San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park
There might not be a more beautiful view in all of baseball than at Oracle Park. Overlooking the San Francisco Bay's McCovey Cove, with different vantage points of the horizon in upper and lower levels alike, the waterfront park in the South of Market District is a marvel of urban stadium design and one of baseball's iconic ballparks. Within the friendly confines of Oracle Park, a giant old-fashioned baseball glove and an 80-foot slide shaped like a Coca-Cola bottle tower above left field, while just beyond the famed triples alley wall in right center field, kayakers post up in the Cove hoping to fish out a home run ball that splashes in the bay. Going to a Giants game is a quintessential San Francisco night, as much for the baseball and the park as it is for the garlic fries and Anchor Steam beer.
San Francisco Giants History
Before moving to San Francisco in 1958, the Giants called New York City home since 1883. Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Christy Mathewson and Mel Ott helped get the Giants five World Series titles before they headed west. Their first two years in San Francisco were played at Seals Stadium, then the next 40 at Candlestick Park. In 2000, the newly built Oracle Park (then Pac Bell Park) was opened in the city's South Beach neighborhood.
Up until 2010, the Giants had claimed a mere three National League pennants since leaving New York, remaining in the shadows of their fiercest division rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers. But in 2010, the dynamic changed drastically as the Giants claimed the first of three World Series titles in a five-year span (2012, 2014), effectively reigniting the rivalry for NL West supremacy for decades to come.
For much of the '10s, the Giants were the toast of the National League, winning three titles under manager Bruce Bochy. And while Bochy retired in 2019, the championship spirit is very much alive in the stands at Oracle Park and in the roster led by new manager Gabe Kapler. In fact, important cogs from those World Series runs remained on the team, including catcher and former National League MVP Buster Posey, three-time Golden Glove winning shortstop Brandon Crawford, first baseman Brandon Belt and Giants legends Pablo Sandoval and Hunter Pence.