DECEMBER 6, 1941
The Giants select Mel Ott to replace Bill Terry as the team’s skipper. The new manager spent all of his 22 years in the majors with the franchise hitting 511 home runs during his Hall of Fame career. (Nationalpastime.com)
DECEMBER 5, 1950
Mel Ott leaves the Giants’ organization signing a two-year pact with to manage the Pacific Coast League’s Oakland club. ‘Master Mel’ will be replacing Charlie Dressen. (Nationalpastime.com)
DECEMBER 2, 1941
Giants’ skipper Bill Terry is named as the team’s new general manager. Mel Ott, a future Hall of Famer, will serve as New York’s player/manager for the next seven years, but the club will never finish above third place. (Nationalpastime.com)
NOVEMBER 28, 1955
Monte Irvin’s tenure with the Giants ends as the former Negro League standout is claimed in the Rule V draft by the Cubs. The future Hall of Famer will retire after one year in Chicago finishing his brief 8-year career with a with a .293 batting average. (Nationalpastime.com)
NOVEMBER 25, 1930
NY Giants first baseman Bill Terry (.401, 14, 117) is selected by the Sporting News as the NL Most Valuable Player.(Nationalpastime.com)
NOVEMBER 16, 1912
In failing health, Giants president John T. Brush dies in his private car aboard a train en route to California. Harry Hempstead, his son in-law, will take over the club. (Nationalpastime.com)
NOVEMBER 15, 1951
NY Giants outfielder Willie Mays is named as the Rookie of the Year in the National League. Mays was not even on the Giants spring training roster. (Nationalpastime.com)
OCTOBER 29, 1889
The National League’s Giants defeat the Brooklyn Bridegrooms of the American Association, 3-2, to win the World’s Championship Series, a precursor to the modern-day World Series. The nine-game postseason match-up is the Big Apple’s first ‘Subway Series’, although that type of transportation will not available until 1904. (Nationalpastime.com)
WITH OCTOBER 3RD SOON ARRIVING…………………
This will be released next week.
From Amazon:
On October 3, 1951 Ralph Branca became a legendary figure in baseball history. The 26 year-old Brooklyn Dodger pitcher became infamous for losing the National League Pennant to the bitter rival New York Giants, by giving up the game winning homerun termed The Shot Heard Round the World. Jeered by once adoring fans and labeled a scapegoat for the rest of his life, Ralph never reclaimed his career. From Executive Producer Bobby Valentine, BRANCA’S PITCH follows 86 year-old Ralph Branca’s journey to pen a memoir that finally tells his side of the story, to try and restore his fascinating, yet overlooked legacy in baseball’s Golden Age of the ’40s and ’50s. The documentary features a mixture of verite, and archival materials including many of Branca’s own films and photos such as a recently discovered and restored color 16mm film of the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.
Let’s just say “What a Night”!! A SRO crowd attended our meeting this past Thursday. Mr. Peter Magowan was our key note speaker and had the audience in the palm of his hand. He discussed his love of the team as young boy all the way up to his “retirement” as the CEO of the team. Magowan spent much of the night reveling about the history of the team here in NY and his subsequent purchase of the team in the early 1990′s when it appeared they were moving to Tampa Bay. He told wonderful stories about the purchasing group that saved the team, the Barry Bonds signing and the building of AT&T Park. He truly loved the Q & A with members of the NYGPS.
The entire night’s program can be heard here thanks to Jay Goldberg on his podcast:
http://berginobaseballclubhouse.podbean.com/2013/09/20/peter-magowan-the-ny-giants-preservation-society/
Robert Garratt who wrote an amazing expose on Horace Stoneham captivated the audience with his perspective on the former owner of the team. Garratt explained how Stoneham was a true trailblazer of an owner and broke the second barrier in the game by signing many Latinos to contracts with the Giants. He explained that Stoneham and his scouts were concerned with putting the best team on the field and race had no barring as the Giants started the first All-African American outfield of Mays, Irvin, and Hank Thompson in the early 1950′s. Garratt also spoke of Stoneham’s spearheading a move out west regardless of the Dodgers when it appeared the Giants were going to Minneapolis. Garratt left us stating that Stoneham belongs in the Hall of Fame for all his noteworthy contributions to the game. A movement to do so appears imminent with Peter Magowan on board.
Continue reading