1951 New York Giants | |
---|---|
National League Champions | |
Major League affiliations | |
|
|
Location | |
|
|
|
|
Other information | |
Owner(s) | Horace Stoneham |
General manager(s) | Chub Feeney |
Manager(s) | Leo Durocher |
Local television |
WPIX (Russ Hodges, Ernie Harwell) |
Local radio |
WMCA (Russ Hodges, Ernie Harwell) |
< Previous season Next season > |
The 1951 New York Giants season was the franchise's 69th season and saw the Giants finish the regular season in a tie for first place in the National League with a record of 96 wins and 58 losses. This prompted a three-game playoff against the Brooklyn Dodgers, which the Giants won in three games, clinched by Bobby Thomson's walk-off home run, a moment immortalized as the Shot Heard 'Round the World. The Giants, however, lost the 1951 World Series to the New York Yankees in six games.
The Giants had trained in Phoenix since 1947 In 1951, the team swapped spring training sites with the New York Yankees, with the Yankees moving to Phoenix and the Giants training at Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was a one-year arrangement and the Giants would return to Phoenix in 1952.
Center fielder Willie Mays made his major league debut in a game against the Philadelphia Phillies on May 25. He went on to win the 1951 National League Rookie of the Year Award.
Outfielder Monte Irvin led the league in RBI with 121. Five players on the 1951 Giants team went on to become major league managers.Eddie Stanky (1952), Bill Rigney (1956), Alvin Dark (1961), Wes Westrum (1965) and Whitey Lockman (1972).