Shopping With The San Francisco Giants – John Montefusco Writers MVP Award

As we documented in our last Shopping With The San Francisco Giants post, the range of things you can find on the internet with ties to the San Francisco Giants are endless. Some things are funny – much like the Carlos Beltran 2011 World Series Championship jersey we featured last time, while other things are downright badass – like this MVP Award from John Montefusco, which was given to him by San Francisco baseball writers. The Count, who played seven years in San Francisco started his career in orange and black on top of the world, winning the Rookie of the Year award in 1975 with a gaudy 2.88 ERA en route to 15 wins, placing 4th in the Cy Young voting, losing out to the Mets’ Tom Seaver who was a near unanimous selection.

In 1976, Montefusco somehow improved his numbers from the prior year, ending the season with a 2.84 ERA combined with six shutouts (which lead the league), picking up a hold in his lone All-Star game appearance. The Count played another four seasons for the Giants after his impressive 1976 before being sent to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for Doyle Alexander. Other memorable career highlights for Montefusco include his pre-game guarantee of beating the Dodgers on a July 4th game in 1975 (which he did, a 1-0 shutout), a homerun in his first ever at-bat and of course, probably most famously, being the last San Francisco Giants pitcher to toss a no-hitter before Jonathan Sanchez in 2009.

While not an actual league issued MVP Award – or league issued award of any kind, it’s still a pretty fantastic piece of San Francisco Giants history and it can be yours for the small price of $1500 dollars *gulp* – or lower if you deem to make an offer.