The 1958 San Francisco Giants induce nostalgia not only because this was the first San Francisco Giants team but because they preceded the multiple heartbreaks that have since caused Giants fans to age rapidly.1958 was before the 1959 collapse, in which the Giants blew a 2-game lead over the Dodgers with a week remaining in the season. It was before Willie McCovey's ninth-inning line drive in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series, smashed with the tying and winning runs on base, was snagged by New York Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson. It was before the five straight second-place finishes behind the Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals in the mid-1960's and before the 1987 flop to the Cardinals in the National League Championship Series after the Giants had taken a 3-2 game lead. It was before the collapse of 1993, in which a 10-game lead over the Atlanta Braves was lost and before Dusty Baker's country club director-like "leadership" tranquilized the team into a ten-year sleepwalk.
The author, Bay Area sportscaster, Steve Bitker, brings us back to a year in which the Giants were new and different to the City, as fresh as a piping hot loaf of bread emerging from the Boudini Bakery overlooking Seals Stadium (players and fans could both enjoy this smell AND the smell of the hops from the nearby Hamms brewery).
The Giants were welcomed by all except for some diehard Seals fans, who mourned the necessary departure of their Pacific Coast League favorites. A-MAYS-ingly enough, the schism between working-class baseball fans and the City's baseball-disdaining jet set, which was exposed during the "ballpark" elections in the 1980's, didn't exist in 1958, as art-lovers took their transistor radios and earplugs into the Opera House in order to simultaneously enjoy both Mozart's "Abduction from the Seraglio" and Willie's thefts of second base.
Bitker was able to find 36 surviving members from the 1958 team who consented to be interviewed for the book. These included Manager Bill Rigney; everyday stars such as Mays, Orlando "Baby Bull" Cepeda and Felipe Alou; pitching aces such as Ruben Gomez, John Antonelli, and Stu Miller; "almost-weres" such as Leon Wagner ("Daddy Wags"); "once-weres" such as Whitey Lockman and Hank Sauer; "would- later-becomes" such as Bill White; "coulda-beens" such as Willie Kirkland, Valmy Thomas, and Andre Rogers; and "we-were-theres" such as Jackie Brandt and Don Taussig.
Bitker also provides an overview of the Giants' departure from declining attendance in New York and of the welcome that they received from the City. He also gives a blow-by-blow account of a remarkable season in which a team, regarded by most analysts as both too young and too old to seriously compete, was in first place for much of the year. It would finish impressively in third place behind the Milwaukee Braves and the Pittsburgh Pirates, but ahead of the rival Dodgers in the standings and would gloriously beat them 16 times (against 6 losses) in head-to-head competition ("WE MURDER THE BUMS", screamed the Chronicle headline, following Gomez's 8-0 victory over them on Opening Day).
But the hatred existing between the two teams starts to dissipate when they no longer share the same metropolitan area. And 1958 was NOT a sign of things to come. The Dodgers would enjoy greater success on the West Coast. And they would leave the Coliseum for a beautiful ballpark at Chavez Ravine while the Giants would leave their beloved (by all except Antonelli) Seals Stadium for a cavernous wind tunnel at Candlestick Point.
Bitker provides information about the curious circumstances that led to the construction of what was commonly believed to be the worst ballpark in the majors, where the Giants roamed for 40 years before returning downtown in 2000 to Pac Bell Park.
But let it never be forgot that the 1958 upstarts evolved into the 1962 pennant winners that came within three feet of besting the mighty Yankees for the world championship. And Giants fans must learn this brutal truth: it will never happen again. Even after Dusty Baker is led to the glue factory, the Giants will never again come as close as they did 40 years ago.
Bitker's narrative shows why. Say what you will about him, owner Horace Stoneham recognized the value of a productive farm system and invested heavily in the Giants` farm system. It responded by producing young stars such as Mays, McCovey, Cepeda, the Alous, and Jim Davenport, all of whom played crucial roles in 1962.
With the advent of free agency, the formula today is often different. But current Giants management is unable or unwilling to buy additional free agent superstars to complement Barry Bonds, while saddled with $170 million worth of debt service on their new privately financed ballpark. A good farm system might ultimately produce low-salaried but high quality championship-caliber youngsters. But there is a sense that Bay Area fans, more jaded than they were in 1958, will not support a youthful team experiencing growing pains for a few losing years while maturing into contenders.
So the Giants' strategy in the "Pac Bell" era has been to siphon off the cream of the farm system in exchange for aging, past-their-prime, low-maintenance veterans such as Eric Davis, Reggie Sanders and Shawon Dunston, in hopes of finding an occasional pearl (Ellis Burks) in the cracked oyster shells. It's a strategy destined to produce a number of 85-90 win seasons (fewer wins should be expected after the departure of the Great Barry) and zero championships.
The strategy is contrary to that which produced a near-champion in 1962, and Giants fans, like Sisyphus, must resign ourselves that for all eternity (or at least for another 15 years or so until the debt on the ballpark is paid off), the team is doomed to disappointment every time it arrives near the top of the mountain.
Until the end of eternity arrives, Giant fans can remain grateful to Bitker for taking us back to 1958 when the world was young.
