User:Gateman1997/San Jose Giants
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Template:Minor league team
The 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.
[edit] 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 and 2001 (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, most recently in 2005.
This has shown at the turnstile as attendance has increased 14 of the last 17 years. The SJ Giants are now in their 18th 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 (playoffs included). San Jose has also been the breeding ground for 85 major league players including but not limited to, Chad Zerbe, Russ Ortiz, Rod Beck, Joe Nathan, and Shawn Estes.
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 recently to feature lights to denote the count rather then numbers much like Fenway Park in Boston. The out of town scoreboard for other California League games is also hand hung. Fans are treated to all manner of little games and entertainment between innings including a bagel toss and a child footrace around the bases.
Another unique feature of San Jose Giants games is the "beer batter". A batter from the opposing team, usually the number 4 hitter, is designated the "beer batter". If the San Jose pitcher strikes out that batter, beer is half price in the stadium for the 15 minutes immediately following the strike out.
For their first 17 years the San Jose Giants players and fans had a healthy rivalry with the Modesto A's ballclub. Modesto had been the Oakland Athletics High "A" affiliate during those years and the parent ballclub rivalry had a trickle down effect on the minor league teams. However with end of Oakland's affiliation with Modesto and their subsequent renaming as the Modesto Nuts the rivalry seems to have faded. A rivalry between San Jose and the Athletics's new "High-A" affiliate, the Stockton Ports has yet to develop.
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, and NHL games in the region. His claim to fame is being the rumored creator of the "wave" in Oakland where fans rise and wave their arms in sequence around a stadium thus created a wave like effect when viewed from a distance.
[edit] External links
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San Jose Giants Augusta GreenJackets Salem-Keizer Volcanoes |
AZL Giants |
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