Description: The Original San Francisco Giants is a nostalgic look back at the team that brought major league baseball to San Francisco, the 1958 Giants. Author Steve Bitker, who attended his first big league game in '58 as far as the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands to interview virtually every surviving member of the team. The book begins with a foreword written by the Giants' current President and Managing General Partner Peter Magowan. He grew up a huge Giants fan in New York and coincidentally moved to San Francisco as a teenager in '58 with his family to continue his love affair that climaxed in 1992 with his purchase of the club, rescuing it from an inglorious banishment to Tampa Bay. Bitker continues with an easy-to-read examination of why the Giants moved west, what their prospects were on the field before the'58 season began and, finally, how the '58 Giants turned out to be the most exciting success story in the majors that season. The book also includes an oral history from each of the players, ranging from perhaps the greatest player of all time, Willie Mays, to little-known catcher Valmy Thomas, the first native of the Virgin Islands to play in the majors. Thomas was routinely late to spring camp every year, ostensibly because of visa problems, but the truth was that he simply loved his island home so much that he didn't want to leave until he absolutely had to. The Original San Francisco Giants tells about former players who have stayed very much involved in baseball over the years, including Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Felipe Alou, Bill White and Jim Davenport, to men who never entered another clubhouse after they walked out of their own for the last time, including Thomas, Willie Kirkland, Leon Wagner, John Antonelli and Paul Giel. All these one-time baseball heroes, as well as the master baseball historian himself, former manager Bill Rigney, tell their stories poignantly in these pages: their lives in and out of baseball, reflections on their careers, how life has treated them since their playing days ended…
Price: 25 USD
Location: Chico, California
End Time: 2025-02-15T02:00:30.000Z
Shipping Cost: 6 USD
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Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Binding: Hardcover
Place of Publication: Champaign Illinois
Signed: Yes
Special Attributes: 1st Edition, Dust Jacket, Illustrated, Inscribed, signed
Region: North America
Personalized: Yes
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Subject: Sports & Recreation
Character Family: San Francisco Giants
Original/Facsimile: Original
Year Printed: 1998
Book Title: Original San Francisco Giants : the Giants of `58
Number of Pages: 295 Pages
Language: English
Publisher: Sports Publishing, LLC
Topic: Baseball / General
Item Height: 1 in
Publication Year: 1998
Illustrator: Yes
Genre: Sports & Recreation
Item Weight: 35.9 Oz
Item Length: 11 in
Author: Steve Bitker
Item Width: 8.5 in
Format: Hardcover
