I subscribe to Comcast’s “Extra Innings” so I can watch (on our big screen) any Major League Baseball team anywhere they play, if they are televised that day. Well, that’s almost true.
I really subscribe mostly so that I can watch my favorite team of all time, the Giants. This year they are celebrating their 50th year in San Francisco, having arrived there from Gotham due to the foresight of then owner, Horace Stoneham.
Actually, I became a Giants fan seven years before that, when Bobby Thompson hit the “shot heard round the world,” culminating one of the greatest, if not the greatest, comebacks in baseball history to win the National League championship.
We listened to that game live on a portable radio (plug-in, in those days) that we snuck into Mrs. Nordstrom’s 8th grade class (poor lady never knew until we ran out into the hallway screaming with celebration). I had followed the Giants’ six-week saga daily in the Chicago Tribune, each morning getting the news of the previous day’s game.
In mid-August of 1951, they were 13 games out of first place where the hated Dodgers (then of Brooklyn) were well entrenched. They won an amazing 37 out of the last 44 games, including a 16-game winning streak AND a 12-game streak, to tie the Bums on the last day of the season. Thompson’s shot culminated a three-game playoff. It was the second-best run to the pennant in history (the Cards won 38 of 44 in 1942, but they only had to close a 10-game gap). And there was no “shot heard round the world”.
This year, neither the Giants nor the Mariners (my adopted local team) are doing well. The Giants are 10 games under .500 and the M’s are 12 games under. Both are already 9-1/2 games behind division leaders, and summer is still a month away.
But both can take heart from the Giants’ incredible 1951 season. On May 1 of that year, the Giants were nine games under .500 and still won the pennant. But they got it going by mid-May that year, and neither team has rallied yet this year. In fact, if first (full) year Seattle manager John McLaren doesn’t find some magic for the team pretty soon, I think he could be out. The Giants, on the other hand, are beginning to show signs of playing better. Without Bonds’ big bat, they’re struggling to find their way. Finally getting all-star shortstop Omar Visquel back has resulted in some good wins of late.
I really subscribe mostly so that I can watch my favorite team of all time, the Giants. This year they are celebrating their 50th year in San Francisco, having arrived there from Gotham due to the foresight of then owner, Horace Stoneham.
Actually, I became a Giants fan seven years before that, when Bobby Thompson hit the “shot heard round the world,” culminating one of the greatest, if not the greatest, comebacks in baseball history to win the National League championship.
We listened to that game live on a portable radio (plug-in, in those days) that we snuck into Mrs. Nordstrom’s 8th grade class (poor lady never knew until we ran out into the hallway screaming with celebration). I had followed the Giants’ six-week saga daily in the Chicago Tribune, each morning getting the news of the previous day’s game.
In mid-August of 1951, they were 13 games out of first place where the hated Dodgers (then of Brooklyn) were well entrenched. They won an amazing 37 out of the last 44 games, including a 16-game winning streak AND a 12-game streak, to tie the Bums on the last day of the season. Thompson’s shot culminated a three-game playoff. It was the second-best run to the pennant in history (the Cards won 38 of 44 in 1942, but they only had to close a 10-game gap). And there was no “shot heard round the world”.
This year, neither the Giants nor the Mariners (my adopted local team) are doing well. The Giants are 10 games under .500 and the M’s are 12 games under. Both are already 9-1/2 games behind division leaders, and summer is still a month away.
But both can take heart from the Giants’ incredible 1951 season. On May 1 of that year, the Giants were nine games under .500 and still won the pennant. But they got it going by mid-May that year, and neither team has rallied yet this year. In fact, if first (full) year Seattle manager John McLaren doesn’t find some magic for the team pretty soon, I think he could be out. The Giants, on the other hand, are beginning to show signs of playing better. Without Bonds’ big bat, they’re struggling to find their way. Finally getting all-star shortstop Omar Visquel back has resulted in some good wins of late.
I still love baseball, the greatest sport ever created (and I think the statement is defendable). And I didn’t even talk about Willie Mays, the best ever, in my opinion, the guy who could do it all. BTW, can you name all six of the Giants greats pictured at the top?
2 comments:
Bobby Bonds
Willie Mays
Willie McCovey
Juan Marichal
Will Clark
Rob Nenn
Five of the six are correct so far.
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