{"id":9929,"date":"2010-12-16T07:20:48","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T07:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=9929"},"modified":"2010-12-19T11:50:13","modified_gmt":"2010-12-19T11:50:13","slug":"giants-past-and-present-by-dan-frost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=9929","title":{"rendered":"Giants Past and Present by Dan Fost"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GPaP\"Giants Past and Present by Dan Fost (MVP Books, 2010), 144 pages<\/strong><\/p>\n

2010 was the year in which the Giants finally gave San Francisco a World Series Championship, fifty-two years after moving from New York.<\/p>\n

It was a moment of triumph, relief and joy among Giants fans, but the people behind this Past and Present series at MVP Books must have bemoaned their bad luck.\u00c2\u00a0 The Giants franchise was chosen as one of the latest teams to get a featured book dedicated to them prior to the 2010 season.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The greatest moment in the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history since 1954 therefore does not get a mention and the numerous occasions when Dan Fost notes the Giants\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcnearly men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 status no longer seem so relevant.<\/p>\n

However, despite these details already being out of date, Dan Fost\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s timing might not have been as unfortunate as first seems.<\/p>\n

Several other instalments in the Past and Present series have been reviewed here previously.\u00c2\u00a0 This one follows the same tried-and-tested format.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a glossy, coffee-table offering that splits the history of the franchise into easily digestible sections, rather than following a potentially dry year-by-year sequence.\u00c2\u00a0 For example, there are sections on the Giants\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 fierce rivalries from their time on both coasts of the States, the organization\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s place in helping to break the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153race barrier\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the great teams and dynasties throughout the franchise\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Giants are a worthy franchise to have such a book dedicated to them.\u00c2\u00a0 The team started life as the New York Gothams in 1883 before becoming the Giants two years later.\u00c2\u00a0 They won five World Championships and seventeen pennants while in New York, battling for supremacy with the Yankees and Dodgers, before moving to San Francisco for the 1958 season.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The book offers an excellent overview of the many notable players to have worn a Giants uniform over the years, not least in the main part of the book where it charts the lineage of the best players at each position on the diamond.\u00c2\u00a0 They range from pitching great Christy Mathewson in the early part of the twentieth century, to the 1960s heroes like Orlando Cepeda, Gaylord Perry, Juan Marichal, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey.\u00c2\u00a0 Barry Bonds is featured as well; however his links with the so-called steroid era are documented and his achievements are celebrated in a muted tone.<\/p>\n

The presentation and layout is as clean and sharp as found in the other books in the series, with a decent amount of text sitting comfortably alongside the many photos.\u00c2\u00a0 There is a varied selection of action shots, the best of which shows Hall of Fame pitcher Marichal in mid-delivery with his left leg waving high in the air.\u00c2\u00a0 AT&T Park is always a glorious sight and the photos of the Giants\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 current home are a treat, particularly in contrast to the place they moved from.\u00c2\u00a0 Candlestick Park had little charm to it and, as Fost states, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153excitement for the new park never materialized into love for what quickly became a travesty\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The timing of the book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s publication does result in a few passages being incorrect less than one year on.\u00c2\u00a0 For example, the World Series section includes the following few lines:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Giants have a proud World Series tradition, including five championships and some of the greatest moments ever witnessed in the Fall Classic.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s World Series experience has also forced fans to swallow some bitter pills, and a world series has eluded the otherwise-storied team since it moved to San Francisco\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That long wait is now over, but the inaccuracy really doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hinder the book greatly and in some ways the timing has worked out well.<\/p>\n

Had this book been published prior to the 2011 season, it would have been dominated by the 2010 World Series win.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, it paints a very balanced view of the franchise\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entire history without allowing one period to overshadow any other.<\/p>\n

Pair it with a book specifically about the recent season (“San Francisco Giants: Torture to Rapture 2010 World Series Champions” and “Giant Surprise: San Francisco\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 2010 World Champions” were rushed out in November and more will probably follow) and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got the perfect overview for Giants fans old and new.<\/p>\n

Have you read \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Giants Past and Present\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below. Can you recommend any other similar books? If so, let us know.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Giants franchise features in a pre-2010 season instalment in the Past and Present series at MVP Books<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4],"tags":[76,553,134],"class_list":["post-9929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball-books","category-mlb-2","tag-book-reviews","tag-mlb-2","tag-san-francisco-giants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9929"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9933,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9929\/revisions\/9933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}