The History of the San Francisco Giants: Every Era, from the First Season to Today

By 4Baseball Staff · November 5, 2026 · 14 min read

The Giants from the New York Gothams of 1883 to Oracle Park: McGraw, Mathewson, Hubbell, Mays, McCovey, Marichal, Bonds and the three titles of the even-year run, told era by era.

The San Francisco Giants have been playing professional baseball for 143 seasons, longer than nearly any other club, and they have a record to match: 11,622 wins against 10,100 losses through 2025, a winning percentage of .535. They have won 23 pennants and 10 World Series titles, counting the two nineteenth-century championship series that the franchise won as the New York Giants. Few franchises can lay claim to a history of that size, and fewer still have told it in two cities.

The story divides into two halves almost exactly in the middle. The first 75 seasons belong to Manhattan and the Polo Grounds: John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, Carl Hubbell, Mel Ott and, at the end, Willie Mays. The last 68 belong to the Bay Area, from the unlikely Seals Stadium days through windy Candlestick Park to a waterfront ballpark that has been called by four different names. The years in between are crowded with some of the best players ever to play, and with long stretches that no one would call fun.

The Gothams and the first championships, 1883 to 1900

The franchise began in 1883 as the New York Gothams, an NL club that played in the first version of the Polo Grounds. It became the New York Giants in 1885, a name it would keep for the next 73 seasons. The 1885 club went 85-27, which ranks among the best records in club history, but finished second. Manager Jim Mutrie, who ran the team from 1885 to 1891, won 529 and lost 345 in 905 games, a .605 winning percentage.

The stars of this era are the names that fill the early pages of the Hall of Fame: pitchers Tim Keefe and Mickey Welch, who won 174 and 238 games for the club, catcher Buck Ewing, infielders Roger Connor and John Ward, and outfielder Jim O'Rourke. Mike Tiernan, who played for the franchise from 1887 to 1899, still holds the club's career stolen-base record with 428. In 1888 and 1889 the Giants won the NL pennant and then the postseason series against the American Association champions. They beat the St. Louis Browns six games to four in 1888, and Brooklyn six games to three in 1889. The historical record counts both as World Series titles. They were not World Series in the modern sense, because the American League did not yet exist, and the format of the early series varied from year to year. For more on that evolution, see the history of the World Series.

Amos Rusie, the hard-throwing right-hander who pitched for the franchise from 1890 to 1898, won 234 games and struck out 1,835 batters for the Giants. The pitching distance was lengthened to its modern 60 feet 6 inches in 1893, a change often described as a response to pitchers like him. The 1890s brought one very good team, the 1894 club that went 88-44 and finished second, but no pennant, and by 1902 the franchise was in need of rescue.

McGraw and Mathewson, 1902 to 1920

The rescue was John McGraw. He took over in 1902 and managed the club through 1932, a span of 4,424 games and 2,583 wins against 1,790 losses. No other manager in club history comes close in length, and he built the team in his own image: aggressive, fast, brainy and loud. McGraw's first great player was Christy Mathewson, a Bucknell man with a fadeaway pitch (the screwball of its day) and a reputation for sportsmanship that was at odds with his manager's. Mathewson pitched for the Giants from 1900 to 1916, and his numbers still dominate the franchise record book. He won 372 games, struck out 2,504 batters, threw 79 shutouts, and posted a 2.12 ERA over more than 1,000 innings, the best among the club's long-serving pitchers.

The Giants won pennants in 1904, 1905, 1911, 1912, 1913 and 1917. The 1904 team went 106-47 but never played a World Series, because McGraw and owner John T. Brush refused to meet the champions of the upstart American League. The 1905 club went 105-48 and agreed to play, beating the Philadelphia Athletics four games to one. Mathewson pitched three shutouts in six days in that series, a feat that has become part of the sport's lore.

The 1911, 1912 and 1913 teams all lost the World Series: to the Athletics in 1911 and 1913, and to the Boston Red Sox in 1912, in a series that ran to a deciding eighth game after one tie. In 1912, second baseman Larry Doyle won the Chalmers Award, which the historical record counts as the era's equivalent of an MVP. The 1917 team lost to the Chicago White Sox in six games. By the late 1910s the Giants had a record of consistent excellence and almost nothing to show for it in October, except a lasting rivalry with the Brooklyn club across the river.

Four straight pennants, 1921 to 1924

The next generation of Giants were the equal of the first. Between 1921 and 1924 the club won four consecutive pennants, a streak that has not been equaled by another National League club since. The cast included first baseman George Kelly, shortstop Travis Jackson, outfielder Ross Youngs, second baseman Frankie Frisch, and, from 1923, first baseman Bill Terry. All are in the Hall of Fame.

The results were uneven. In 1921, the Giants beat the New York Yankees in a best-of-nine World Series, five games to three. In 1922 they beat the Yankees again, four games to none, with one game tied. The two teams shared the Polo Grounds, which gave the series a local intensity that lasted through the decade. Then came two losses: to the Yankees in 1923, four games to two, in the first season of Yankee Stadium, and to the Washington Senators in 1924 in seven games, a series settled in the twelfth inning of the last game on a ground ball that took a bad hop over the third baseman.

The Giants also gave their fans a few hitting numbers for the ages. Terry played for the franchise from 1923 to 1936 and batted .341 for his career, the best average among Giants with at least 3,000 at-bats. In 1930 he batted .401 with 254 hits, and no NL hitter has reached .400 since. He succeeded McGraw as manager in 1932 and managed until 1941, winning 823 and losing 661 in 1,496 games.

Hubbell, Ott and the Depression years, 1933 to 1950

Terry's first full season as manager brought a title. The 1933 Giants beat the Washington Senators in the World Series, four games to one, behind left-hander Carl Hubbell, whose screwball had made him the NL's dominant pitcher. Hubbell won the NL MVP in 1933 and again in 1936, and he finished with 253 wins in a Giants uniform, 36 shutouts, and a career in New York that ran from 1928 to 1943. The Giants returned to the Series in 1936 and 1937, but lost both, to the Yankees, two games to four and one to four.

Mel Ott was the other pillar. He played for the Giants from 1926 to 1947, 22 seasons, and finished with 511 home runs, 2,876 hits, 1,860 runs batted in and 1,708 walks, all franchise records or near them. His distinctive batting stance, in which he lifted his front leg before swinging, produced a steady supply of home runs to right field at the short Polo Grounds fence, which sat very close to home plate down the line. Ott managed the club from 1942 to 1948, with a record of 464 wins and 530 losses in 1,004 games. His teams spent most of those years in the lower half of the standings. The 1943 Giants went 55-98, last in the NL and one of the worst records in club history, in a year when the war had drained rosters across baseball. The war years are covered in more detail in baseball during World War II.

Leo Durocher took over in 1948 and managed through 1955, going 637-523 in 1,163 games. In 1951 his Giants pulled off the greatest comeback in club history, perhaps in baseball history. The club was well behind Brooklyn in mid-August, then won 37 of its last 44 games to force a three-game playoff. In the deciding game, Bobby Thomson hit a three-run home run in the ninth inning off Ralph Branca to win the pennant, a moment known as the Shot Heard 'Round the World. That was the same season in which Willie Mays, who had just been called up, won the Rookie of the Year award. The Giants lost the 1951 World Series to the Yankees, two games to four.

Mays and the last years in New York, 1951 to 1957

Willie Mays played for the franchise from 1951 to 1972, with time out for military service in 1952 and 1953. His career with the club is a record of its own: 646 home runs, 3,187 hits, 2,011 runs, 1,859 runs batted in, 336 stolen bases and 1,394 walks. In the Giants record book he is first in home runs, hits and runs, and second in runs batted in by only one to Mel Ott.

The high point of those New York seasons was 1954. Mays won the MVP award, the Giants went to the World Series and swept the Cleveland Indians, four games to none, which the historical record shows as the franchise's seventh title. The series is remembered for Mays's over-the-shoulder catch in the first game, hit by Vic Wertz and run down in the vast center field of the Polo Grounds. It remains one of the most replayed catches in baseball history, and it was made in a center field of a size no modern ballpark would allow.

By the middle of the decade, though, the Polo Grounds was shabby and the neighborhood had changed. After the 1957 season, the Giants and the Dodgers both announced moves to California. That decision, and the politics behind it, is told in When the Dodgers and Giants Left New York.

The move west: Seals Stadium and Candlestick, 1958 to 1971

The Giants played their first two California seasons at Seals Stadium, a minor-league park in San Francisco's Mission District, where they drew a best of 1,422,130 in a season. In 1960 they moved to Candlestick Park, a new stadium on the bay that opened with a lot of civic fanfare and a lot of cold wind. It would be their home through 1999, in its last seasons under the name 3Com Park, and its best attendance over those 40 years was 2,606,354.

The first years in the Bay Area produced talent quickly. Orlando Cepeda won the Rookie of the Year award in 1958 and hit 226 home runs in his Giants career, and Willie McCovey won it in 1959, hit 469 of them over a career that ran from 1959 to 1980, and became the club's fourth-leading home-run hitter. Juan Marichal made his debut in 1960 and won 238 games over 14 seasons. Gaylord Perry arrived in 1962 and stayed through 1971. The result was a pennant in 1962, after a three-game playoff against the Dodgers. The Giants lost the 1962 World Series to the Yankees, three games to four, with the seventh game ending on a line drive from McCovey that was caught by Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson.

The rest of the 1960s were a long run of near-misses. The Giants finished second in the National League in each season from 1965 through 1969, a streak that frustrated a roster of Hall of Famers. Mike McCormick won the 1967 Cy Young Award, McCovey won the 1969 MVP, and Mays won his second MVP in 1965. In 1971, in the third year of divisional play, the club finally won the NL West and lost the NLCS to Pittsburgh, one game to three. For a profile of the pitcher who defined the decade, see the separate article on Juan Marichal.

The thin years and the 1989 pennant, 1972 to 1992

The 1970s were the grayest decade of the club's history. Mays was traded in 1972, Marichal left after 1973, and McCovey was traded to San Diego after 1973 and did not return until 1977. Bobby Bonds, who played for the Giants from 1968 to 1974, hit 186 home runs and was the closest thing to a star of the period. Managers came and went; Charlie Fox, who ran the team from 1970 to 1974, won 348 and lost 327. The club's attendance dwindled at Candlestick, and for a time in the mid-1970s the franchise was nearly sold to move.

The turnaround came with Roger Craig, who managed from 1985 to 1992 and went 586-566 in 1,152 games. The 1985 team went 62-100, one of the five worst records in club history, and then Craig's "Humm Baby" Giants won the NL West in 1987, lost the NLCS to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games, and went further in 1989. First baseman Will Clark, infielder Matt Williams, who hit 247 home runs for the club from 1987 to 1996, and outfielder Kevin Mitchell, the 1989 NL MVP, carried the offense. The Giants beat the Chicago Cubs in the 1989 NLCS, four games to one.

The World Series that year was against the Oakland Athletics, across the bay. Before the third game, at Candlestick, a major earthquake struck the Bay Area, and the series was suspended for ten days. When play resumed the Athletics finished the sweep, four games to none. It was the franchise's first appearance in the Series since 1962, and the interruption is what most people remember about it.

Bonds and the new ballpark, 1993 to 2007

In 1992 the franchise was nearly sold and moved to Tampa Bay. A local group, led by Peter Magowan, bought it instead, and signed free agent Barry Bonds in December. The Giants had found their next superstar. In 1993 Bonds won the MVP award, and he would win it four more times with the club, in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. The Giants won 103 games that season and missed the playoffs, finishing behind the Atlanta Braves in the last year before the NL went to three divisions.

Dusty Baker managed the club from 1993 to 2002, winning 840 and losing 715 in 1,556 games. The team won the NL West in 1997 and 2000 under Baker and again in 2003 under Felipe Alou, but lost each division series: 0-3 to Florida in 1997, 1-3 to the Mets in 2000, and 1-3 to Florida in 2003. In 2000 second baseman Jeff Kent won the NL MVP. That was also the first season in the new waterfront ballpark, then called Pacific Bell Park, where the best crowd of the early years was 3,318,800.

The 2002 team was the best in that stretch. It entered the postseason as a wild card, beat the Atlanta Braves three games to two, beat St. Louis four games to one in the NLCS, and went to the World Series against the Anaheim Angels. The Giants led Game 6 by 5-0 in the seventh inning, lost it 6-5, and then lost Game 7. The final score was three games to four.

Bonds put up the most extreme numbers in the club's history. In 2001 he hit 73 home runs, the single-season record. By the time he left after 2007 he had 586 home runs, 1,440 runs batted in, 1,555 runs and 1,947 walks for the Giants. His .312 average with the club was the eighth-best of any Giants player with at least 3,000 at-bats. His career is bound up with the debate over performance-enhancing drugs in the 2000s, allegations that he has disputed, and it is best read with that context. The historical record shows only what was done, not what was alleged. His 2007 season, in which he passed Hank Aaron for the career home-run record, was his last with the club.

The even-year dynasty, 2008 to 2016

Bruce Bochy took over in 2007 and managed through 2019, winning 1,050 and losing 1,053 in 2,103 games. A record almost exactly at .500 over 13 years makes him an odd candidate for the greatest manager in club history, but he is in that conversation for one reason: three championships in five seasons.

The pitchers came first. Tim Lincecum won the NL Cy Young Award in 2008 and again in 2009, and struck out 1,704 batters for the club. Matt Cain, who pitched for the Giants from 2005 to 2017, struck out 1,694. Madison Bumgarner, who played from 2009 to 2019, struck out 1,794 for the Giants, fourth on the club's career list behind Mathewson, Marichal and Rusie. On the field, Buster Posey, the 2010 Rookie of the Year, caught for the club and won the NL MVP in 2012.

The 2010 team won the NL West and beat Atlanta three games to one, Philadelphia four games to two, and Texas four games to one in the World Series, the club's first title since 1954 and its first in San Francisco. The 2012 team was more dramatic. It beat Cincinnati three games to two in the NLDS after losing the first two games, beat St. Louis four games to three in the NLCS after trailing three games to one, and swept the Detroit Tigers, four games to none, in the World Series. The 2014 team made the playoffs as a wild card and won all four rounds: Pittsburgh in the wild-card game, Washington three games to one, St. Louis four to one, and Kansas City four games to three in a World Series that Bumgarner dominated.

The 2016 team made the playoffs as a wild card and beat the Mets in the wild-card game, but lost the division series to the Cubs, one game to three. The record shows no even-year title after that. For the full count of the team's postseason runs, see the best Giants seasons and every October run.

Oracle Park and the years since, 2017 to 2025

The Giants lost 98 games in 2017, finishing 64-98 in last place, one of the five worst seasons in club history. The ballpark that opened as Pacific Bell Park in 2000 was SBC Park in 2004 and 2005, AT&T Park from 2006 to 2018, and Oracle Park from 2019. Its highest attendance was 3,387,303 in 2011, the club's best ever, and the site's own data puts its capacity today at 41,311, with the right-field foul pole 309 feet from home plate and the deepest part of the park 415 feet away in right-center.

The 2021 team was the most surprising. It won 107 games and 55 losses, a total that led the NL West, and then lost the division series to the Dodgers, three games to two. That was the franchise's ninth division title and its last, as of the 2025 season. Camilo Doval, who recorded 107 saves from 2021 to 2025, closed many of those games.

Posey retired as a player and returned to run the baseball operation. The team continues to play in a ballpark that is easily one of the most scenic in baseball. The story of the stadium itself is in the Oracle Park guide.

The Giants in a table

Common questions

How many World Series have the Giants won? The historical record shows 10 titles: 1888, 1889, 1905, 1921, 1922, 1933, 1954, 2010, 2012 and 2014. The first two came in the nineteenth century, before the modern World Series existed.

Who is the best player in Giants history? Willie Mays leads the club in home runs (646), hits (3,187) and runs (2,011), and won MVP awards in 1954 and 1965. Mel Ott, Barry Bonds and Willie McCovey have claims too. The full ranking is in the best players in Giants history.

Did the Giants really almost leave San Francisco? Yes, twice by most accounts: in the mid-1970s and again in 1992. In the first case a local buyer stepped in; in the second a Bay Area group did.

When did the Giants leave New York? After the 1957 season. They played their first California home game in 1958 at Seals Stadium.

Why has the ballpark had so many names? The waterfront park opened in 2000 as Pacific Bell Park and was renamed SBC Park, AT&T Park and, from 2019, Oracle Park, as the naming-rights sponsor changed. The location and the building are the same.

Where to go next

For the live record and next game, see the Giants team page and the Oracle Park page. For fans of the rivalry, read the Dodgers' history, and for the new division neighbors the Diamondbacks and the Rockies. More current stories are on the Giants topic page.