The San Francisco Giants are an American baseball team. The 2009 season was their fifty-second year in the city since their move from New York in 1958. After four consecutive losing seasons, the Giants finished 88–74. Following Peter Magowan's retirement, Bill Neukom served as general managing partner of the Giants. After a season with the fewest home runs of any team since the 1993 Florida Marlins, general manager Brian Sabean said the Giants would attempt to bring in a power hitter as well as strengthening a bullpen that held a 4.45 ERA in 2008, fourteenth in the National League.
After leading the National League Wild Card race for most of the season, the Giants were ultimately passed by the Colorado Rockies. The team finished third in the NL West and second in the Wild Card. Though they missed the playoffs, the Giants surpassed most expectations for their season; for example, Sports Illustrated projected that the Giants would finish with a record of 77–85. Sports Illustrated's Lee Jenkins noted San Francisco's promising farm system (including products Pablo Sandoval and Madison Bumgarner) and the perceived weakness of the NL West as reasons to be optimistic about the Giants' potential. Additionally, the Giants' starting rotation boasted three Cy Young Award winners: Randy Johnson, Tim Lincecum, and Barry Zito. After the season ended, Lincecum won his second straight Cy Young. The Giants would build on their surprising 2009 season the following year, winning the World Series. It would be their first in San Francisco.
Famous quotes containing the words san, francisco, giants and/or season:
“The gold-digger in the ravines of the mountains is as much a gambler as his fellow in the saloons of San Francisco. What difference does it make whether you shake dirt or shake dice? If you win, society is the loser.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Swan/Mary Rutledge: Oh no, no. I’m not running away. I came here to get something, and I’m going to get it.
Col. Cobb: Yes, but San Francisco is no place for a woman.
Swan: Why not? I’m not afraid. I like the fog. I like this new world. I like the noise of something happening.... I’m tired of dreaming, Colonel Cobb. I’m staying. I’m staying and holding out my hands for gold—bright, yellow gold.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)
“We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.... The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”
—Omar Bradley (1893–1981)
“At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled shows,
But like of each thing that in season grows.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)