The '83 Giants were a team down from the way of nowhere. Brighter days lie ahead in the later half of the '80s for this franchise. I don't think the early '80s Giants get enough credit for playing in some of the worst uniforms ever....check out the Atlee Hammaker card above. Too bad they never played on Halloween.
Best Player: Darrell Evans
Best Pitcher: Atlee Hammaker, much like the Padres, hard to tell who was the best pitcher, so I designed a similar chart, maybe this is something I could start doing for all the teams...maybe when I get to 1984. Hammaker did lead the NL in ERA.
| Wins | ERA | Saves | Strikeouts | WHIP | Total | |
| Hammaker | 2 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 16 |
| Lavelle | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 13 |
| Breining | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
| Krukow | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 9 |
| Minton | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| McGaffigan | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Davis | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Laskey | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Barr | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Martin | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
All-Stars: Darrell Evans, Atlee Hammaker, Gary Lavelle...this was the all-star game that Hammaker got some notoriety for giving up the first grand slam in all-star game history to Fred Lynn.
Hall-of-Famers: Frank Robinson, manager of the team, although not there for managing.
Rookie Card of the Year: Atlee Hammaker...not much of a career after 1983, but as pointed out above, he was an all-star and did lead the NL in ERA in 1983. Played through 1995, but had his best seasons before 1985. This was not his true rookie card as he appeared on the multi player Royals prospects card in 1982.
Other rookies: Alan Fowlkes, Bill Laskey, Andy McGaffigan, Tom O'Malley, Guy Sularz
First Giant cards: Jim Barr, Mike Krukow, Joel Youngblood
Most interesting non-Topps card: no Giants appear in other sets. The Giants did have an interesting regional set out in 1983, but is no help to our cause, but will be in future years. Thanks to a heads up from Rod of Padrographs, an excellent site devoted to the Padres, I was informed of the Mother's cookies cards. These cards were distributed at games and in packages of cookies through the mid-1990s for various west coast teams. The 1983 Giants were the first of these team sets. A sample is shown above.
Other notes: A handful of players who played on the Giants don't have Giants cards in 1983. Mike Vail played on both the Expos and Giants in 1983. He has an Expo card in the traded set, so his regular card showing him as a Red is listed here. Wallace Johnson played on both the Expos and Giants, but only has a card showing him as an Expo in the Fleer set. He is listed here as he had more playing time with the Giants. Brian Kingman played for the A's from 1979-1982, and until the god-awful Tigers team of 2003, was the last player to lose 20 games in the season. He finished up his career on this team pitching 4 2/3 innings, so his card showing him as an Oakland A is listed here.
Starters
| __ | TO | 494 | C | Bob Brenly | SFG |
| __ | TO | 448 | 1B | Darrell Evans | SFG |
| __ | 2B | Brad Wellman | |||
| __ | TO | 154 | SS | Johnnie LeMaster | SFG |
| __ | TO | 663 | 3B | Tom O'Malley | SFG |
| __ | TO | 309 | LF | Jeffrey Leonard | SFG |
| __ | TO | 115 | CF | Chili Davis | SFG |
| __ | TO | 210 | RF | Jack Clark | SFG |
| __ | TT | 130 | IF | Joel Youngblood | SFG |
| __ | TO | 634 | OF | Max Venable | SFG |
| __ | TO | 342 | SP | Atlee Hammaker | SFG |
| __ | TO | 747 | SP | Fred Breining | SFG |
| __ | TT | 58 | SP | Mike Krukow | SFG |
| __ | TO | 518 | SP | Bill Laskey | SFG |
| __ | SP | Mark Davis |
| __ | TO | 470 | CL | Greg Minton | SFG |
| __ | TO | 791 | RP | Gary Lavelle | SFG |
| __ | TT | 68 | RP | Andy McGaffigan | SFG |
| __ | TO | 263 | RP | Renie Martin | SFG |
| __ | TO | 133 | RP | Jim Barr | SFG |
| __ | TO | 767 | 2B | Duane Kuiper | SFG |
| __ | TO | 84 | C | Milt May | SFG |
| __ | TO | 32 | 1B | Dave Bergman | SFG |
| __ | C | John Rabb | |||
| __ | TO | 143 | SS | Joe Pettini | SFG |
| __ | UT | Chris Smith | |||
| __ | CF | Dan Gladden | |||
| __ | C | Steve Nicosia | |||
| __ | TO | 428 | LF | Champ Summers | SFG |
| __ | TO | 554 | UT | Mike Vail | CIN |
| __ | C | Jeff Ransom | |||
| __ | TO | 379 | IF | Guy Sularz | SFG |
| __ | 1B | Rich Murray | |||
| __ | FL | 285 | 2B | Wallace Johnson | MON |
| __ | PH | Ron Pruitt | |||
| __ | RP | Mark Calvert | |||
| __ | SP | Scott Garrelts | |||
| __ | RP | Mike Chris | |||
| __ | RP | Randy Lerch | |||
| __ | RP | Pat Larkin | |||
| __ | TO | 312 | RP | Brian Kingman | OAK |
| __ | TO | 543 | MN | Alan Fowlkes | SFG |
| __ | TO | 576 | MG | Frank Robinson | SFG |
Hey! I miss those old funky uniforms from the 70's & early 80's. Although, I always felt like the those Giants uni's that Hammaker's wearing in this card, were the Giants attempt to cash in on the Orioles success....that makes it a horrid uniform IMHO.
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