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History of cricket
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First Grand Match of Cricket Played by Members of the Royal Amateur Society on Hampton Court Green
The sport of cricket has a known history beginning in the late 16th century. Having originated in south-east England, it became the country's national sport in the 18th century and has developed globally in the 19th and 20th centuries. International matches have been played since 1844 and Test cricket began, retrospectively recognised, in 1877. Cricket is the world's second most popular spectator sport after association football. Governance is by the International Cricket Council (ICC) which has over one hundred countries and territories in membership although only twelve play Test cricket.
Contents
1 Early cricket
1.1 Origin
1.2 First definite reference
1.3 Derivation of the name of "cricket"
1.4 Early 17th century
1.5 The Commonwealth
1.6 Gambling and press coverage
2 18th century cricket
2.1 Patronage and players
2.2 Cricket moves out of England
2.3 Development of the Laws
2.4 Continued growth in England
2.5 Cricket and crisis
3 19th century cricket
3.1 International cricket begins
3.2 National championships
3.3 Balls per over
4 20th century cricket
4.1 Growth of Test cricket
4.2 Suspension of South Africa (1970–91)
4.3 World Series Cricket
4.4 Limited-overs cricket
4.5 Analytic and graphic technology
5 21st century cricket
6 Historical sources
6.1 Books and other printed works
6.2 Examples of substantial season-specific sources
6.3 Examples of substantial subject-specific sources
6.4 Selected online sources
7 See also
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Early cricket[edit]
Main article: History of cricket to 1725
Part of a series on
Cricket
Forms of cricket[hide]
Test cricket
One Day International
Twenty20 International
First-class cricket
Limited overs cricket
List A cricket
Twenty20
100-ball cricket
Club cricket
History of cricket[hide]
History of cricket to 1725
History of cricket (1726–1763)
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Origin[edit]
Cricket was probably created during Saxon or Norman times by children living in the Weald, an area of dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England that lies across Kent and Sussex.[1] The first definite reference is dated Monday, 17 January 1597 ("Old Style" Julian date, the year equating to 1598 in the modern calendar).
There have been several speculations about the game's origins including some that it was created in France or Flanders. The earliest of these speculative references is dated Thursday, 10 March 1300 and concerns the future King Edward II playing at "creag and other games" in both Westminster and Newenden. It has been suggested that "creag" was an Olde English word for cricket but expert opinion is that it was an early spelling of "craic", meaning "fun and games in general".[2]
It is generally believed that cricket survived as a children's game for many generations before it was increasingly taken up by adults around the beginning of the 17th century. Possibly cricket was derived from bowls, assuming bowls is the older sport, by the intervention of a batsman trying to stop the ball from reaching its target by hitting it away. Playing on sheep-grazed land or in clearings, the original implements may have been a matted lump of sheep’s wool (or even a stone or a small lump of wood) as the ball; a stick or a crook or another farm tool as the bat; and a stool or a tree stump or a gate (e.g., a wicket gate) as the wicket.[3]
First definite reference[edit]
John Derrick was a pupil at the Royal Grammar School, then the Free School, in Guildford when he and his friends played creckett circa 1550
A 1597 (Old Style - 1598 New Style) court case in England concerning an ownership dispute over a plot of common land in Guildford, Surrey mentions the game of creckett. A 59-year-old coroner, John Derrick, testified that he and his school friends had played creckett on the site fifty years earlier when they attended the Free School. Derrick's account proves beyond reasonable doubt that the game was being played in Surrey circa 1550, and is the earliest universally accepted reference to the game.[4][5]
The first reference to cricket being played as an adult sport was in 1611, when two men in Sussex were prosecuted for playing cricket on Sunday instead of going to church.[6] In the same year, a dictionary defined cricket as a boys' game and this suggests that adult participation was a recent development.[4]
Derivation of the name of "cricket"[edit]
A number of words are thought to be possible sources for the term "cricket". In the earliest definite reference, it was spelled creckett. The name may have been derived from the Middle Dutch krick(-e), meaning a stick; or the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff, or the French word criquet meaning a wooden post.[3] The Middle Dutch word krickstoel means a long low stool used for kneeling in church; this resembled the long low wicket with two stumps used in early cricket.[7] According to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of the University of Bonn, "cricket" derives from the Middle Dutch phrase for hockey, met de (krik ket)sen (i.e., "with the stick chase").[8]
It is more likely that the terminology of cricket was based on words in use in south-east England at the time and, given trade connections with the County of Flanders, especially in the 15th century when it belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy, many Middle Dutch[9] words found their way into southern English dialects.[10]
Early 17th century[edit]
A number of references occur up to the English Civil War and these indicate that cricket had become an adult game contested by parish teams, but there is no evidence of county strength teams at this time. Equally, there is little evidence of the rampant gambling that characterised the game throughout the 18th century. It is generally believed, therefore, that village cricket had developed by the middle of the 17th century but that county cricket had not and that investment in the game had not begun.[11]
The Commonwealth[edit]
After the Civil War ended in 1648, the new Puritan government clamped down on "unlawful assemblies", in particular the more raucous sports such as football. Their laws also demanded a stricter observance of the Sabbath than there had been previously. As the Sabbath was the only free time available to the lower classes, cricket's popularity may have waned during the Commonwealth. However, it did flourish in public fee-paying schools such as Winchester and St Paul's. There is no actual evidence that Oliver Cromwell's regime banned cricket specifically and there are references to it during the interregnum that suggest it was acceptable to the authorities provided that it did not cause any "breach of the Sabbath".[11] It is believed that the nobility in general adopted cricket at this time through involvement in village games.[4]
Gambling and press coverage[edit]
Cricket certainly thrived after the Restoration in 1660 and is believed to have first attracted gamblers making large bets at this time. In 1664, the "Cavalier" Parliament passed the Gaming Act 1664 which limited stakes to £100, although that was still a fortune at the time,[11] equivalent to about £14 thousand in present-day terms [12]. Cricket had certainly become a significant gambling sport by the end of the 17th century. There is a newspaper report of a "great match" played in Sussex in 1697 which was 11-a-side and played for high stakes of 50 guineas a side.[6]
With freedom of the press having been granted in 1696, cricket for the first time could be reported in the newspapers. But it was a long time before the newspaper industry adapted sufficiently to provide frequent, let alone comprehensive, coverage of the game. During the first half of the 18th century, press reports tended to focus on the betting rather than on the play.[11]
18th century cricket[edit]
See also: History of cricket to 1725 and History of cricket (1726–40)
Patronage and players[edit]
Gambling introduced the first patrons because some of the gamblers decided to strengthen their bets by forming their own teams and it is believed the first "county teams" were formed in the aftermath of the Restoration in 1660, especially as members of the nobility were employing "local experts" from village cricket as the earliest professionals.[4] The first known game in which the teams use county names is in 1709 but there can be little doubt that these sort of fixtures were being arranged long before that. The match in 1697 was probably Sussex versus another county.
The most notable of the early patrons were a group of aristocrats and businessmen who were active from about 1725, which is the time that press coverage became more regular, perhaps as a result of the patrons' influence. These men included the 2nd Duke of Richmond, Sir William Gage, Alan Brodrick and Edwin Stead. For the first time, the press mentions individual players like Thomas Waymark.
Cricket moves out of England[edit]
Cricket was introduced to North America via the English colonies in the 17th century,[10] probably before it had even reached the north of England. In the 18th century it arrived in other parts of the globe. It was introduced to the West Indies by colonists[10] and to India by British East India Company mariners in the first half of the century. It arrived in Australia almost as soon as colonisation began in 1788. New Zealand and South Africa followed in the early years of the 19th century.[4]
Cricket never caught on in Canada, despite efforts by an imperial-minded elite to promote the game as a way of identifying with the British Empire. Canada, unlike Australia and the West Indies, witnessed a continual decline in the popularity of the game during 1860–1960. Linked to upper class British-Canadian elites, the game never became popular with the general public. In the summer season it had to compete with baseball. During the First World War, Canadian units stationed in Britain played baseball, not cricket.[13][14]
Development of the Laws[edit]
See also: Laws of Cricket
The basic rules of cricket such as bat and ball, the wicket, pitch dimensions, overs, how out, etc. have existed since time immemorial. In 1728, the Duke of Richmond and Alan Brodick drew up Articles of Agreement to determine the code of practice in a particular game and this became a common feature, especially around payment of stake money and distributing the winnings given the importance of gambling.[6]
In 1744, the Laws of Cricket were codified for the first time and then amended in 1774, when innovations such as lbw, middle stump and maximum bat width were added. These laws stated that the principals shall choose from amongst the gentlemen present two umpires who shall absolutely decide all disputes. The codes were drawn up by the so-called "Star and Garter Club" whose members ultimately founded MCC at Lord's in 1787. MCC immediately became the custodian of the Laws and has made periodic revisions and recodifications subsequently.[15]
Continued growth in England[edit]
The game continued to spread throughout England and, in 1751, Yorkshire is first mentioned as a venue.[16] The original form of bowling (i.e., rolling the ball along the ground as in bowls) was superseded sometime after 1760 when bowlers began to pitch the ball and study variations in line, length and pace.[11] Scorecards began to be kept on a regular basis from 1772 and since then an increasingly clear picture has emerged of the sport's development.[17]
An artwork depicting the history of the cricket bat
The first famous clubs were London and Dartford in the early 18th century. London played its matches on the Artillery Ground, which still exists. Others followed, particularly Slindon in Sussex which was backed by the Duke of Richmond and featured the star player Richard Newland. There were other prominent clubs at Maidenhead, Hornchurch, Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Bromley, Addington, Hadlow and Chertsey.
But far and away the most famous of the early clubs was Hambledon in Hampshire. It started as a parish organisation that first achieved prominence in 1756. The club itself was founded in the 1760s and was well patronised to the extent that it was the focal point of the game for about thirty years until the formation of MCC and the opening of Lord's Cricket Ground in 1787. Hambledon produced several outstanding players including the master batsman John Small and the first great fast bowler Thomas Brett. Their most notable opponent was the Chertsey and Surrey bowler Edward "Lumpy" Stevens, who is believed to have been the main proponent of the flighted delivery.
It was in answer to the flighted, or pitched, delivery that the straight bat was introduced. The old "hockey stick" style of bat was only really effective against the ball being trundled or skimmed along the ground.
Cricket and crisis[edit]
A Game of Cricket at The Royal Academy Club in Marylebone Fields, now Regent's Park, depiction by unknown artist, c. 1790-1799
Cricket faced its first real crisis during the 18th century when major matches virtually ceased during the Seven Years' War. This was largely due to shortage of players and lack of investment. But the game survived and the "Hambledon Era" proper began in the mid-1760s.
Cricket faced another major crisis at the beginning of the 19th century when a cessation of major matches occurred during the culminating period of the Napoleonic Wars. Again, the causes were shortage of players and lack of investment.[18] But, as in the 1760s, the game survived and a slow recovery began in 1815.
On 17 June 1815, on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo British soldiers played a cricket match in the Bois de la Cambre park in Brussels. Ever since the park area where that match took place has been called La Pelouse des Anglais (the Englishmen's lawn).
MCC was itself the centre of controversy in the Regency period, largely on account of the enmity between Lord Frederick Beauclerk and George Osbaldeston. In 1817, their intrigues and jealousies exploded into a match-fixing scandal with the top player William Lambert being banned from playing at Lord's Cricket Ground for life. Gambling scandals in cricket have been going on since the 17th century.
In the 1820s, cricket faced a major crisis of its own making as the campaign to allow roundarm bowling gathered pace.
19th century cricket[edit]
Main article: Overview of English cricket from 1816 to 1863
View of Geneva's Plaine de Plainpalais with cricketers, 1817
The game also underwent a fundamental change of organisation with the formation for the first time of county clubs. All the modern county clubs, starting with Sussex in 1839, were founded during the 19th century. No sooner had the first county clubs established themselves than they faced what amounted to "player action" as William Clarke created the travelling All-England Eleven in 1846. Though a commercial venture, this team did much to popularise the game in districts which had never previously been visited by high-class cricketers. Other similar teams were created and this vogue lasted for about thirty years. But the counties and MCC prevailed.
A cricket match at Darnall, Sheffield in the 1820s.
The growth of cricket in the mid and late 19th century was assisted by the development of the railway network. For the first time, teams from a long distance apart could play one other without a prohibitively time-consuming journey. Spectators could travel longer distances to matches, increasing the size of crowds. Army units around the Empire had time on their hands, and encouraged the locals so they could have some entertaining competition. Most of the Empire embraced cricket, with the exception of Canada.[19]
In 1864, another bowling revolution resulted in the legalisation of overarm and in the same year Wisden Cricketers' Almanack was first published. W. G. Grace began his long and influential career at this time, his feats doing much to increase cricket's popularity. He introduced technical innovations which revolutionised the game, particularly in batting.
International cricket begins[edit]
The first ever international cricket game was between the USA and Canada in 1844. The match was played at the grounds of the St George's Cricket Club in New York.[20]
The English team 1859 on their way to the USA
In 1859, a team of leading English professionals set off to North America on the first-ever overseas tour and, in 1862, the first English team toured Australia. Between May and October 1868, a team of Australian Aborigines toured England in what was the first Australian cricket team to travel overseas.[21]
The first Australian touring team (1878) pictured at Niagara Falls
In 1877, an England touring team in Australia played two matches against full Australian XIs that are now regarded as the inaugural Test matches. The following year, the Australians toured England for the first time and the success of this tour ensured a popular demand for similar ventures in future. No Tests were played in 1878 but more soon followed and, at The Oval in 1882, the Australian victory in a tense finish gave rise to The Ashes.
South Africa became the third Test nation in 1889.
National championships[edit]
A significant development in domestic cricket occurred in 1890 when the official County Championship was constituted in England. This organisational initiative has been repeated in other countries. Australia established the Sheffield Shield in 1892–93. Other national competitions to be established were the Currie Cup in South Africa, the Plunkett Shield in New Zealand and the Ranji Trophy in India.
The period from 1890 to the outbreak of the First World War has become one of nostalgia, ostensibly because the teams played cricket according to "the spirit of the game", but more realistically because it was a peacetime period that was shattered by the First World War. The era has been called The Golden Age of cricket and it featured numerous great names such as Grace, Wilfred Rhodes, C. B. Fry, Ranjitsinhji and Victor Trumper.
Balls per over[edit]
Cricket started with four balls per over. In 1889 the immemorial four ball over was replaced by a five ball over and then this was changed to the current six balls an over in 1900. Subsequently, some countries experimented with eight balls an over. In 1922, the number of balls per over was changed from six to eight in Australia only. In 1924 the eight ball over was extended to New Zealand and in 1937 to South Africa. In England, the eight ball over was adopted experimentally for the 1939 season; the intention was to continue the experiment in 1940, but first-class cricket was suspended for the Second World War and when it resumed, English cricket reverted to the six ball over. The 1947 Laws of Cricket allowed six or eight balls depending on the conditions of play. Since the 1979/80 Australian and New Zealand seasons, the six ball over has been used worldwide and the most recent version of the Laws in 2000 only permits six ball overs.
20th century cricket[edit]
Growth of Test cricket[edit]
Sid Barnes traps Lala Amarnath lbw in the first official Test between Australia and India at the MCG in 1948
When the Imperial Cricket Conference (as it was originally called) was founded in 1909, only England, Australia and South Africa were members. West Indies (1928), New Zealand (1930) and India (1932) became Test nations before World War II and Pakistan (1952) soon afterwards. The international game grew with several ICC Affiliate Members being appointed and, in the last quarter of the 20th century, three of those became full members: Sri Lanka (1982), Zimbabwe (1992) and Bangladesh (2000). They were followed in the early 21st century by Ireland and Afghanistan (both 2018).
Test cricket remained the sport's highest level of standard throughout the 20th century but it had its problems, notably in the infamous "Bodyline Series" of 1932–33 when Douglas Jardine's England used so-called "leg theory" to try and neutralise the run-scoring brilliance of Australia's Don Bradman.
Suspension of South Africa (1970–91)[edit]
See also: International cricket in South Africa from 1971 to 1981
The greatest crisis to hit international cricket was brought about by apartheid, the South African policy of racial segregation. The situation began to crystallise after 1961 when South Africa left the Commonwealth of Nations and so, under the rules of the day, its cricket board had to leave the International Cricket Conference (ICC). Cricket's opposition to apartheid intensified in 1968 with the cancellation of England's tour to South Africa by the South African authorities, due to the inclusion of "coloured" cricketer Basil D'Oliveira in the England team. In 1970, the ICC members voted to suspend South Africa indefinitely from international cricket competition.
Starved of top-level competition for its best players, the South African Cricket Board began funding so-called "rebel tours", offering large sums of money for international players to form teams and tour South Africa. The ICC's response was to blacklist any rebel players who agreed to tour South Africa, banning them from officially sanctioned international cricket. As players were poorly remunerated during the 1970s, several accepted the offer to tour South Africa, particularly players getting towards the end of their careers for which a blacklisting would have little effect.
The rebel tours continued into the 1980s but then progress was made in South African politics and it became clear that apartheid was ending. South Africa, now a "Rainbow Nation" under Nelson Mandela, was welcomed back into international sport in 1991.
World Series Cricket[edit]
See also: World Series Cricket
The money problems of top cricketers were also the root cause of another cricketing crisis that arose in 1977 when the Australian media magnate Kerry Packer fell out with the Australian Cricket Board over TV rights. Taking advantage of the low remuneration paid to players, Packer retaliated by signing several of the best players in the world to a privately run cricket league outside the structure of international cricket. World Series Cricket hired some of the banned South African players and allowed them to show off their skills in an international arena against other world-class players. The schism lasted only until 1979 and the "rebel" players were allowed back into established international cricket, though many found that their national teams had moved on without them. Long-term results of World Series Cricket have included the introduction of significantly higher player salaries and innovations such as coloured kit and night games.
Limited-overs cricket[edit]
In the 1960s, English county teams began playing a version of cricket with games of only one innings each and a maximum number of overs per innings. Starting in 1963 as a knockout competition only, limited-overs cricket grew in popularity and, in 1969, a national league was created which consequently caused a reduction in the number of matches in the County Championship.
Although many "traditional" cricket fans objected to the shorter form of the game, limited-overs cricket did have the advantage of delivering a result to spectators within a single day; it did improve cricket's appeal to younger or busier people; and it did prove commercially successful.
The first limited-overs international match took place at Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1971 as a time-filler after a Test match had been abandoned because of heavy rain on the opening days. It was tried simply as an experiment and to give the players some exercise, but turned out to be immensely popular. limited-overs internationals (LOIs or ODIs—one-day internationals) have since grown to become a massively popular form of the game, especially for busy people who want to be able to see a whole match. The International Cricket Council reacted to this development by organising the first Cricket World Cup in England in 1975, with all the Test-playing nations taking part.
Analytic and graphic technology[edit]
Limited-overs cricket increased television ratings for cricket coverage. Innovative techniques introduced in coverage of limited-over matches were soon adopted for Test coverage. The innovations included presentation of in-depth statistics and graphical analysis, placing miniature cameras in the stumps, multiple usage of cameras to provide shots from several locations around the ground, high-speed photography and computer graphics technology enabling television viewers to study the course of a delivery and help them understand an umpire's decision.
In 1992, the use of a third umpire to adjudicate run-out appeals with television replays was introduced in the Test series between South Africa and India. The third umpire's duties have subsequently expanded to include decisions on other aspects of play such as stumpings, catches and boundaries. From 2011, the third umpire was being called upon to moderate review of umpires' decisions, including LBW, with the aid of virtual-reality tracking technologies (e.g., Hawk-Eye and Hot Spot), though such measures still could not free some disputed decisions from heated controversy.[22]
21st century cricket[edit]
In June 2001, the ICC introduced a "Test Championship Table" and, in October 2002, a "One-day International Championship Table". As indicated by ICC rankings,[23] the various cricket formats have continued to be a major competitive sport in most former British Empire countries, notably the Indian subcontinent, and new participants including the Netherlands. In 2017, the number of countries with full ICC membership was increased to twelve by the addition of Afghanistan and Ireland.
The ICC expanded its development programme, aiming to produce more national teams capable of competing at the various formats. Development efforts are focused on African and Asian nations, and on the United States. In 2004, the ICC Intercontinental Cup brought first-class cricket to 12 nations, mostly for the first time. Cricket's newest innovation is Twenty20, essentially an evening entertainment. It has so far enjoyed enormous popularity and has attracted large attendances at matches as well as good TV audience ratings. The inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Cup tournament was held in 2007.[24] The formation of Twenty20 leagues in India – the unofficial Indian Cricket League, which started in 2007, and the official Indian Premier League, starting in 2008 – raised much speculation in the cricketing press about their effect on the future of cricket.[25][26][27][28]
Historical sources[edit]
"First-class cricket" was not officially defined until May 1894 and became effective from the start of the 1895 English cricket season.[29] Cricket of a recognised first-class standard (i.e., in important matches) had, however, been recorded in England for two centuries before then, and in other countries from the middle of the 19th century. There is no official term for cricket of this high standard before 1895 and many loose terms were used for convenience including "first-class" itself and other adjectives like "major", "great" and "important", the latter being coined by the ACS for its A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709–1863 (1981).[29] It is generally agreed by the main historical sources that the earliest known example of what was contemporarily called a "great match" was the one played for fifty guineas in June 1697 between two eleven-a-side teams at an unspecified location in Sussex.[6] It is entirely feasible, and is indeed believed by some historians, that major matches were played for many years before 1697.[30][31] In 1695, the English Parliament decided against a renewal of the 1662 Licensing Act and so cleared the way for a free press on the Act's expiry in 1696.[32] The main reason for matches before 1697 being unknown is that, while the Licensing Act was in force, it effectively imposed censorship upon the press and sport was not deemed to be a suitable subject for newspaper coverage. After the restrictions were removed, sport was gradually introduced into the newspapers but it would be decades before coverage became anything substantial, let alone comprehensive.[32]
From 1895, there is no question about first-class status because of the official definition.[29] The concept became global from 1947 when it was re-defined by the ICC, although there has been hardly any controversy about match status outside Great Britain before 1947.[33] Status of limited overs matches, which began in 1963, is governed by the official List A categorisation and there are similarly no issues about major Twenty 20 matches. Although the experts are in general agreement about match status, there have been exceptions although these account for a tiny percentage of the total number of matches recorded. Apart from one tour of India and Ceylon by a privately organised team in the winter of 1930–31, all the "disputed" matches took place in England before 1895: see Variations in published cricket statistics for further information.
The list below is by no means exhaustive, but the works included are widely held in cricketing circles to be significant and substantial sources of information about the development of the sport from the end of the 17th century to the commencement of officially defined first-class cricket in 1895. These are widely used to determine the status of individual matches, teams, venues and players. In a more general sense, all of the sources listed in Bibliography of cricket, though again this is not an exhaustive list, are reliable but it should be noted that autobiographies and other works with a narrow scope are not necessarily suitable, certainly not if used in isolation, to determine match status.
Books and other printed works[edit]
ACS (1982). A Guide to First-Class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham: ACS.
ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
Altham, H. S. (1962). A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914). George Allen & Unwin.
Arlott, John (1984). Arlott on Cricket. Collins. ISBN 0-563-16115-9.
Ashley-Cooper, F. S. (1900). At the Sign of the Wicket: Cricket 1742–1751. Cricket magazine.
Ashley-Cooper, F. S. (1924). Hambledon Cricket Chronicle 1772–1796. Jenkins.
Ashley-Cooper, F. S. (1929). Kent Cricket Matches 1719–1880. Gibbs & Sons.
Barclays (1986). Swanton, E. W., ed. Barclays World of Cricket. Willow Books. ISBN 0-00-218193-2.
Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum. ISBN 1-85410-710-0.
Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
Buckley, G. B. (1937). Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket. Cotterell.
Guha, Ramachandra (2001). A Corner of a Foreign Field – An Indian History of a British Sport. Picador.
Harte, Chris (1993). A History of Australian Cricket. Andre Deutsch. ISBN 0 233 98825 4.
Haygarth, Arthur (1862). Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826). Lillywhite. ISBN 1-900592-23-1. (also volumes 2 to 14, covering the 1827 to 1878 seasons)
James, C. L. R. (1963). Beyond A Boundary. Hutchinson. ISBN 0822313839.
Lillywhite, Fred (1949). The Guide to Cricketers (annual). Lillywhite. (annual review – seasons 1849 to 1866)
Lillywhite, James (1872). James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual (Red Lilly). Lillywhite. (annual review – seasons 1871 to 1899)
Lillywhite, John (1865). John Lillywhite's Cricketer's Companion (Green Lilly). Lillywhite. (annual review – seasons 1864 to 1884)
Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.
Maun, Ian (2009). From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750. Roger Heavens. ISBN 978 1 900592 52 9.
Maun, Ian (2011). From Commons to Lord's, Volume Two: 1751 to 1770. Martin Wilson. ISBN 978 0 9569066 0 1.
McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
Mote, Ashley (1997). The Glory Days of Cricket. Robson.
Nyren, John (1998). Mote, Ashley, ed. The Cricketers of my Time. Robson.
Pycroft, James (1854). The Cricket Field (2nd edition). Longman.
Rae, Simon (1998). W. G. Grace: A Life. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-17855-1.
Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-9330-8.
Waghorn, H. T. (1899). Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773). Blackwood.
Waghorn, H. T. (1906). The Dawn of Cricket. Electric Press.
Webber, Roy (1960). The Phoenix History of Cricket. Phoenix.
Webber, Roy (1951). The Playfair Book of Cricket Records. Playfair Books.
Wilson, Martin (2005). An Index to Waghorn. Bodyline.
Wynne-Thomas, Peter (1997). From the Weald to the World. Stationery Office Books.
Examples of substantial season-specific sources[edit]
Wisden. Pardon, Charles, ed. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 27th edition (1890 ed.). London: John Wisden & Co. Ltd.
Wisden. Pardon, Sydney, ed. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 32nd edition (1895 ed.). London: John Wisden & Co. Ltd.
Wisden. Preston, Hubert, ed. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 85th edition (1948 ed.). London: John Wisden & Co. Ltd.
Playfair. West, Peter, ed. Playfair Cricket Annual, 1st edition (1948 ed.). London: Playfair Books.
Examples of substantial subject-specific sources[edit]
Hodgson, Derek (1989). The Official History of Yorkshire County Cricket Club. The Crowood Press. ISBN 1852232749.
Kilburn, J. M. (1970). A History of Yorkshire Cricket. Stanley Paul. ISBN 0091011108.
Selected online sources[edit]
"The official laws of cricket". Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Archived from the original on 11 March 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
"ESPNcricinfo home page". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
"Wisden Almanack online". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
"CricketArchive home page". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 January 2016. (Subscription required (help)).
Bateman, Anthony (2003). "More Mighty Than The Bat, The Pen" (PDF). British Society of Sports History. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
Bowen, Rowland (1965). "Wisden 1965 : Cricket in the 17th and 18th centuries". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
Terry, David (2008). "The Seventeenth Century Game of Cricket: A Reconstruction of the Game" (PDF). SportsLibrary. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 November 2009. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
See also[edit]
History of women's cricket
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Wynne-Thomas, Peter (1997). From the Weald to the World. Stationery Office Books.
Jump up ^ Altham, H. S. (1962). A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914). George Allen & Unwin.
^ Jump up to: a b Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Altham, p.21.
Jump up ^ Underdown, p.3.
^ Jump up to: a b c d McCann, p.xxxi.
Jump up ^ Bowen, p. 33.
Jump up ^ Terry, David (2008). "The Seventeenth Century Game of Cricket: A Reconstruction of the Game" (PDF). SportsLibrary. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 November 2009. Retrieved 25 September 2008.
Jump up ^ Middle Dutch was the language in use in Flanders at the time.
^ Jump up to: a b c Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
^ Jump up to: a b c d e From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300–1787
Jump up ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved November 6, 2017.
Jump up ^ David Cooper, "Canadians Declare 'It Isn't Cricket': a Century of Rejection of the Imperial Game, 1860–1960." Journal of Sport History (1999) 26#1 pp 51–81
Jump up ^ Andrew Horrall, "'Keep-a-fighting! Play the Game!' Baseball and the Canadian Forces During the First World War," Canadian Military History (2001) 10#2 pp 27–40
Jump up ^ The official laws of cricket
Jump up ^ F S Ashley-Cooper, At the Sign of the Wicket: Cricket 1742–1751, Cricket Magazine, 1900
Jump up ^ Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826), Lillywhite, 1862
Jump up ^ ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709–1863. Nottingham: ACS. p. 4.
Jump up ^ David Cooper, "Canadians Declare 'It Isn't Cricket': A Century of Rejection of the Imperial Game, 1860-1960." Journal of Sport History 26 (1999): 51-81.
Jump up ^ "United States of America v Canada". CricketArchive. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
Jump up ^ The Australian Eleven: The first Australian team, National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
Jump up ^ Gibson, Owen Cricket may have embraced technology too quickly, says Hawk-Eye founder The Guardian, 9 August 2013
Jump up ^ ICC rankings for Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 at espncricinfo.com (Accessed 30 August 2013)
Jump up ^ "Remember these? The defining images of the last quarter-century : The millennial game".
Jump up ^ How will the IPL change cricket? BBC News 17 April 2008
Jump up ^ Cricket's new order BBC News 29 February 2008
Jump up ^ Stars come out as the eyes of the cricket world switch to Bangalore The Guardian 18 April 2008
Jump up ^ Test nations must act or lose players The Australian 18 April 2008
^ Jump up to: a b c ACS, First-class Match Guide, p. 4.
Jump up ^ Webber, p. 10.
Jump up ^ Altham, p. 23.
^ Jump up to: a b Leach, John (2007). "From Lads to Lord's: 1695". Stumpsite. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
Jump up ^ Wisden 1948, p. 813.
Bibliography[edit]
Altham, H. S. (1962). A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914). George Allen & Unwin.
Bateman, Anthony. Cricket, literature and culture: symbolising the nation, destabilising empire (Routledge, 2016).
Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum.
Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
Box, Charles (1868). The Theory and Practice of Cricket, from its origin to the present time. Frederick Warne.
Harte, Chris (1993). A History of Australian Cricket. London: Andre Deutsch. ISBN 0-233-98825-4.
Lang, Andrew. "The History of Cricket" in Steel A. G.; Lyttelton R. H. Cricket, Longmans 1898 (6th edn)
Light, Rob. "‘In a Yorkshire Like Way’: Cricket and the Construction of Regional Identity in Nineteenth-century Yorkshire." Sport in History 29.3 (2009): 500-518.
McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
McKibbin, Ross. Classes and Cultures. England 1918–1951 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). online pp 332-39
Russell, Dave. "Sport and identity: the case of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, 1890–1939." Twentieth Century British History 7.2 (1996): 206-230.
Stone, Duncan. "Cricket's regional identities: the development of cricket and identity in Yorkshire and Surrey." Sport in Society 11.5 (2008): 501-516. online
Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (annual): various editions
Wynne-Thomas, Peter (1997). From the Weald to the World. Stationery Office Books.
External links[edit]
CricInfo
CricketArchive
Wisden Online archives
"BBC News – Today – Audio slideshow: 'Swinging Away'". BBC Online. 20 May 2010.
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History of the New York Giants (baseball)
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For the history of the team from 1958 onward, see History of the San Francisco Giants. For information on the franchise in general, see San Francisco Giants. For the National Football League team, see New York Giants.
1948–57. The same logo was later used by the New York Mets.
New York Giants primary logo, 1947-1957
The New York Giants were the New York City–based incarnation of the present day San Francisco Giants prior to the team's relocation to San Francisco in 1958. The franchise was based in the New York metropolitan area from the team's inception in 1883 through the 1957 season. During most of its seasons in New York, the Giants played home games in the Polo Grounds in the Upper Manhattan region of New York City.
Numerous inductees of the Baseball Hall of Fame played for the New York Giants, including John McGraw, Mel Ott, Bill Terry, Willie Mays, Monte Irvin, and Travis Jackson. During the club's 75-season tenure in New York, it won five of the franchise's eight World Series wins and 17 of its 24 National League pennants. Famous moments in the Giants' New York history include the 1922 World Series, in which the Giants swept the Yankees in four games, the 1951 homerun known as the "Shot Heard 'Round the World", and the defensive feat by Willie Mays during the first game of the 1954 World Series known as "the Catch".
The Giants had intense rivalries with their fellow New York teams the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers; games between any two of these three teams were known collectively as the Subway Series. The New York–Brooklyn rivalry carried over to the West Coast when the Dodgers relocated to Los Angeles at during the same year and continues today as a Los Angeles–San Francisco rivalry.
Contents
[hide]
1 Early days and the John McGraw era
2 1930–57: Five pennants in 28 seasons
2.1 1951: The "Shot Heard 'Round the World"
2.2 Mays's catch and the 1954 Series
2.3 New York Giants of the 1950s
2.4 1957: Move to California
3 References
Early days and the John McGraw era[edit]
1883 Gothams
1908–16, 1919–22, 1928–29
1923–27, 1930–31
The Giants began as the second baseball club founded by millionaire tobacconist John B. Day and veteran amateur baseball player Jim Mutrie. The Gothams, as the Giants were originally known, entered the National League seven years after its 1876 formation, in 1883, while their other club, the Metropolitans (the original New York Mets) played in the rival American Association (1882-1891). Nearly half of the original Gothams players were members of the disbanded Troy Trojans in upstate New York, whose place in the National League the Gothams inherited. While the Metropolitans were initially the more successful club, after they won the 1884 AA championship, Day and Mutrie began moving star players to the NL Gothams, whose fortunes improved while the Metropolitans' afterwards slumped.
It is said that after one particularly satisfying victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, Mutrie (who was also the team's manager) stormed into the dressing room and exclaimed, "My big fellows! My giants!"[1] From then on (1885), the club was known as the Giants.
The team won its first National League pennant in 1888, as well as a victory over the St. Louis Browns in an early incarnation of the pre-modern-era World Series. They repeated as champions the next year with a pennant and world championship victory over the Brooklyn Bridegrooms.
The Giants' original home stadium, the Polo Grounds, also dates from this early era. It was originally located north of Central Park adjacent to Fifth and Sixth Avenues and 110th and 112th Streets, in Harlem in upper Manhattan. After their eviction from that first incarnation of the Polo Grounds after the 1888 season, they moved further uptown to various fields which they also named the "Polo Grounds" located between 155th and 159th Streets in Harlem and Washington Heights, playing in the Washington Heights located famous Polo Grounds until the end of the 1957 season, when they moved to San Francisco.
The Giants were a powerhouse in the late 1880s, winning their first two National League Pennants and World Championships in 1888 & 1889. But nearly all of the Giants' stars jumped to the upstart newly-organized rival loop, the Players' League, whose New York franchise was also named the Giants, in 1890. The new team even built a stadium next door to the NL Polo Grounds. With a decimated roster, the NL Giants finished a distant sixth. Attendance took a nosedive, and the financial strain affected Day's tobacco business as well. The Players' League dissolved after the single season, and Day sold a minority interest in his NL Giants to the defunct PL Giants' principal backer, Edward Talcott. As a condition of the sale, Day had to fire Mutrie as manager. Although the Giants rebounded to third place in 1891, Day was forced to sell a controlling interest to Talcott at the end of the '91 season.
Four years later, Talcott sold the Giants to Andrew Freedman, a real estate developer with ties to the Tammany Hall political machine/of the city/state Democratic Party running New York City. Freedman was one of the most detested owners in baseball history, getting into heated disputes with other owners, writers and his own players, most famously with star pitcher Amos Rusie, author of the first Giants no-hitter. When Freedman offered Rusie only $2,500 for 1896, the disgruntled hurler sat out the entire season. Attendance fell off throughout the league without Rusie, prompting the other owners to chip in $50,000 to get him to return for 1897. Freedman even hired former owner Day as manager for part of the 1899 season.
In 1902, after a series of disastrous moves that left the Giants 53½ games behind the front-runner, Freedman signed John McGraw as player-manager, convincing him to jump in mid-season from the Baltimore Orioles (1901-1902) of the fledgling American League and bring with him several of his teammates. McGraw went on to manage the Giants for three decades until 1932, one of the longest and most successful tenures in professional sports. Hiring "Mr. McGraw," as his players referred to him, was one of Freedman's last significant moves as owner of the Giants, since after that 1902 season he was forced to sell his interest in the club to John T. Brush. McGraw went on to manage the Giants to nine National League pennants (in 1904-1905, 1911–1913, 1914) and three World Series championships (in 1905 & 1921-1922), with a tenth pennant and fourth world championship as Giants owner in 1933 under his handpicked player-manager successor, Bill Terry.
The Giants already had their share of stars beginning in the 1880s & 1890s, such as "Smiling" Mickey Welch, Roger Connor, Tim Keefe, Jim O'Rourke and John Montgomery Ward, the player-lawyer who formed the renegade Players' League in 1890 to protest unfair player contracts. McGraw, a veteran of the infamous 1890s Baltimore Orioles, in his three decades managing the Giants, cultivated a new crop of baseball heroes with names like Christy Mathewson, "Iron Man" Joe McGinnity, Jim Thorpe, Red Ames, Casey Stengel, Art Nehf, Edd Roush, Rogers Hornsby, Bill Terry and Mel Ott.
The Giants under McGraw famously snubbed their first modern World Series chance in 1904, established as the price of peace with the rival Americans, first played the year before, by refusing the invitation to play the reigning world champion Boston Americans (now known as the Boston Red Sox) because McGraw considered the newly established American League of 1901, as little more than a minor league and disliked its firebrand president, Ban Johnson. He also resented his Giants' new intra-city rival New York Highlanders, (from the old relocated charter AL franchise Baltimore Orioles), who almost won the pennant but lost to Boston on the last day, and stuck by his refusal to play whoever won the 1904 AL pennant. Of note, McGraw had managed the relocated Highlanders franchise in their first two seasons (1901–1902), when they were playing in Baltimore.
The ensuing criticism resulted in Brush's taking the lead to formalize the rules and format of the World Series. The Giants won the 1905 World Series over Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, with Christy Mathewson nearly winning the series single-handedly with a still-standing record three complete-game shutouts and 27 consecutive scoreless innings in that one World Series, a feat unlikely ever to be duplicated.
The Giants then had several frustrating years. In 1908, they finished in a tie with the Chicago Cubs due to a late-season home tie game with the Cubs resulting from the Fred Merkle baserunning "boner". They lost the postseason replay of the tie game (ordered by NL president Harry Pulliam) to the Cubs (after disgruntled Giants fans had set fire to the stands the morning of the game), who would go on to win their second (consecutive, and their last for the next 108 years!!) World Series. That post-season game was further darkened by a story that someone on the Giants had attempted to bribe umpire Bill Klem. This could have been a disastrous scandal for baseball, but because Klem was honest and the Giants lost the duel between Christy Mathewson and Mordecai "Three-Fingered" Brown 4–2, it faded over time.
The Giants experienced a mixture of success and hard luck in the early 1910s, losing three straight World Series in 1911–1913 to the A's, Red Sox and A's again (two seasons later, both the Giants and the A's, decimated by the short-lived rival third loop, the Federal League of 1914-1915, with the "jumping ship" signings of many of their stars, finished in eighth [last] place). After losing the 1917 Series to the Chicago White Sox (the last "Chisox Series" win until 2005), the Giants played in four straight World Series in the early 1920s, winning the first two over their Polo Grounds fellow tenants, the Yankees (after winning the first two of their many pennants, led by their new young slugger and former Red Sox and Orioles pitcher George Herman "Babe" Ruth), then losing to the Yankees in 1923 after old Yankee Stadium had opened that May. They also lost in 1924, when the Washington Senators won their only World Series while in D.C. (prior to their move to Minneapolis - St. Paul as the Minnesota Twins before the 1961 season and their later 1987 & 1991 Series wins there).
1930–57: Five pennants in 28 seasons[edit]
McGraw handed over the team to Bill Terry after the 1932 season, and Terry played for and managed the Giants for ten years, winning three pennants, defeating the Senators in the 1933 World Series but swept by the Yankees in consecutive fall classics, 1936 and 1937. Aside from Terry himself, the other stars of the era were slugger Mel Ott and southpaw hurler Carl Hubbell. Known as "King Carl" and "The Meal Ticket", Hubbell gained fame in the first two innings of the 1934 All-Star Game (played at the Polo Grounds) by striking out five future AL Hall of Famers in a row: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin.
Ott succeeded Terry as manager in 1942, but the war years proved to be difficult for the Giants. Midway during the 1948 season Brooklyn Dodgers Leo Durocher left as Dodgers skipper to manage the Giants, not without controversy. Not only was such a midseason managerial switch unprecedented, but Durocher had been accused of gambling in 1947 and subsequently suspended for that whole season by Baseball Commissioner Albert "Happy" Chandler. Durocher's ensuing eight full seasons managing the Giants proved some of the most memorable for their fans, particularly because of the arrival of five-tool superstar Willie Mays, their two pennants in 1951 & 1954, their unexpected sweep of the powerful (111-43) Cleveland Indians in the 1954 World Series and arguably the two most famous plays in Giants history.
1951: The "Shot Heard 'Round the World"[edit]
Main article: Shot Heard 'Round the World (baseball)
The "Shot Heard 'Round the World," or Bobby Thomson's come-from-behind ninth-inning walk-off home run that won the National League pennant for the Giants over their bitter rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, in the deciding game of a three-game playoff series ending one of baseball's most memorable pennant races. The Giants had been 13 1/2 games behind the league-leading Dodgers in August, but under Durocher's guidance and with a 16-game winning streak, got hot and caught the Dodgers to tie for the lead on the next-to-last day of the season.
Mays's catch and the 1954 Series[edit]
Main article: The Catch (baseball)
In Game 1 of the 1954 World Series at the Polo Grounds against the Cleveland Indians, Willie Mays made "The Catch," a dramatic over-the-shoulder catch of a fly ball by Vic Wertz after sprinting with his back to the plate on a dead run to deepest center field. At the time the game was tied 2–2 in the eighth inning, with men on first and second and nobody out. Mays caught the ball 450 ft (140 m) from the plate, whirled and threw the ball to the infield, keeping the lead runner, Larry Doby, from scoring. Although Doby took third after the catch, he was stranded there and the Giants won on Dusty Rhodes' tenth-inning pinch-hit walk-off home run with two aboard, 5-2.
The underdog Giants went on to sweep the series in four straight, despite the Indians' American League 111-43 regular season. The 1954 World Series title would be their last appearance in the World Series as the New York Giants, with the team moving to San Francisco to start the 1958 season.
New York Giants of the 1950s[edit]
In addition to Bobby Thomson and Willie Mays, other memorable New York Giants of the 1950s include Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher, coach Herman Franks, Hall of Fame outfielder Monte Irvin, outfielder and runner-up for the 1954 NL batting championship (won by Willie Mays) Don Mueller, Hall of Fame knuckleball relief pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm, starting pitchers Larry Jansen, Sal Maglie, Jim Hearn, Marv Grissom, Dave Koslo, Don Liddle, Max Lanier, Rubén Gómez, Al Worthington, and Johnny Antonelli, catcher Wes Westrum, catchers Ray Katt and Sal Yvars, shortstop Alvin Dark, third baseman Hank Thompson, first baseman Whitey Lockman, second basemen Davey Williams and Eddie Stanky, outfielder-pitcher Clint Hartung and utility men Johnny Mize, Bill Rigney, Daryl Spencer, Bobby Hofman, Joey Amalfitano, Tookie Gilbert, and 1954 Series hero Dusty Rhodes, among others. In the late 1950s and after the move to San Francisco two Hall of Fame first basemen, Orlando Cepeda and Willie McCovey, joined the team.
1957: Move to California[edit]
The Giants' final three years in New York City were unmemorable. They stumbled to third place the year after their World Series win, and attendance fell off precipitously. While seeking a new stadium to replace the crumbling Polo Grounds, the Giants began to contemplate a move from New York, initially considering Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota, which was home to their top farm team, the Minneapolis Millers. Under the rules of the time, the Giants' ownership of the Millers gave them priority rights to a major league team in the area (the Washington Senators wound up there as the Minnesota Twins in 1961).
At this time, the Giants were approached by San Francisco mayor George Christopher. Despite objections from shareholders such as Joan Whitney Payson, majority owner Horace Stoneham entered into negotiations with San Francisco officials around the same time the Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley was courting the city of Los Angeles. O'Malley had been told that the Dodgers would not be allowed to move to Los Angeles unless a second team moved to California as well. He pushed Stoneham toward relocation, and so in the summer of 1957 both the Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers announced their moves to California, ending the three-team golden age of baseball in New York City.
New York would remain a one-team town with the New York Yankees until 1962, when Joan Payson founded the New York Mets and brought National League baseball back to the city (as part of MLB's first wave of expansion). Owners Payson and M. Donald Grant, who became the Mets' chairman, had been the only Giants board members to vote against the Giants' move to California. The "NY" script on the Giants' caps and the orange trim on their uniforms, along with the blue background used by the Dodgers, would be adopted by the Mets, honoring their New York NL forebears with a blend of Giants orange and Dodgers blue.
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "Jim Mutrie". nyhistory.org. Retrieved September 4, 2012.
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New York Mutuals (1876) • Athletic of Philadelphia (1876) • Hartford Dark Blues (1875–76) • St. Louis Brown Stockings (1876–77) • Louisville Grays (1876–77) • Indianapolis Blues (1878) • Milwaukee Grays (1878) • Syracuse Stars (1878) • Cincinnati Red Stockings (1876–80) • Worcester Worcesters (1880–82) • Providence Grays (1878–85) • Buffalo Bisons (1879–85) • Cleveland Blues (1879–84) • Troy Trojans (1879–82) • St. Louis Maroons (1885–86) • Kansas City Cowboys (1886) • Detroit Wolverines (1881–88) • Indianapolis Hoosiers (1887–89) • Washington Nationals (1886–89) • Cleveland Spiders (1887–99) • Baltimore Orioles (1892–99) • Louisville Colonels (1892–99) • Washington Senators (1891–99)
[show]
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San Francisco Giants
Formerly the New York Gothams and the New York Giants
Based in San Francisco, California (Bay Area)
Franchise
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"Shot Heard 'Round the World"
The Catch
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1962 NL tie-breaker series
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
White Flag Trade
The Fan
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Willie Mac Award
Game 163 (1998)
Don't Stop Believin'
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The Franchise (Showtime TV series)
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2014 NL Wild Card Game
2016 NL Wild Card Game
KNBR
Rivalries
Los Angeles Dodgers
Oakland Athletics
Subway Series/New York Yankees
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NY
NY
3
4
11
20
24
27
30
36
44
42
Pre-World Series Champions (2)
1888
1889
Temple Cup Champions (1)
1894
World Series Champions (8)
1905
1921
1922
1933
1954
2010
2012
2014
National League
Championships (23)
1888
1889
1904
1905
1911
1912
1913
1917
1921
1922
1923
1924
1933
1936
1937
1951
1954
1962
1989
2002
2010
2012
2014
Division titles (8)
1971
1987
1989
1997
2000
2003
2010
2012
Wild card (3)
2002
2014
2016
Minor league affiliates
AAA
Sacramento River Cats
AA
Richmond Flying Squirrels
A Adv.
San Jose Giants
A
Augusta GreenJackets
Short A
Salem-Keizer Volcanoes
Rookie
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[show]
Seasons (136)
1880s
1880 · 1881 · 1882 · 1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890s
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900s
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910s
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920s
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930s
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940s
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950s
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960s
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970s
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980s
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990s
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000s
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010s
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
[show]
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Subway Series
Teams
American Association
Brooklyn Bridegrooms
American League
New York Yankees
National League
Brooklyn Dodgers
New York Giants
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Stadiums
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Ebbets Field
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Shea Stadium
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Rivalries
Bridegrooms–Giants
Giants–Yankees
Dodgers–Yankees
Mets–Yankees
World Series
Bridegrooms–Giants
1889
Giants–Yankees
1921
1922
1923
1936
1937
1951
Dodgers–Yankees
1941
1947
1949
1952
1953
1955
1956
Mets–Yankees
2000
Histories
Brooklyn Bridegrooms/Dodgers
New York Giants
New York Mets
New York Yankees
Related articles
Interleague play
New York City Subway
Major League Baseball rivalries
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_New_York_Giants_(baseball)&oldid=796716545"
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