* RK Review: Giants Past & Present

April 7, 2010

by Dan Fost. MVP Books, 2010.

A book such as Giants Past & Present caters to multiple readerships. On the one hand you have long-time fans of the team, both in the East and West Coast incarnations. You also have younger fans, who grew up on the San Francisco version. In addition, there are the history buffs, the photography buffs, the pop culture buffs, you name it.

In that regard, Giants has the proverbial something for everyone in one slim package. Fost, a freelance journalist in the Bay Area, shares his love for the team with anyone who wants to listen, or, more appropriately, read. Each section is but a taste of the deeper history as he covers the origins of the team (they weren’t even an original member of the National League when it formed in 1876) and its evolutions, full of stars (Mel Ott, Christy Mathewson, Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovery, Juan Marichal, and more recently Tim Linceum, among many others), dramatic moments (Can anything top The Shot Heard ‘Round the World?), and even low points (sorry, Merkel), and World Series and post-season appearances, as well as a position-by-position breakdown of some of the memorable “Jints” down the line.

Fost goes beyond the surface, however, paying tribute to lots of the behind-the-scenes items that, although not normally press-worthy, are nevertheless integral in putting out the product that is a major league game, such as public address announcers; a look at the clubhouses over the years; billboards and scoreboards; the ballparks and, separately, the playing surfaces; salaries; uniforms, etc., all nicely illustrated and all within the slim confines of less than 150 pages.

Giants is a nice addition to a bookshelf, but more suited to a hard-core than casual fan of the team.

For more information, visit the book’s site.

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