The 1960 San Francisco Giants season would be their 78th year in Major League Baseball, their third in San Francisco and their first in a new ballpark.
The new ballpark would be Candlestick Park. The park opened on April 12, 1960 at Candlestick Point on the shores of San Francisco Bay. Mayor George Christopher, United States Vice President, Richard Nixon and Hall Of Famer, Ty Cobb were amongst the luminaries that were there that day.
San Francisco would open with a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals before 42,269 that day. Orlando Cepeda's triple with two runners on, and two out, proved to be the go ahead margin for victory.
Before talking about the season, there were some off season transactions.
Joey Amalfitano, infielder, was drafted in the Rule 5 draft from Toronto in the International League.
Jackie Brandt (OF), Gordon Jones (P) and Roger McCardell (C) were traded to the Orioles for Billy O'Dell (P) and Billy Loes (P).
Georges Maranda (P) was drafted from the Braves in the Rule 5 draft.
The Giants got off to a somewhat slow start. After 58 games, they were 33-25 and in second place in the National League. That didn't save Manager Bill Rigney's job. He was replaced by a scout named Tom Sheehan. Sheehan didn't really fare and better. but worse. His record was 46-50-2 over the last 96 games. The team went from second to fifth place in a span of two months. The overall margin was 16 games back of the World Series Champion, Pittsburgh Pirates. Several players mentioned that the job was "over his head."
There were some bright spots. Willie Mays, with a .319 average, 29 home runs and 103 runs driven in led the team. Orlando Cepeda chimed in with a .297 average, 24 home runs and 96 runs batted in.
On the pitching side, Sam Jones (18-14) and Mike McCormick (15-12) were their two best pitchers. Johnny Antonelli converted to a reliever and had 11 saves.
The biggest moment was the arrival of pitcher, Juan Marichal from Triple-A Phoenix. In his debut on July 19th at Candlestick, Juan would shutout the Phillies on one hit in a 2-0 win.
One of the things learned about Candlestick Park in 1960 was that it was often windy. Also, back in that time, the dimensions were so that center field was 420 feet away from home plate. The dimensions were changed following the season. Willie Mays has said that he lost 50-100 home runs by playing at The Stick!
| Rk | Tm | W | L | GB | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pittsburgh Pirates | 95 | 59 | .617 | -- | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Milwaukee Braves | 88 | 66 | .571 | 7.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | St. Louis Cardinals | 86 | 68 | .558 | 9.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Los Angeles Dodgers | 82 | 72 | .532 | 13.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| 5 | San Francisco Giants | 79 | 75 | .513 | 16.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Cincinnati Reds | 67 | 87 | .435 | 28.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Chicago Cubs | 60 | 94 | .390 | 35.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Philadelphia Phillies | 59 | 95 | .383 | 36.0 |
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