The San Francisco Giants

Why do they have this nickname?

Originally, the San Francisco Giants were playing in New York City and known as the New York Gothams. It was during the 1885 season that New York Gothams manager Jim Mutrie referred to his players as “Giants” after a huge win over Philadelphia.

The name stuck, and from then the team was known as the New York Giants before moving to San Francisco in 1957.

Why am I excited to see their city?

Having been to San Francisco many times both with family and friends (sweet humblebrag), I’ve seen most of the cool landmarks and lively neighbourhoods (including a few Giants games).

However, one thing I’m keen to see this time is the drive into the city coming from the north, as I’ve never really been further than Merrin County (the area North of the Golden Gate Bridge)

What is a tradition at their ballpark?

Apart from their awesome stadium (easily a top 5 ballpark that I’ve visited so far), which includes people paddling their kayaks around the stadium on game day to catch home runs, “Orange Fridays” where every fan wears orange to cheer the team on is pretty cool.

I also like their mascot, who is a seal name Lou, that is a representation of the seals that you’ll find down at Fisherman’s Wharf (another cool city tradition).

Who is a famous fan?

As the first of the Californian teams, we’re going to have a ton of famous fans coming up. So I’ll have to pick the one that I like the most.

To name a few, the Giants got the lead singer from Journey (Don’t Stop Believing), Metallica, and Bob Saget.

But I’m going with the guy who is universally loved, and someone the world lost way too soon. I’m talking about the one and only Peter Pan himself Robin Williams!

A fun/weird fact about the Giants?

During the 1989 World Series against the Oakland A’s (right across the bay), an earthquake registering a magnitude of 6.9 (6/9 is also my bday) struck the Bay Area just before the beginning of game 3.It lasted 15 seconds, and the game was delayed 10 days as both cities recovered!

Because television crews were on hand for the game, the event ended up being the first ever earthquake caught on camera.

Even more fortuitously, experts think the timing of the earthquake so close to the major game may have saved lives: Most people in the area were inside somewhere to watch the game, and not out on the roads, which were heavily damaged.