San Jose Giants

MiLB infobox
name = San Jose Giants
founded = 1988
city = San Jose, California
misc =

uniform

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class level = High Class-A
past class level=
current league = California League
conference =
division = Northern Division
past league =
majorleague = San Francisco Giants (1988–present)
pastmajorleague =
uniform =
nickname = San Jose Giants (1988–present)
pastnames =
ballpark = San Jose Municipal Stadium
pastparks =
leaguechamps = 1998, 2001(co-champion),
2005, 2007
divisionchamps = 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2007
misc6 =
owner = Progress Sports Management
manager = Steve Decker
gm = Mark WilsonThe San Jose Giants are a minor league baseball team in San Jose, California, USA. They are a "high-A" class team in the Northern Division of the California League, and have been a farm team of the San Francisco Giants since 1988. The Giants join a long line of San Jose based California League teams dating back to the league's inception including:
# San Jose Bees (1983-1987)
# San Jose Expos (1982)
# San Jose Missions (1979-1981) (Pacific Coast League 1977-1978)
# San Jose Bees (1962-1976)
# San Jose Pirates (1958)
# San Jose JoSox (1956-1957)
# San Jose Red Sox (1947-1955)
# San Jose Owls (1942)

Team history

Since the team's inception, the San Jose Giants have been one of the more successful teams in the California League. They captured the league championship in 1998, 2001, 2005 and most recently in 2007. In 2005 and once again in 2007 after being down 2-0 in the best of 5 series, came back home and won the final three games over Lake Elsinore Storm to claim the Championship Series 3-2.(note:In 2001 the Giants were declared co-champions with the Lake Elsinore Storm after the final series was cancelled after the September 11th terrorist attacks). The team has also made the California League playoffs numerous times and won the Northern Division championship 7 times. The Giants also had the best record of any minor league class A team in the 1990s.

This has shown at the turnstile as attendance has increased 14 of the last 17 years. The SJ Giants are now in their 21st season being affiliated with the San Francisco Giants. This makes the SJ Giants affiliation the longest currently enjoyed by a team in the California League. 2004 marked a second highest team record attendance of 151,414 for the season. San Jose Giants have developed more than 115 major league players, including Tim Lincecum, Jonathan Sanchez , Matt Cain , Noah Lowry , Merkin Valdez , Chad Zerbe, Russ Ortiz, Bill Mueller, Doug Mirabelli, Rod Beck, Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Shawn Estes. In addition, many players on the Kansas City Royals teams of the 70's and 80's, such as George Brett, Amos Otis, and Dennis Leonard, knew their way to San Jose.

San Jose Giants games are very much rooted in the older traditions of baseball. Fans sit very close to the field, general admission seating is available for games, players sign autographs before every game, and the outfield walls are lined with adverts much like the stadiums of the 1920s and 30s were. There are no jumbotron screens, just a simple scoreboard showing the basic game data like runs, strikes, balls, outs. This was even updated in 2005 to feature lights to denote the count rather than numbers much like Fenway Park in Boston. The out-of-town scoreboard for other California League games is also hand hung. In 2006, the simple scoreboard was replaced with a video board and the hand hung out-of-town scoreboard is no longer used. Fans are treated to all manner of little games and entertainment between innings which are hosted by improvisation performers from [http://www.comedysportzsanjose.com ComedySportz San Jose] . In-between inning fun includes a tire toss, a child footrace around the bases, and throwing a baseball at a truck for prizes. The San Jose Giants also added a mascot, Gigante, for the 2006 season.

Another unique feature of San Jose Giants games is the "beer batter." A batter from the opposing team is designated the "beer batter". If the San Jose pitcher strikes out that batter, beer is half price in the beer only lines for the 15 minutes immediately following the strike out. The beer batter promotion is only in effect for the first six innings of the game. The PA system plays Beer Barrel Polka ("roll out the barrel") whenever the beer batter comes to the plate and after every strike during the beer batter's at-bat (through the first six innings).

San Jose Giants games are often the home of Krazy George. George is a well known "fan" in the San Francisco Bay Area who attends not only SJ Giants games but also many of the MLB, NFL, NHL, and NCAA football games in the region. His claim to fame is being the creator of "the wave" in Oakland on October 15, 1981 where fans rise and wave their arms in sequence around a stadium thus created a wave like effect when viewed from a distance.

A minor league team in San Jose after 2011 may be in doubt if the proposed move of the Oakland Athletics to Cisco Field in Fremont, California which may open as early as 2012

Current Roster

External links

* [http://www.sjgiants.com San Jose Giants Official Site]
* [http://www.sjgiantsFans.org San Jose Giants Fans Site]