The Original San Francisco Giants : The Giants of '58 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The year 1958 was truly a turning point for major league baseball, and for America. The country was booming. People were on the move, looking to cash in on a decade of postwar prosperity, and many of them headed west. The New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers were part of that westward migration.
Steve Bitker's wonderful book about the original San Francisco Giants is a literary home run, bringing the memories back from that pivotal year with vivid clarity. For a true fan, watching the Giants play that season in Seals Stadium might have been the best seat in major league history. Located smack in the middle of a working class neighborhood, the stadium gave spectators a close-up view of the game and the atmosphere was enhanced by the smells of a bakery and brewery located nearby. (Pitcher Jim Brosnan, who visited Seals Stadium with a variety of teams from 1955-59, has a marvelous quote about the aroma factor on page 16).
In this era of 24/7 TV and cable channels, media superstars, and multi-million dollar contracts, we sometimes forget that not very long ago, pro sports had a much closer connection to the spectators in the stands. Sneaking off from work to catch an afternoon of baseball was as simple as grabbing a cab or jumping on the right bus line.
No more. Now we have massive all-weather ballparks, salary caps that only accountants can understand, and a seemingly endless search for added revenue every year.
If I had a time machine, I would set it for Seals Stadium in 1958, and I would stay there forever, watching every home game of the Original San Francisco Giants!

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Original San Francisco Giants : The Giants of '58

The Original San Francisco Giants is a nostalgic look 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 Â'58 at age five at a charming little downtown ballpark called Seals Stadium, traveled as far as the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands to interview virtually every surviving member of the team.