SF Giants 1900-1910 history

Now the next part of the blog about the San Francisco Giants I will be discussing the events within the 1900’s and the 1910’s range, starting with the 1902 season.

(1902)

The 1902 season was a very rough season for the Giants. They finished with a horrendous record of 48 wins and 88 losses, which was 53.5 games out of first place. One positive that came from the mid-season was the signing of John McGraw, who was a player-manager at the time. McGraw came up with a new solution of what to do with the great Luther “Dummy” Taylor. Taylor was the only deaf-mute person that played baseball in the 20^th century. McGraw decided to have his whole team learn sign language, making it easy for the Giants to communicate with him. For the following 29 years, McGraw lead the Giants as manager, where they won 10 pennants and 3 World Series Titles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Dummy Taylor (1900-1908)

 

(1904)

McGraw and the Giants led the way in 1904 where they led baseball and set a franchise best with 106 wins. The Giants captured the National League title this year, but refused to play in the newly created World Series because McGraw and the owner John Brush considered the American League as a minor league.

(1905)

After agreeing on the postseason rules, the Giants agree to play in the 1905 World Series. They won the National League title once again and had a major league best record with 105 wins and 48 losses. The Giants head to the World Series in 1905, becoming the second team to win the World Series. The Giants faced off against the Philadelphia Athletics for the title this year. Giants’ pitcher Christy Mathewson had one of the greatest pitching performances that the World Series had ever seen. The 25 year old pitcher collected 32 wins in the regular season, which was his third straight 30 win season. Within the best of five series, Mathewson threw 3 shutouts and gave up 14 hits total. The Giants won the series 4 games to 1 and this was the 1^st of 7 titles that the Giants won up to 2012.

 

1905 World Champions New York Giants

 

 

 (1908)

The 1908 season was highlighted by a huge error that costed the Giants the National League Pennant. The error was named the “Merkle Boner” as it was the downfall of a late season drop off that forced a one game playoff with the Chicago Cubs, which the Giants ended up losing. The Giants and Cubs finished each of their seasons with the same record, 98 wins, 55 losses and 1 tie. The “Merkle Boner” error came on September 23^rd, 1908. With runners on 1^st and 3^rd and 2 outs in the bottom of the 9^th inning, Giants Al Bridwell hit what should have been the game winning hit. As fans stormed the field to celebrate the win, Fred Merkle, who was the runner on first, rushed straight to the dugout to celebrate the win, but forgot to touch 2^nd base. The Cubs got the ball and doubled up Merkle at 2^nd base. The game was then declared a 1-1 tie. The decisive one game playoff game happened on October 8^th, 1908, where the Cubs defeated the Giants 4-2. The Cubs later on defeated Detroit in the World Series and became the 1^st team ever to win back to back World Series championships.

This timespan was another building block for the Giants in their quest to prove themselves. They win a World Series in the timespan and capture a couple National League titles. They have their best season as of now in this range. Besides the "Merkle Boner" error, the Giants are still growing and will continue to grow and build in their quest to become dominant.