Best Players You Forgot Played for the SF GiantsBy Raymond Lockley
One of my favorite things in life is baseball, and my favorite team
is the San Francisco Giants. One of the things which baseball fans
love to do is talk trivia and history and argue about who was best.
This forray into baseball lists combines all of those.
On any great team, there are players who played most of their careers
there and hold many team records--
Hall of Famers like
Willie Mays readily
come to mind, for example, when you think of the Giants. For every
one of those, there are several others who come only for a short time,
but who through their charisma or memorable feats enter into the lore
and legend of the team, even though they are more frequently linked
to different teams by baseball fans: Giants fans easily bring to mind
Robb Nen,
Rick Reuschel,
Andres Galarraga, and
Dave Righetti
(who stuck around to become the Giants' long-time pitching coach).
And for every one of these, there are several who were great
players, but whose stay may have been forgotten by most fans.
This list is comprised of players who I think had outstanding careers,
but whose stay for a season or two with the SF Giants may have been
forgotten already. Perhaps they were in the twilight of their career
while they were with the team, or were just starting out and not yet
known, or were just not here long enough to make that indelible mark
on our lore... or maybe they are just so strongly associated
with another team that it just escapes our minds that they ever
played with the Giants. If you are a Giants fan, and you see a name
and say, "Oh yeah, I forgot he was with the Giants", or if you are
just a fan of baseball and general and say, "Wait, he played
with the Giants?", then my goal is accomplished.
Feel free to disagree with me--that's part of the fun of baseball!
But here's my list of who you might have forgotten already
(and when they played for the Giants):
Special MentionThere's one other baseball legend who almost played for the Giants, and who I take the liberty of mentioning just for grins: Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, whose number 42 is retired by the Giants (and every other club). Robinson played his entire career with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and retired in 1956. After what proved to be his last season, he was traded by the Dodgers to the hated New York Giants. Robinson decided to retire for personal reasons, but the rumor floated around that he chose to retire rather than going over to "the enemy". If he had reported to the Giants and played with them for more than one season, he would have been one of the best players to make this list!
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