MLB Top 5: San Francisco Giants Catchers and Managers

By Kevin Rakas

This is the first article in a series that looks at the five best players at each position for the San Francisco Giants. In this installment are catchers and managers.

The origins of the Giants can be tied almost to the beginning of baseball in this country itself. Many people believe the game was an adaptation of rounders, a British bat-and-ball game dating back to the 15th century. The term “Base-Ball” was first mentioned in a book of children’s games published in 1744 and the sport gained popularity in the U. S. over the next 100 years. While some people advocate for the now-discredited story where the sport was “invented” in Cooperstown by Abner Doubleday, other signs point to baseball coming about in New York City with a meeting of the Gotham Base Ball Club in 1837 setting up new rules to gear the gamed toward adults.

In 1845, a group led by Alexander Cartwright broke off from the Gotham club and formed the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, with the two teams squaring off in June of the following year at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, in what has been billed as “the first officially recorded organized baseball match.” The game continued to grow throughout the U. S., but there was almost always a top team in the country’s largest city. With a history dating back to 1857, the Mutuals were one of just three teams to play in each of the five years of earliest major league, the National Association. They played in the first season of the National League in 1876 but were forced to disband for financial reasons. There was also the Giants, an entry in the rogue Players League for its only season in 1890 and three major Negro League franchises that called the city home. However, no team occupied New York from 1876 until the early 1880s.

In an attempt to change that, two former players, John Day and Jim Mutrie, formed a partnership and created the Metropolitans, with Day, a successful cigar manufacturer, functioning as owner and Mutrie becoming the manager. After two years as an independent team, New York joined the American Association for its second season in 1883. Meanwhile, the National League was also looking to put teams in the nation’s two largest cities, moving the Worcester Brown Stockings from Massachusetts to Philadelphia and the Troy Trojans from Upstate New York down to the “Big Apple” in the same year. With the N. L. being cash-strapped, Day was recruited to own and run the new team (a common practice of the time), which took the earlier team’s name, the Gothams. The Metropolitans and Gothams shared the field at the original Polo Grounds, with games being separated by a canvas fence.

Both teams drew fans but, while the Metropolitans won the pennant in their league, the Gothams finished in fourth. Day decided to focus on the team in the older, more prestigious league by transferring both Mutrie and some of the Metropolitans’ best players to the National League club. The moves angered the leadership of the A. A. and resulted in Day selling the team to Erastus Wiman, a wealthy Canadian capitalist and owner of the Staten Island railroad ferry, in December 1885. However, the team performed poorly, even after a move to Staten Island, and was sold off to the league’s Brooklyn team and its players were dispersed. Meanwhile, the newly named Giants climbed to the top of the National League, winning back-to-back pennants and posting consecutive World’s Series wins under Mutrie in 1888-89. After much deliberation, Day and real estate agent James Coogan came to an agreement for the owner to purchase a property in northern Manhattan (called Coogan’s Bluff), with a new Polo Grounds being built on the site.

Day favored higher salaries for the players, a sentiment shared by none of the other tightfisted National League owners. Many former Giants players became leaders of the fledgling Players League in 1abor negotiations. After rejecting a top position in the new circuit and failing to entice the players to stay, Day brought suits against his former players but lost in court. The competition hurt the established New York team, and the owner had to dip into his savings just to keep the Giants afloat. Day was forced to find new financial backers, including Wall Street financier Edward Talcott, New York City Postmaster Cornelius Van Cott, as well as several other National League owners and many Giants players who switched leagues for a season. Day resigned as president in 1893, with Van Cott taking over his post.

Van Cott had very little baseball knowledge and served as s figurehead for Talcott, although both viewed the Giants more as a business venture than a sports team. When the club didn’t produce as big of a financial return as they thought it should, the pair sold the Giants to Andrew Freedman, a self-made millionaire in real estate who had the backing of Tammany Hall, the crime-controlled syndicate that ran the Democratic Party in New York City. The arrogant, temperamental newcomer clashed with his fellow owners, team executives, players and the press. The worst example of this came in a game against Baltimore in 1898. Outfielder James “Ducky” Holmes made an anti-Semitic slur, and Freedman was so upset that he pulled his team off the field. The Giants lost by forfeit and received a fine and Holmes was suspended for the rest of the season. When the other owners rescinded the ban because there was no hearing, Freedman responded by selling off his players and tanking over the next three seasons, thus reducing the profits of not only his own team but those of most of the other teams as well.

After his political allies got voted out of office, Freedman became bored with the Giants and focused on using his money to construct what would become the famed New York subway system. John T. Brush, the owner of a department store chain who previously owned the Indianapolis Hoosiers as well as the Reds, sold his interest in the Cincinnati franchise to buy a majority share of the Giants from Freedman and take over as team president in 1902. One of his first acts was to sign manager John McGraw away from the American League’s Baltimore Orioles, which led to several of his players joining him in New York. The Junior Circuit eventually revoked Baltimore’s license and put a rival team in the “Big Apple” called the Highlanders, which would later become the Yankees, the Giants’ biggest A. L. rival and the most successful franchise in the major leagues.

Brush was a frail man who was feeling the effects of locomotor ataxia, a painful, progressive nervous system condition that led to a lack of control over body movements. His manager, on the other hand, was argumentative, feisty and energetic. Although the two were opposites in temperament, their partnership led the Giants to some of its greatest early successes. New York won three pennants in the decade the pair were in charge, starting in 1904, when Brush and McGraw refused to recognize the legitimacy of the American League and were criticized for refusing to play the Boston team in the World Series. The Giants topped the N. L. again the following year and this time, played in the postseason and defeated the Philadelphia Athletics. Brush’s condition eventually took its toll on the owner, as did a fire that destroyed large portions of the stands at the Polo Grounds. The Highlanders let their counterparts use Hilltop Park for the season, a move that was reciprocated when the Yankees were allowed to use the Giants’ rebuilt stadium over the next decade. New York won two straight pennants in 1911-12, fell both years and then lost their owner who passed away less than two months after the 1912 season ended.

After Brush passed away, control of the team reverted to his wife and two daughters, with his son-in-law, Harry Hempstead serving as chairman and club president. The Giants won two more pennants (World Series losses in 1913 and ’17) but suffered the effects of World War I, including loss of players to the military or wartime industries. In early 1919, Hempstead sold the team to a group led by stock trader Charles Stoneham for $1 million. The roster was restocked, and the team responded with four straight pennants in the early 1920s, including a pair of World Series victories over the Yankees in 1921-22. Things soon changed however, with the American League rivals moving into the newly built Yankee Stadium and taking home the crown in 1923 and the upstart Washington Senators winning their only title the following year. The financial strings were tightened after an investigation and federal trial surrounding fraud and theft at E. M. Fuller & Company, a stock exchange “bucket shop.” although Stoneham and his family members and team executives were all eventually found not guilty, the owner faced several civil lawsuits and attorney fees and had to rent out the Polo Grounds to other attractions to make extra money.

McGraw was tired of the fiasco in the front office and the lack of winning on the field and resigned in 1932, ending his 30-year tenure with the franchise. His replacement, first baseman Bill Terry, led the team to five straight seasons with 90 or more wins and won three pennants in that span, including a title in 1933. However, despite seven winning seasons, the Giants would go on a postseason drought that would last nearly 15 years. Stoneham would not last much longer, passing away due to Bright’s Disease (kidney failure) in early 1936 at age 59. His son, Horace, took over control of the team, surrounding himself with family members and friends in the front office as his father once had done. Under his watch, the Giants developed a strong farm system, moved their spring training home to Arizona, and was one of the first clubs to sign a television contract, integrate their roster and explore Central American and the Caribbean for players.

In the early 1950s, the team won a pair of pennants. New York upended rival Brooklyn in a three-game playoff in 1951 thanks to a dramatic home run by outfielder Bobby Thomson known as the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” before falling to the Yankees. Three years later, the club swept the Indians in the World Series for the first title in 21 years. Despite the improvements and innovations, the Giants suffered at the box office, and the Polo Grounds was falling apart after nearly half a century since its last overhaul. After city officials turned their backs on a potential Manhattan stadium proposal and a move to Minneapolis never materialized, Stoneham joined Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley in moving his team to the West Coast after the 1957 season, settling in San Francisco. Once in their new home, the Giants went on a run of 14 straight winning seasons but only made the playoffs twice, a seven-game loss to the Yankees in 1962 and another to the eventual champion Pirates in the NLCS in 1971.

Although the Giants were successful on the field, their draw at the gate was significantly lessened once the Athletics moved from Kansas City to nearby Oakland for the 1968 season. While the newcomers won five straight division titles and three championships in the first half of the following decade, San Francisco fell in the standings and began unloading their aging players, especially superstar Willie Mays, who was traded to the Mets. When a proposed resort and housing venture in Arizona stalled, Stoneham lost $1.7 million and began looking for to sell the team. A group headed by members of the Labatt Brewing Company made an offer in 1975 to buy the Giants and move them to Toronto, but another group led by real estate magnate Robert Lurie and Minnesota businessman Bob Short, was looking to keep the team where it was. The National League preferred the San Francisco bid, bud wanted short to take a back seat to Lurie, which led to the former Texas Rangers owner bowing out of the process. As the clocked ticked down on the window to keep the Giants in the Bay Area, cattle dealer Bud Herseth agreed to split the cost with Lurie and let him be the team’s representative, and the league approved the $8 million sale.

The partnership lasted less than five years before Lurie bought out Herseth, and it was another five years before the team was competitive again. San Francisco won two division titles in a three-year stretch in the late 1980s and reached the World Series in 1989. The Giants and Athletics squared off in the “Battle of the Bay,” which Oakland swept and was marred by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit during warmups before Game 3. Lurie’s tenure with the club lasted just three more years and the end was not without controversy. Much like the situation nearly two decades prior, the top initial bid came from a team that wanted to move the Giants, this time to the Tampa/St. Petersburg area in Florida, and Lurie accepted the bid. San Francisco was given three weeks to put together a counter and a group led by grocery store chairman Peter Magowan, CBS Television executive Larry Baer and John Fisher, the owner of the Gap clothing store and current owner of the Athletics. Armed with some concessions from the city (including rent payment on a new stadium), the San Francisco group convinced the other owners to reject the Florida bid. Lurie sold the Giants for $100 million in early 1993.

Over the next decade, the Giants opened a new stadium on the bay (originally called Pacific Bell Park in 2000 and now known as Oracle Park), earned four playoff appearances, won three division titles and went to the World Series as a wild card team in 2002, falling to the Angels in seven games. Magowan stepped down as managing partner of the team after the 2008 season, with Bill Neukom, a former legal counsel for Microsoft and President of the American Bar Association, holding the spot for the next three years. Baer has held that position since 2012 and has seen the team register a period of unparalleled success. The Giants won three World Series titles in a five-year span (2010 over the Rangers, plus a sweep of the Tigers in 2012 and a seven-game nail-biter over the Royals in 2014) and have had two other playoff appearances, including 2021, when San Francisco set a franchise record with 107 wins before falling to the Dodgers in the Division Series. Throughout their 142-year history, the Giants hold major league records with 11,524 wins and 57 Hall of Famers playing for the team. San Francisco also ranks second among franchises in winning percentage (.535 to the Yankees’ .569), runs (behind the Cubs), home runs (behind the Yankees) and ERA (3.58 to the Dodgers’ 3.53). The club has been to the postseason 27 times, winning 23 pennants, nine division titles and eight World Series championships.

The Best Catchers and Managers in San Francisco Giants History

Catchers

Honorable Mentions – Like many other Native Americans who played in the early part of the 20th century, Jack Meyers was given the nickname “Chief.” Upon joining the Giants as a 28-year-old in 1909, he instantly became one of the best hitting catchers in baseball, batting over .300 in three straight seasons. His best campaign came in 2012, when the finished third in the MVP race after setting career highs with a .358 average, 60 runs, 133 hits, and 60 RBIs and leading the league with a .441 on-base percentage. The 2015 fielding champion led the league in putouts five times and appeared in three losing efforts with the Giants in the World Series, batting .290 and totaling four runs, 16 hits and five RBIs in 15 games. Meyers joined the Marines during World War I and played three seasons in minor and independent leagues after his return. He worked as a police chief and Indian supervisor for the Department of the Interior in California and passed away in 1971 at age 90.

Frank Snyder‘s eight-year tenure with the Giants (1919-26) sandwiched his two stints with the Cardinals. Like Meyers, he was a solid hitter, topping the .300 mark three times with the Giants, including a career high with a .343 mark in 1922. “Pancho” was a member of four straight pennant-winning (and two championship) teams for New York, batting .273 with six runs, 15 hits, two homers and five RBIs in 17 games. The two-time fielding champion ended his major league career with St. Louis in 1927, played four seasons in the minor leagues, was a coach with the Giants and a minor league manager. Snyder passed away in 1962 at age 67.

Walker Cooper grew up with his brother (major league pitcher Mort Cooper) on a Missouri farm and spent his first six years with his hometown Cardinals. Although he was widely regarded as baseball’s best catcher in the early 1940s, he was sold to the Giants in early 1946 while still serving in the U. S. Navy. Cooper spent the next four years with New York, earning three All-Star selections (with a fourth coming after he was traded to the Reds in June 1949). His best season was 1947, when he earned MVP consideration after batting .305 and setting career highs with 70 runs, 157 hits, 35 home runs and 122 runs batted in. Cooper ended his 18-year career where it started in St. Louis in 1957, then spent the next three seasons as a minor league player-manager. He was also a major league coach, minor league manager and scout, worked for a trucking company in Kansas City and passed away due to respiratory illness in 1991 at age 76.

Wes Westrum was a Minnesota native who spent his entire 11-year career with the Giants (1947-57), earning two All-Star selections and two pennants, including the 1954 title win over the Indians. He played with the minor league juggernaut Minneapolis Millers but missed three years while in the Army during World War II. The Giants bought the Millers franchise after the war and the catcher made a brief appearance with New York in 1947. Westrum was a great defender, winning the 1950 fielding title and leading the league in caught stealing percentage twice despite playing with gloves that didn’t offer adequate protection and suffering eight broken fingers during his career. He was not as talented offensively, although he did produce at least 20 home runs and 70 RBIs in back-to-back seasons in 1950-51. Westrum started all 10 games in the two World Series during his career, totaling seven hits and three RBIs. His playing days ended in 1957, and he coached with the Giants, then managed the Mets before held the same spot after returning to San Francisco, finishing his five-year career as a skipper with a 260-366 record. Westrum was a scout with the Giants and Braves until 1994 and passed away from cancer in 2002 at age 79.

Bob Brenly was an Ohio native who was an undrafted free agent by the Giants in 1976 and made his debut in San Francisco five years later. Brenly was solid offensively during his prime, earning his lone All-Star selection in 1984, when he set career highs with a .291 average, 74 runs, 147 hits, 20 home runs and 80 RBIs. Two years later, he won a fielding title and had one of the strangest games of the year. Filling in as a third baseman in a September contest, Brenly made four errors in the fourth inning, then made up for it with three hits, a game-tying two-run single and two homers, including a walkoff blast with two outs in the ninth. He signed with the Blue Jays to start the 1989 season but returned to the Giants in July after being released and finished off his final season. Brenly ended his nine-year run in San Francisco (1981-88 and ’89) with 312 runs, 632 hits, 116 doubles, 90 home runs, 327 RBIs and 1,030 total bases in 823 games. He also started for the Giants in the NLCS loss to the Cardinals in 1987, totaling three runs, four hits, one homer and two RBIs in six games. Brenly was a coach for the Giants, worked as a broadcaster for the Cubs and Diamondbacks, but he is best known for his four-year run as manager in Arizona, posting a 303-262 record and leading the club to a dramatic World Series victory in his first season on the bench in 2001.

A native of Western New York, Kirt Manwaring was a second-round pick of the Giants in 1986. He made his major league debut the following season and spent a decade with the team (1987-96). Despite spending the first half of his tenure as a reserve, he amassed 526 hits and 207 RBIs in 709 games and had a double in Game 3 of the 1989 World Series against the Athletics. Manwaring was best known for his defense, winning a gold glove and a fielding title in 1993 and leading National League catcher in double plays and caught stealing percentage twice each. He was traded to the Astros in 1996 and ended his career with the Rockies three years later. After several years as a roving catching instructor with the Giants, Manwaring is retired and living in Florida.

Benito Santiago may be better known for his time with the Padres or as the Marlins’ first catcher, but he has a special place in Giants lore. Following his time in Florida, he had stints with four other teams (including the Reds twice) before coming to San Francisco in 2001. Santiago had a resurgence the following year as a 37-year-old, earning his last of five All-Star selections after posting a .278-16-74 stat line. He was even better in the postseason, driving in 16 runs in 17 games and being named MVP of the NLCS victory over the Cardinals after batting .300 with six hits two home runs (including a go-ahead blast in Game 4) and six RBIs. After one more season with the Giants, he spent his final two major league campaigns in Kansas City and Pittsburgh and retired after playing winter ball in his native Puerto Rico in 2005. Two years later, Santiago’s name was linked with steroids and found in the Mitchell report, although he denies the claim.

5. Tom Haller – He was the son of a crane operator and younger brother of a major league umpire, and he was signed by the Giants in 1957 after playing baseball in Canada. After three years in the minors, he made his major league debut and showed great power for the position. Haller hit a home run during a loss to the Yankees in the 1962 World Series and earned two All-Star selections with the Giants. His first came in 1966, when he set career highs with 74 runs, 27 home runs and 67 RBIs. The productive and durable Haller was traded to the Dodgers in 1968 and, after four seasons in Los Angeles, finished his career with Detroit in 1972. He spent five years selling insurance before returning to baseball in a variety of roles on the coaching staff and in the front office for the Giants. Haller finished his career with one season as general manager of the White Sox in 1986 and then worked as a mortgage company agent and head of a building services maintenance company. Following a vacation in Colorado in 2004, he contracted West Nile Virus and passed away a little more than three months later at age 67.

4 A/B Gus Mancuso and Harry Danning – The pair starred in New York throughout the 1930s and early 1940s. Mancuso spent his early career as a backup with the Cardinals and earned two All-Star selections in nine years with the Giants (1933-38 and 42-44) after coming over in a trade. He was a solid run producer for the time and a standout defender, leading the league in shutouts three times and double plays and runners caught stealing twice each. Mancuso batted .270 with 765 hits, 105 doubles, 36 home runs, 328 RBIs and 998 total bases in 882 games, and he appeared in three World Series with New York and was the starter on the 1933 championship team. After his playing career, he was a minor league coach, scout and a broadcaster for the Cardinals and Astros. He passed away in 1984 at age 79.

Danning was Mancuso’s backup for his first few years but eventually took over the starting job thanks to his offense. He earned four straight All-Star selections and posted his two best seasons, with a .313-16-74 stat line along with 79 runs and 163 hits in 1938 and batting .300 with 13 home runs and a career-best 91 RBIs the following year. “Harry the Horse” was adequate behind the plate and led the league in putouts three times and assists, double plays and runners caught stealing twice. He finished his decade-long career (1933-42, spent entirely with the Giants) batting .285 with 363 runs, 847 hits, 162 doubles, 57 home runs, 397 RBIs and 1,232 total bases in 890 games, and he also played in three World Series. Danning was drafted into the Army during World War II, but arthritis in both knees ended both his service and his baseball career. Following his retirement, he owned a car dealership and worked as a newspaper distributor and an insurance salesman. Danning passed away in 2004 at age 93.

3. Roger Bresnahan – He played all nine positions during his 17-year career and made his debut as a pitcher with the Washington Senators as an 18-year-old in 1897. After getting some seasoning in the minor leagues and a two-game stint with the Cubs in 1900, he joined the Baltimore Orioles of the new American league the following year. When manager John McGraw jumped to the Giants in the middle of the 1902 season, he was one of the players that joined him. Bresnahan started his career in New York as a center fielder but converted to catcher on a full-time basis in 1905. His speed and ability to get on base allowed him to do something few others at the position have done, bat in the leadoff spot. Bresnahan was a member of back-to-back pennant-winning teams. Although the Giants refused to play the A. L. champion Boston Americans (later Red Sox) in 1904, he started behind the plate and batted leadoff in all five games against the Philadelphia Athletics the following year, totaling three runs, five hits, an RBI and a stolen base to help his team win its first World Series championship.

“The Duke of Tralee” (nicknamed for a town in Ireland he was alleged to have been born in, although his family had emigrated to the United States nearly a decade prior) was solid throughout his seven-year run with the Giants (1902-08), batting .293 with 438 runs, 731 hits, 135 doubles, 291 RBIs, 118 steals and 981 total bases in 751 games. In addition, Bresnahan was also an innovator when it came to player protection. When a pitch to the head put him in the hospital, he developed a precursor to the batting helmet by wearing a leather football helmet cut to protect the side of the head that faced the pitcher. Bresnahan also wore shin guards that resembled cricket leg pads and added leather padding rolls to his wire catcher’s mask to help absorb shock from foul balls. The Giants traded him to the Cardinals in 1909, and he spent the next four years as a player-manager in St. Louis. Bresnahan finished his career with the Cubs in 1915, then owned a minor league team in Cleveland for a decade, coached with the Giants and Tigers, then worked as a salesman for a brewing company in Toledo until passing away after suffering a heart attack in 1944 at age 65. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Old Timers Committee the following year.

2. William “Buck” Ewing – The Ohio native began his career in 1880 with the Troy Trojans, the team that was folded by the National League in favor of establishing one in the nation’s largest city. With New York, Ewing became one of the most popular and talented players in the game, and he was arguably the best player in the 19th century. He was one of the first catchers to use a padded mitt, and he was good at doing little (albeit now-illegal) things well, such as blocking the plate with his foot and leaving his mask by home plate during a play to impede a runner. He also was a master of talking about an umpire without getting in trouble and muffing a pitch on purpose to get a runner to try and steal before throwing him out. After the Troy franchise disbanded, Ewing and two other players agreed to join the Cincinnati franchise in the American Associate before reneging and joining New York. In his first season, “Buck” batted .303 and set a then-league record with 10 home runs. The following year, he topped the Senior Circuit with 20 triples despite his average dropping to .277.

During his nine years with the Giants (1883-89 and 91-92), Ewing hit .300 or better eight times and became one of the most consistent run producers in baseball. He stole a career-best 53 bases in 1888 and followed that with his best season with New York, batting .327 with 91 runs, 133 hits, 87 RBIs and 34 steals. After a year in the Players League, Ewing returned to the Giants, but his shoulder had lost most of its strength and he was limited to just 14 games in 1891 and converted to first base for his final year with the team. He played two years with Cleveland and ended his career with three seasons as a player-manager with Cincinnati followed by two more as a non-playing skipper. He managed the Giants to start the 1900 season but was fired after just 63 games. Ewing batted .306 with 643 runs, 905 hits, 122 doubles, 93 triples (sixth in franchise history) 47 home runs, 459 RBIs, 178 steal and 1,386 total bases in 734 games. He also was a member of two Giants championship teams in the World’s Series, batting .290 with 10 runs, 18 hits, one homer, 13 RBIs and six stolen bases.

Ewing did not make any friends with his argumentative nature, both as a player and a manager. After his playing and managing days, he moved back to Cincinnati and ran a baseball school while owning several real estate investments. His younger brother, John, who was a major league pitcher for four seasons, succumbed to a lung condition in 1895 and Buck passed away from a combination of Bright’s disease (kidney failure) and diabetes in 1906 at age 47. Ewing was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Old Timers Committee in 1939.

1. Gerald “Buster” Posey – Giants fans would have to wait more than a century for another great backstop to emerge. Posey was a Georgia native who was a shortstop in college and converted to catcher after being drafted by San Francisco with the fifth overall pick in 2008. After a brief callup the following year, Posey joined the Giants full-time in 2010 and won the Rookie of the Year Award after batting .305 in 108 games and hitting a home run in the World Series victory over the Rangers. His next season was cut to just 45 games after he suffered a fractured fibula and torn ligaments in his ankle following a collision at home plate in a game in late May. The play was so egregious that baseball implemented a new rule named after him that made going out of the running path to make contact with the catcher illegal. Posey showed no ill effects of the collision the following year when he won his only batting title, earned his first All-Star selection and silver slugger and won both the Comeback Player of the Year and MVP awards after scoring 78 runs and setting career highs with a .336 average, 178 hits, 39 doubles, 24 home runs and 103 RBIs. He helped the Giants win another title, amassing four hits, one homer and three RBIs against the Tigers.

Posey was a stalwart over the next five years, earning four All-Star selections, three silver sluggers and a gold glove in 2016. He also started all seven games against the Royals in the 2014 World Series, totaling four hits and two RBIs to help his team win its third title in five years. Posey also won two Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Awards and caught three Giants no-hitters. He missed nearly 100 games over the 2018-19 seasons due to a hip injury that required surgery and opted out in 2020 due to concerns for his newly adopted twin baby girls during the COVID-19 pandemic. Posey once again had a solid return in 2021, earning a second Comeback Player of the Year Award, along with his seventh All-Star selection and fifth silver slugger after batting .304 with 18 home runs, and he added another in the Division Series loss to the Dodgers which bounced off a water tower at Oracle Park and into the bay, making him the first right-handed batter to hit a homer that ended up in McCovey Cove.

With his retirement after the season, Posey became just the fifth player during the team’s tenure in San Francisco to have a career spanning at least a decade and spending it all with the Giants. Over 12 seasons (2009-19 and ’21), he ranked sixth in franchise history in doubles (293) and ninth in total bases (2,285) to go with a .302 average, 663 runs, 1,500 hits, 158 home runs and 729 RBIs in 1,371 games. He also appeared in 58 postseason contests, totaling 18 runs, 57 hits, six doubles, five homers and 25 RBIs. Posey won the Hank Aaron Award in 2012 and in 2019, he earned two more honors, winning the Lou Gehrig Award and having the award for college baseball’s top NCAA Division I catcher (previously the Johnny Bench Award) named after him. He was named a team owner and a member of the board of directors in 2022, and he is a near-lock to get inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame when he makes his first appearance on the ballot in 2027.

Mangers

Honorable Mentions – Al Dark was a three-time All-Star during his 14-year playing career as a shortstop and third baseman, and he was a member of the Giants team that won the World Series in 1954. He finished his career with the Milwaukee Braves in 1960 but didn’t stay retired long, taking a position as San Francisco’s manager the following year. Known as the “Mad Genius” for his handling of pitchers, he also showed a temper rarely seen from him as a player. The Giants had four winning seasons under his watch, including 1962, when the won 103 games and the pennant before losing to the Yankees in the World Series. He was fired two years later after allegedly making racist remarks about his team. Dark spent four years with the Indians, had two separate stints with the Athletics (winning the World Series in 1974) and finished his managerial career with the Padres in 1977. He had a 366-277 record with the Giants and 994-954 mark in 13 seasons overall. Dark was inducted into the Halls of Fame for two states (Oklahoma, where he was born, and Louisiana, where he went to college) and passed away in 2014 at age 92.

Roger Craig was known for his split-fingered fastball during a 12-year playing career in which he won two titles with the Dodgers and led the league in losses twice with the expansion Mets. Following his 1966 retirement, the man who started the final game in Brooklyn was a scout and minor league manager for the Dodgers, a pitching coach for the Padres and Astros, managed in San Deigo for two years, one of which was the franchise’s first winning season, and gained notoriety working by teaching his bread-and-butter pitch to a Tigers championship team in 1984. The following year, Craig joined the Giants and spent eight seasons in San Francisco (1985-92), leading the team to a pair of playoff appearances and a World Series sweep at the hands of the Athletics in 1989. He retired after the 1992 season, finishing his Giants tenure with a 586-566 record in the regular season and a 7-9 mark in the postseason. Craig passed away in 2023 at age 93.

Gabe Kapler enjoyed a 12-year major league career, which included a championship with the 2004 Red Sox. He coached Israel in a World Baseball Classic qualifier in 2012, worked for Fox Sports 1 and was a director of player development with the Dodgers before being named manager of the Phillies in 2018. After two middle-of-the-pack seasons, he was fired and joined the Giants for the COVID-shorted 2020 campaign. The following year, San Francisco produced a franchise-best 107 wins and Kapler was named National League Manager of the Year, but the season ended with a disappointing five-game loss to the Dodgers in the Division Series. After failing to reach the postseason in each of the following two years, the Giants fired him before the end of the 2023 season, and he ended his four-year tenure with a 295-248 record. Kapler is now an assistant general manager with the Marlins.

5B Leo Durocher – The son of French-Canadian immigrants from Quebec to Massachusetts spent 17 years in the big leagues, including his final six with the Dodgers. Durocher began his managerial career in Brooklyn with five seasons as a player-manager and eight overall. He was a supporter of baseball integration, even berating his own players in a late-night meeting after hearing some of them would boycott if Jackie Robinson played. However, Durocher was not around when the color barrier was broken because he had been suspended for the 1947 season after an alleged association with known gamblers was made public (he had a similar issue during his playing career). He returned to the Dodgers the following year but was gone in midseason, moving to manage the rival Giants.

Over the next eight years (1948-55), “The Lip” helped his new team win two National League pennants, including a dramatic win over Brooklyn in a three-game playoff in 1951. Three years later, New York won 97 games and swept the Indians in the World Series. Durocher was let go after the 1955 seasons, finishing his tenure with a 637-523 record, and he was the manager of the N. L. All-Star team three times. He was a broadcaster and coach for the Dodgers and managed the Cubs in 1966, then the Astros in 1972. Durocher retired the following year, finishing a 24-year managerial career with a 2,008-1,709 record. He passed away in 1991 at age 86 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee three years later.

5A Johnnie “Dusty” Baker hit 242 home runs over a 19-year career spent primarily with the Braves and Dodgers. The two-time All-Star and 1977 NLCS MVP spent two seasons as a first base coach with the Giants and four more as hitting coach before taking over for Craig in 1993. San Francisco won 103 games in Baker’s first year, a 31-game improvement, leading to the rookie skipper winning the Manager of the Year Award despite his team finishing a game behind the Braves in the National League West (which only made the call to expand the playoffs louder). The Giants won two division titles in his 10-year tenure (1993-2002) and Baker won Manager of the Year awards each season, but the team lost both times in the Division Series (1997 and 2000). San Francisco’s best finish by far came in 2002, when the club entered the postseason as the wild card team, then upset the Braves and Cardinals before falling to the Angels in a seven-game World Series. Although the series was compelling, the moment everyone remembers featured the batboy, Baker’s three-year-old son, Darren, who had to be scooped up during a play so he wouldn’t get run over by Giants players trying to score (Darren Baker is now a player in the Nationals’ system). Despite the fantastic season, the Giants did not offer Baker a contract and he departed with a record of 840-715, with his win total ranking third in franchise history. He had proven to be a near-ageless wonder, managing with four other teams, leading them to 10 playoff appearances, two pennants and a title with the Astros in 2022. He retired as a manager the following year, finishing a 26-year career with a 2,183-1,862 record, which puts him seventh on the all-time wins list. Baker is now a special advisor of baseball operations with the Giants.

4. Jim Mutrie – One of the most respected men in the early days of baseball got his start as a player and manager throughout New England before he was introduced to John Day in 1880. The pair agreed to form the New York Metropolitans team with Mutrie as manager, and the new club was a minor league team for three years before joining the American Association. The pair also placed a team in the nation’s biggest city called the Gothams, but Mutrie continued to run the A. A. club for the next two years, which included a pennant in 1884 and a loss to the Providence Grays in the first World’s Series. The following year, Day and the American Association began a brief feud. Despite the pennant, the owner wanted to transfer his manager and some of the top players on the Metropolitans to the newly named Giants in the more established and prestigious league. When the A. A. held to the national agreement, which stated that no players could be signed by a new league until giving other teams in the league they were in 10 days to try and sign them. Day responded by sending Mutrie and the players on a cruise to Bermuda and signed them when they returned. The owner heard that the A. A. was trying to ban him from the league and kick the Metropolitans out, but before that could happen, he sold the team.

“Truthful James” led the Giants to unprecedented early success, with the team posting six winning seasons during his seven-year stint as skipper (1885-91). New York won back-to-back championships in 1888-89 but was hit hard by the advent of the Players League the following year, and most of the players skipped to the new circuit’s New York club. The Giants managed a respectable 63-68 mark, and the Players League lasted just one season with most of the departing players returning to their old clubs. However, Mutrie lost most of his on-field control to captain (and “field manager”) Buck Ewing, the team dropped to third place and was accused of losing on purpose to prevent the Cubs from winning the pennant. He was removed from his post after the 1891 season and, other than a brief foray as a minor league manager in Elmira, New York, he left the baseball world, with alcoholism overshadowing his knowledge of baseball talent and his abilities as a skipper. Other than a few articles about the history of baseball in New York City, Mutrie was mostly forgotten over the next several decades. He passed away from throat cancer in 1938 at age 86.

3. Bill Terry – He had the most successful playing career on this list, spending 14 years with the Giants and finishing in the top 10 in the MVP voting seven years in a row. His best season was 1930, when he set franchise records with a .401 average and 254 hits, and he was the last National League player to hit over .400. Terry spent the last five of those seasons as a player-manager after taking over for the man who occupies the top spot on this list. He overhauled New York’s roster and instituted tighter control of his players’ off-field actions, including speaking to the press. The Giants won at least 90 games in five straight seasons, took home three pennants in his first six years on the bench and defeated the Washington Nationals in the 1933 World Series.

The club won back-to-back N. L. titles under “Smiling Bill” in 1936-37 but, after a third place finish the following year, dropped into the second division. After the 1941 season, Terry was relieved of his duties and became general manager in charge of farm and scouting operations, a position he held for one year. He finished his decade in New York (1932-41) with an 823-661 record and three All-Star managing assignments thanks to his three pennants. Terry’s biggest nemesis, especially late in his run as skipper, was the press, and he was portrayed as being serious and cold-blooded with little time for an interview. After his on-field career ended, he worked as a cotton trader, managed a Buick dealership in Florida, made an unsuccessful bid to buy the Giants and became president of the South Atlantic League. Terry was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a player in 1954 and passed away in 1989 at age 90.

2. Bruce Bochy – The son of a U. S. airman was born in France and grew up in Florida, and he enjoyed a nine-year career as a catcher after being drafted in the first round by the Astros in 1975. Bochy worked his way through the Padres’ minor league system, served as the major league club’s third base coach in 1993 and took over as manager the following year. His ability to handle young pitchers came in handy with San Diego, and the club made four playoff appearances during his 12-year watching, including a trip to the World Series in 1998 that was the second in franchise history. After the Padres refused to give Bochy a contract extension, he signed with the Giants and led them to one of the most prosperous runs in their existence. San Francisco lost 90 games in each of his first two years at the helm before running off seven winning seasons in an eight-year stretch.

Included in that dominant run are four playoff appearances, two division titles and three championships in five years, with the 2010 “bunch of misfits” winning the first crown since 1954 when the team was in New York. Four years later, the team was a “group of warriors,” and Bochy was the tenth manager to lead a team to three championships. Following three losing seasons, the three-time All-Star manager with the Giants retired and moved to a front office position with the team. Over his 13-year tenure (2007-19), Bochy ranks second in franchise history with a 1,052-1,054 record. He returned to the bench in 2023 and managed the Rangers to the first title in their history, becoming just the fifth manager to win the World Series with multiple teams.

1. John McGraw – The son of an Irish immigrant who fought in the Civil War, he enjoyed a 17-year playing career as an infielder primarily with the National League’s now-defunct Baltimore Orioles franchise in the 1980s. After spending one season with the Cardinals in 1900, he returned to Baltimore with the new American League Orioles entry. McGraw feuded with the umpires, as well as A. L. president Ban Johnson and, when he was suspended indefinitely, he responded by leaving the Orioles for the Giants and taking six of his best players with him. He continued to play sparingly in New York until knee issues forced him to retire in 1907. McGraw stressed pitching, defense and aggressive baserunning, a system that allowed him post 27 winning seasons, 20 in which the team finished in first or second place, as well as 10 pennants and three championships.

Known as “Little Napoleon” for his authoritarian methods, McGraw led the Giants to their first pennant in 1904 but, mostly as retaliation against Johnson, he and owner John T. Brush refused to let their team play against the American League champion Boston Americans (later Red Sox). New York relented and beat the Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series the following year for the team’s first championship in 16 years. McGraw and the Giants won three straight pennants from 1911-13 and another four years later but lost all four title attempts. In addition to successes on the field, he made several successful trades, helped the sale of the Yankees to Colonel Jacob Ruppert, appeared in vaudeville and owned a poolroom in Manhattan with the gambler who would eventually be responsible for the infamous “Black Sox” scandal during the 1919 World Series.

McGraw and the Giants won four straight pennants from 1921-24, winning titles in the first two years. He began to miss time behind the bench with health problems, but the team continued to follow his strategy, putting together five straight winning campaigns until he stepped down and was replaced by Terry early in the 1932 season. McGraw had a 2,538-1,790 record in 31 years with the Giants (1902-32) and a 2,763-1,948 mark overall in the regular season, and he went 26-28 in the World Series. He finished his career with the second-most managerial wins in major league history, trailing only Connie Mack, who posted a 3,731-3,948 record in 53 seasons. One of the most influential people during the Deadball Era came out of retirement the following year to manage the National League and facing Mack’s A. L. squad in baseball’s first All-Star Game. McGraw passed away due to prostate cancer in 1934 at age 60 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Centennial Committee in 1937. His widow inherited his stock in the Giants and attended both the team’s final game in New York and its first in San Francisco.

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