A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
by: Tito Avila
The New York Giants organization was founded in 1883 as the New York Gothams, and were renamed the Giants three years later. The New York Giants have always had a story to tell about their Hispanic players from the very beginning.
They began playing at the Polo Grounds, located at Coogan’s Bluff on the Washington Heights section of upper Manhattan located at 155th Street and Edgecombe Avenue near the Harlem River. I remember going there as a kid and watching the expansion New York Mets in 1962 and 1963. However, the stadium was in terrible condition as my father had regularly attended games with me and my brother there since 1947 and would talk to me about the stadium the neighborhood and players in general and would point out to me the Hispanic players getting my attention towards the game.
The first Hispanic who ever played for the New York Giants was Emilio Palmiero (pictured below) from Cuba in 1915. That same year Jose Rodriguez joined him but played also an additional two years from 1916 to 1918 for the Giants. In 1919 Miguel Angel Mike Gonzalez joined the Giants from Cuba and was the first Latin American manager in Major League Baseball history when he skippered the St. Louis Cardinals for 16 games in 1938. In 1931 Dolf Luque from Cuba joined the Giants team after a long career with the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds as a star pitcher, but he was already past his prime in his final four years of his career for the Giants. In 1941 Jack Aragon joined the Giants from Cuba. In 1944 during World War II Napoleon Reyes from Cuba joined the Giants and played on in 1945, 1949, and 1950.
In 1947, as Jackie Robinson broke the color line making history for all diversity groups, thus creating the integration of the game of baseball as it began to bring new fans to the ball parks across the United States. In 1949 Adrian Zabala joined the Giants. In 1953 Ruben Gomez, a pitcher from Puerto Rico, became the first Puerto Rican to play for the New York Giants. Ruben played from 1953, 1954,1955,1956, and1957. In 1954 Ramon Monzant of Venezuela joined the New York Giants and played from 1955,1956, and 1957. In 1956 Ossie Virgil joined the Giants from the Dominican Republic thru 1957 thus becoming the first Dominican to play for the New York Giants. In 1957 Valmy Thomas, catcher from Puerto Rico, and Cuban Sandy Consuegra, a pitcher, joined the Giants in their final year in New York City.
However, as the teams and fans alike and times were changing, Major League Baseball began promoting cultural diversity thus allowing blacks as well as black Hispanics to play professional baseball at all levels. Many of the black and Hispanic players ended their tenure in the Negro, Mexican, and Caribbean Leagues and applied to play for Major League Baseball. In 1957 the New York Giants left for San Francisco because New York City refused to build the Giants a new ballpark as the Polo Grounds was in disrepair. So the franchise decided upon an invitation by then Mayor George Christopher of the city of San Francisco for the Giants to relocate their franchise there.
The Giants played their first two temporary seasons at San Francisco’s Seals Stadium the home of the San Francisco Seals, a Minor league team that had played at the stadium from 1931 to 1957 at the intersection of 16th and Bryant Streets in the Mission District in San Francisco while their new stadium Candlestick Park was being built. Today a plaque remains at the site of the old stadium commemorating the recognition of the stadium location which is now a shopping mall. On their opening day, which was their 75th Anniversary April 15, 1958, the Giants played the Los Angeles Dodgers, their rivals since the days both teams were located in Brooklyn and in New York City and before both teams moved west. On that day the Giants defeated Don Drysdale of the Dodgers 8-0 under the superb pitching shutout of Puerto Rican Pitcher Ruben Gomez who won the game and Orlando Cepeda, first baseman and also Puerto Rican, hit the first home run ever on the West Coast. On April 12, 1960 the Giants relocated to their new home Candlestick Park at Candlestick Point. On their opening day lineup appeared the name of Orlando Cepeda, a first baseman from Puerto Rico who went on to do great things for the game of baseball and in becoming a National Baseball Hall of Fame Hall of Famer for the San Francisco Giants.
