San Francisco Giants: Where Have You Gone? Review

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(More customer reviews)I got Giants: Where Have You Gone? as a gift and really, really enjoyed it. Growing up as a Giants fan in the late 1970s/early 1980s, my era was that of (among others) Jack Clark, Willie McCovey, Johnnie LeMaster, Will Clark, John Montefusco, Jim Barr, Greg Minton, Joel Youngblood, Matt Williams, Dave Dravecky, Mark Davis, and Kevin Mitchell. Not exactly the team's glory years, so you can imagine how excited I was to catch up with all those guys in the book's pages. It was fascinating reading, reminiscing about their careers and then learning about what happened in their lives after they left the Giants.
I love how the book doesn't just focus on the stars and Hall-of-Famers (though I read the entries on Mays, Cepeda, Marichal, and Perry with great attention), but visits the guys with the short careers or bench players with equal interest. Also, the relatively short chapters make the book absolutely perfect for bathroom reading!
Kudos to Matt Johanson and Wylie Wong for a terrific book.

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An old gangster becomes a gangbuster. A pitcher inspires his two daughters to become professional athletes. Two best friends split apart, only to separately land behind bars. In Giants: Where Have You Gone?, authors Wylie Wong and Matt Johanson reconnect readers to San Francisco players of the past, especially those whose lives took dramatic turns. Included in the book are stories about Willie McCovey's struggles to heal his ruined knees, Orlando Cepeda finding peace through Buddhism after a drug conviction and prison term, and Will Clark, after learning that his son was autistic, going to bat for other children with the brain disorder. The drama of many Giants players' careers can be relived, with commentary from team legends like Felipe Alou, Dusty Baker, Lon Simmons, and Hank Greenwald. Giants: Where Have You Gone? also offers the chance for fans to reacquaint themselves through up-close and personal portraits of the players' current lives. Jack "The Ripper" Clark did the unthinkable by joining the Los Angeles Dodgers as a coach; fired by the team after a near-fatal motorcycle accident, he returns to Dodger-hating form. Bob Brenly discovers that even a World Series-winning manager can lose his job over a bad team. Greg "Moon Man" Minton renovates swimming pools and hunts elk with a bow. Joel Youngblood experiences the boom and bust of the dot-com economy, while Chris Brown avoids gunfire as a Halliburton truck driver in Iraq. Finally, readers will touch base with coaches Mark Davis and Chris Speier for a glimpse into clubhouses in both leagues and a snapshot of the game in the early 21st century.

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