San Francisco Giants 60 Seasons from Worst To Greatest: 50-46

I should have realized that not to many people want to spend 10 minutes reading an entire article about one unmemorable season of San Francisco Giants baseball.

So, I’ll make this easier for everybody and divide the next several articles into slideshows of five seasons:

50: 1994, 55-60, 2nd NL West

1994 was a year of what could have been. Despite the tragic ending to 1993, the fan support was still at an all-time high, and there were high expectations for the Giants coming into the new season.

The Giants opened the season at home on April 4 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Barry Bonds, Matt Williams, Robby Thompson and Kirt Manwaring all received their Gold Glove Awards prior to the game, and Williams hit a pair of home runs during the game, including one in his first at-bat. The Giants won 8-0, and they won each of their first four games.

The Giants were around .500 for the first month and a half of the season, but after a disastrous stretch from the middle of May to the beginning of July, they were 35-50. However, they were just nine and a half games back in the new smaller and weaker National League West. The Giants were still somewhat in it, and suddenly starting on July 7, the Giants started an incredible run in which they won 17 of their next 21 games.

The run was thanks in large part to the Darryl Strawberry, the former nut job of the Mets and the Dodgers, who hit .303, with four home runs and 16 RBIs in his first 20 games with the Giants. Not only that, but Matt Williams got hot and started hitting enough home runs to get him on a pace to break Roger Maris‘ single-season record of 61 home runs.

However, a far bigger issue loomed. The entire season had been played without a collective bargaining agreement in place, and the players had set Aug. 12 as a strike date. Despite a six-game losing streak, the Giants swept the Cubs in three games at Wrigley Field, but when Aug. 12 came, the players walked out.

The season was eventually cancelled, and everything was lost. The Giants were 55-60, which wasn’t great, but they were in second place and just three games behind the Dodgers in the West. The Giants were on pace to draw 2.3 million, which would have the second-highest total in franchise history. Worst of all, Matt Williams had 43 home runs and was on pace to tie Maris at 61.

49: 1995, 67-77, 4th NL West

1995 was nearly played with replacement players, but the strike, which wiped out the World Series the year prior, finally ended on April 2. As a result, the real players played a very quick Spring Training before starting the regular season on April 23 in Atlanta.

Opening Day was not the celebration it usually was. In fact, it was revenge for the fans. It was the day angry fans, who felt betrayed by their heroes, were able to air out their grievances at them. Tom Glavine, who started against the Giants on Opening Day, was booed by his own fans in Atlanta for being the main player representative during the strike. This was despite all he did for the Braves earlier in the decade.

Things still weren’t entirely back to normal. The umpires in both leagues were all locked out, and the games were umpired by scabs. The Giants lost both of their games in Atlanta, and the Home Opener against the Marlins only drew 26,403 fans. The new fans, and the excitement over the Giants being saved just two years prior were gone. Instead, 26,403 angry die-hards, as well as several locked-out National League umpires filled the stands on a gloomy grey day at Candlestick.

The real umpires returned to work a week later, but not before an exciting 15-inning win the Giants had against the Dodgers in Hideo Nomo‘s debut on May 2. The Giants played fairly decent ball over the first month and a half of the season, as they went 23-17 in their first 40 games, but they stumbled through a 15-31 stretch, which like 1994, put them quite a bit under .500 in July. However, also like 1994, the National League West was weak, which allowed the Giants to contend.

No matter how well the Giants played, because of the strike, it was back to old times at the Stick, where fans didn’t show up. The Giants only drew over 30,000 fans five times in 1995. Compared to the crowds that came to The Stick in the mid-1970s, that was actually pretty good, but compared to the 39 crowds they drew over 30,000 in 1993, as well as the 24 crowds of over 30,000 in 1994, it was pretty devastating

On Sept. 11, the Giants were 61-64, in third place and just five and a half games back with 19 games to go in their abbreviated 144-game schedule. Unfortunately, the Giants went 6-13 in the final three weeks to go 67-77 on the season, and that was it.

1995 wasn’t the worst, but considering the lack of fan support, following a time that it was its highest, 1995 really wasn’t a year to remember. But hey; at least the season was played to its conclusion.

48: 1976, 74-88, 4th NL West

As the calendar turned from 1975 to 1976, nobody was sure if there ever be another season of San Francisco Giants baseball ever again.

Horace Stoneham ran out of money, and he had to sell the team. He nearly sold the Giants to a group from Toronto that was going to move the team north of the border, but San Francisco businessman Bob Lurie stepped in at the last minute and able to delay the deal to the Toronto group long enough put together a deal of his own to buy the team.

The Giants were going to stay in San Francisco. It was a second chance for everybody involved; the fans, the city of San Francisco and the franchise itself. The Giants only drew oner 500,000 fans in each of the previous two seasons. However, due to a city strike in San Francisco, picket lines kept the attendance on Opening Day to 37,261.

Still, 37,261 was the best crowd the Giants drew in three years, as the Giants welcomed in the new season and their hated rivals from down south. The ancient rivalry was another thing that was saved by Lurie’s purchase of the team, because there would’ve been no rivalry between Los Angeles and Toronto. Anyway, despite the non-ideal attendance, it was still a magical day at Candlestick Park, and the Giants beat the Bums 4-2 to cap it off.

It was obvious by May that the Giants weren’t going anywhere, but 1976 didn’t come without its memorable moments. Of course, there was Opening Day, which celebrated the second chance for the San Francisco Giants. Then, there was John “The Count” Montefusco’s no-hitter on Sept. 29 in Atlanta.

Attendance only improved by just over 100,000, as the Giants drew 626,868 fans for the season. The team went 74-88, so unfortunately, not much changed from the two years prior. However, considering that 1976 was nearly the inaugural season of the Toronto Giants, I have a feeling that most fans were pretty grateful for the 1976 season.

47: 1977, 75-87, 4th NL West

In 1976, the Giants celebrated their second chance in San Francisco. Then in 1977, the Giants celebrated the return of one of their all-time greats, as Willie McCovey signed back with the Giants in baseball’s first off-season of league-wide free agency.

McCovey was back, and the Giants decided to go with a new look for 1977. They replaced the old and traditional lettering on their jerseys, which had gone from black to orange four years prior, with a cursive script, and they joined many other teams in giving into the fad of colored jerseys with pants that had elastic waistbands. The Giants wore white jerseys at home, and they alternated between orange jerseys with “San Francisco” on the front and black jerseys with the cursive Giants script on the road. No matter where they played, they wore the same white pants with elastic waistbands for every game.

On the field, the Giants were coming off three-consecutive losing seasons coming into 1977, and things didn’t get any better when “Sarge,” Gary Matthews left the team in free agency. Fans hoped the return of Willie Mac would help them return to their winning ways of the 1960s, but unfortunately, that was too much to hope for.

The Giants fell out of contention quite early, but they didn’t fall too far under .500 until the middle of the season. Until July 1, the Giants never fell more than eight games under .500. Nevertheless, the season had already been over long before July 1, and the atmosphere at the Stick was no different than it was in the three years prior. Like the previous three years, very few fans showed up to watch a subpar team in frigid weather.

The Giants went 75-87 when all was said and done, but there were bright spots. Willie McCovey hit .280 with 28 home runs in his first year back in San Francisco, and Bill Madlock, who was traded from the Montreal Expos prior to the season, hit .302.