a record of 91-62.

1936: Carl Hubbell again wins the MVP Award and leads the league in wins and ERA, while Mel Ott bashes a league-best 33 HR, to lead the Giants to a 92-62 record good enough for the NL Championship. In a Subway Series match up against the Yankees, King Carl was on the mound for the Giants in Game 1 and got the National Leaguers a 6-1 victory. However, the Yankees would go on to win each of the next 3 games, outscoring the Giants by a cumulative 25-7 count. Staving off elimination, the Giants scored a 5-4, 10-inning victory in Game 5. Manager Bill Terry, playing in the next-to-last game of his playing career, drove in the game winner with a sacrifice fly. However, the Yanks would finish off the Giants in Game 6 with 17 hits en route a 13-5 Series clinching victory.

1937: Bill Terry drops the player part of his player-manager title and leads the Giants to a 95-67 pennant winning record, for a World Series rematch against the Yankees. Carl Hubbell, who won his last 16 decisions the previous year, strings together 8 more wins for a record 24 straight victories. However none of it seemed to work in the World Series as the Giants lost the first 3 games of the World Series. The Giants would avoid the sweep by winning Game 4 7-3, but would eventually lose the series in 5 games.

1938: The Giants quest for a 3rd straight NL Pennant, falls 5 games short as the Giants finish in 3rd Place with an 83-67 record.

1939: The Giants play mediocre baseball all season finishing in 5th place with a record of 77-74.

1940: Aging group of Giants struggle all season, and finish in 6th Place with a 72-80 record.

1941: In Bill Terry's final season of manager the Giants post their 2nd straight losing season finishing in 5th place with a record of 74-79.

1942: Mel Ott takes over the reigns of Manager, as the Giants improve to 85-67 after 2 sub-par seasons. However, the Giants would only finish in 3rd place 20 games out of 1st.

1943: In the midst of a terrible 55-98 last place season, pitcher Carl Hubbell retires after posting 253 career wins.

1944: The Giants continue to struggle during wartime as they finish in 5th place with a lousy record of 67-87.

1945: Player-Manager Mel Ott hits career HR number 500. The Giants, who begin to get players back for World War II, would manage to finish with an improved 78-74 record, after 2 miserable sub .500 seasons.

1946: The first post-war season should have been bright for the Giants, but the rogue Mexican League lures away many of the top New York players. The exodus hits the Giants harder than any other team, as they finish in Last Place with a 61-93 record.

1947: The Giants rebound off their last place finish to post a record of 81-73, good enough for 4th place.

1948: In 1946, Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher had declared, "nice guys finish last", referring to Giants skipper Mel Ott. When Durocher's Dodgers struggled early, in the 1948 season Dodgers management dismissed him. This led to one of the most stunning developments in baseball history. In July Giants manager Ott was dismissed by owner Horace Stoneham, and replaced by the hated ex-Dodger Manager Leo Durocher. With Durocher taking over the Giants who finished with a 78-76 record, were a home-run machine, with 7 regulars smacking at least 10, Durocher felt wholesale changes were necessary. Over the next few years, he would shape a team built on speed and aggressive hitting instead of power.

1949: In Leo Durocher's first full season at the helm the Giants struggle all season and finish in 5th Place with a 73-81 record.

1950: Leo Durocher's aggressive style begins to work as the Giants come with in 5 games of the NL Pennant, with a solid 3rd Place 86-68 season.

1951: Willie Mays makes his debut, after being called up from the minors where he was batting .477. Mays got off to a slow start going 0-for-12 to start his inaugural major league season. He then crushed a pitch from Warren Spahn of the Boston Braves to get his first hit and, the first of 20 long balls he would stroke in his Rookie of the Year campaign. After trailing the Brooklyn Dodgers by 13 and a half game on August. 11, manager Leo Durocher's troops rattled off 16 straight victories and won 37 of their final 44 regular-season contests to force a tie with Brooklyn with a 96-58 record. The Giants and Dodgers would split the first 2 games of the tiebreaker series to set up an unforgettable Game 3 in the Polo Grounds. With the Giants trailing 4-2 with 1 out and 2 on in the bottom of the 9th, Dodger pitcher Don Newcombe, removed himself from the game in favor of reliever Ralph Branca. Thomson drilled a 0-1 pitch to left field and jumped onto home plate to put an exclamation on "the Miracle of Coogan's Bluff." The momentum seemed to carry over to the next day for the opener of the World Series as Monte Irvin stole home in the first inning to register the first swipe of home since 1928. The Giants LF finished the contest 4-for-5 and spearheaded a 5-1 victory over the Yankees. Irvin would once again lead the Giants offense in Game 2, but his 3 hits weren't enough to overcome the Yankees in a 3-1 defeat, the Giants would bounce back to win Game 3 win 6-2. Despite holding a two-games-to-one Series lead, the Giants couldn't finish off the Yankees as the American Leaguers ran off 3 straight victories to claim the title.

1952: The Giants battle the Brooklyn Dodgers for the NL Pennant again, but fall 4 and half games short with a 92-62 record.

1953: With Willie Mays serving in the military, and Monte Irvin recovering from a broken leg the Giants fall to 5th place, struggling to finish with a 70-84 record, without two of their most vital cogs.

1954: With the return of Willie Mays, and Monte Irvin, the Giants are once again at full strength and capture the NL Pennant with a 97-57. In the World Series the Giants were matched up against a Cleveland Indians team that won 111 games. In Game 1 Willie Mays got the Giants off to a great start when he made perhaps the greatest catch in baseball history. With the Giants and Indians tied 2-2 in the 8th inning, with and two Indians on base, Mays made an over-the-shoulder catch of a 460-foot smash off the bat Vic Wertz. The Giants went on to win 5-2 when pinch-hitter Dusty Rhodes hit a 3-run, 10th-inning home run off Indians starter Bob Lemon. Ironically, the game-winning clout went only 260 feet down the line. The Giants would go on to sweep the Indians in 4 games to register their last World Championship of the 20th Century.

1955: Despite 51 homers from Willie Mays, the Giants slip to 3rd place with an 80-74 record in Leo Durocher's final season at the helm.

1956: The Giants struggle in the stands and on the field in Bill Rigney's first season as manager of the Giants. With attendance faltering at the run down Polo Grounds, only 629,179 fans show up all year to watch the 6th place 67-87 play.

1957: With the Polo Grounds slated to be demolished and replaced by housing projects, Giants owner Horace Stoneham began looking for a site to which to relocate. The Giants attendance had fallen from way off from 1.2 million they drew in 1954. In the meantime; San Francisco mayor George Christopher had designs on luring a Major League Baseball team to his city. He heard about Stoneham's unhappiness and Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley's threats to move, and through conversations with O'Malley and the mayor of Los Angeles, Mayor Christopher discovered the Dodgers were considering a move to Los Angeles O'Malley and Christopher convinced Stoneham that the 2 clubs should move to the west coast together, and on August 19th, Stoneham announced that the Giants would be moving to the Bay Area for the 1958 season. In their final season in New York the Giants would finish in 6th place with a 69-85 record.

1958-1962: Immediately after the Giants and Dodgers head out to California, the City of New York began pressuring the National League to bring another team to New York, while initial efforts failed, a Cooperate Lawyer named William Shea formed a 3rd Major League called the Continental League with teams in several locations, including New York. Fearing a third league the American and National Leagues both decided to expand with the New York return to the NL with an expansion team known as the Mets in 1962.