Great Moments In Baseball History: The 2002 San Francisco Giants Almost Win It All
By Sam McPherson
The San Francisco Giants had a very bleak baseball history from the moment they arrived on the West Coast. From the 1958 season through the 1996 season, the once-glorified franchise had fallen on hard times in California, making the postseason only four times in 39 years. However, with the free-agent signing of superstar left fielder Barry Bonds in 1993, the Giants hoped to regain their former glory and return to the top of Major League Baseball.
It didn't quite happen that fast, however. After a stellar first season together in 1993, the Giants and Bonds slipped back again into mediocrity, failing to make the postseason until 1997. Even then, San Francisco got swept in the first round of the playoffs by an upstart expansion team that had qualified as a wild card for the postseason. In 1998, the Giants lost a one-game playoff to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field that determined the National League wild-card participant, and in 2000, San Francisco once again lost in the first round to a wild-card team—despite having the best record in MLB that season in their new shiny ballpark on the city's waterfront. In 2001, of course, Bonds went on a historic home-run tear, stroking 73 long balls to break the single-season record, but even that wasn't enough to get the Giants into the postseason.
Everything came together, finally, for San Francisco in 2002. Bonds hit an absurd .370 with 46 home runs and 110 RBI while drawing a laughable 198 walks, and second baseman Jeff Kent contributed a .313 average, 37 HRs and 108 RBI. Right fielder Reggie Sanders hit 23 HRs, drove in 85 runs and stole 18 bases. Catcher Benito Santiago, second baseman Rich Aurilia and third baseman David Bell combined to hit 51 homers, as the Giants displayed amazing power despite playing half their games in the spacious Pacific Bell Park (as it was called then).
On the pitching side, S.F. received 158 starts from just five pitchers, none of them stars—but all of them sturdy professionals. Soft-tossing lefty Kirk Rueter led the team with 14 wins and a 3.23 ERA, despite striking out only 76 batters in 203 2/3 innings. Righty Jason Schmidt struck out 196 batters on his way to a 13-8 record and a 3.45 ERA. All five starters won at least 12 games, and closer Robb Nen saved 43 victories and posted a 2.20 ERA. Middle relievers Tim Worrell and Félix Rodríguez each won eight games, thanks to the offensive fire power noted above.
The Giants won 95 games in the regular season, but they were overshadowed by the cross-bay Oakland Athletics and their record-breaking 20-game win streak late in the season—as well as by the defending champion Arizona Diamondbacks (98 wins) in their own division. Because of its lack of starting pitching superstars, San Francisco wasn't considered a true contender despite winning the wild-card spot by three games over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
While both the A's and the D'backs lost in the Divisional Series, the Giants somehow overcame the pitching-rich Atlanta Braves in the first round, winning Game Five on the road in Atlanta. San Francisco beat future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine twice in this series, and only had to face fellow Hall of Famer Greg Maddux once. When the Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals easily in five games to win the NL Championship Series, Bonds was set to play in his first World Series—and S.F. was ready to claim its first championship since 1954.
When the Giants won Game One, 4-3, on the road in Anaheim, things looked pretty good. The Angels, however, slugged right back with an 11-10 win in Game Two. When Anaheim won Game Three, 10-4, in San Francisco, the lights looked dim in the city. The Giants scraped out another 4-3 win in Game Four, however, and when San Francisco won Game Five in a 16-4 blowout, the Giants were just one victory away from winning the Series.
Alas, it wasn't to be. In Game Six, San Francisco blew a 5-0 lead in the seventh inning as the Angels scored three times in both the bottom of the seventh and the eighth innings to escape, 6-5. In Game Seven, Giants starter Liván Hernández suffered his second 2002 Series loss, as Anaheim waltzed to a 4-1 victory and the World Series title. Hernández had been 6-0 in the postseason prior to the 2002 World Series, with the 1997 World Series MVP Award in his pocket as well.
Of course, this was the last hurrah for Bonds and the Giants together. In 2003, San Francisco once again lost in the first round of the postseason to the wild-card Marlins, and the Giants never again made the postseason with Bonds on the roster. In 2004, the BALCO scandal made international news, and we all learned Bonds' late-career, home-run magnificence was built upon performance-enhancing drugs and altered bodily chemistry—tainting everything we saw on the field for so many years and leaving a dark black mark on the franchise that will never fade in the eyes of baseball purists.
Sam McPherson is a freelance writer covering baseball, football, basketball and fantasy sports for many online sites, including CBS, AXS and Examiner.