My first was Jack Clark, but I can hardly remember that. I was four when he was traded to the Cardinals, and after that he was Dead To Me – my grandfather was a die-hard, obnoxious Cardinals fan, so to me as a kid they were the second most hated team after the Dodgers.

So, basically, yeah: Will Clark. I was a big Robby Thompson fan too, though. And I was on the Kevin Mitchel bandwagon earlier than most – I lived in New Jersey when he was a Met, and my dad and I thought he was really good, so we were thrilled when the Giants traded for him.

Don Robinson was my original favorite mainly due to the nick name and his mysterious home run power in RBI Baseball.

Predictabley, Will Clark but I’m also a big fan of Robby Thompson, Matt Williams, Rod Beck, Bill Swift, and John Burkett.

Basically the early-90’s Giants. For classic players, I really like Dave Kingman. He’s definitely an interesting baseball player.

I was one forlorn 5 year old when he was traded. By ’86 my whole life revolved around the THRILL, though.

My family had just moved from New Jersey to Palo Alto and my sports psyche was not yet fully formed. I mean, I was ten and my dad is not a sports fan (outside of his beloved Big Blue; I knew “Hail to the Victors” by the time I was five). I think I initially liked the Braves for the same reason I like the Bills when I was little. They wore blue, I was a contrarian, and I felt sorry for them. But then Chipper Jones came up. He wore my favorite number (10), he was a switch-hitter and he had those bitchin’ high socks. Plus, that name. Chipper. He made want to wear my socks high, have bad-ass shades and play third-base. Too bad I never got the shades.

Oh, and I also have to make mention of my man Mike Aldrete. I was always sad he never really got a starting job in the Giants outfield.

I used to imitate his elbow pump, as I’m sure many did.

The best player of all-time. And Vin Scully make it so easy because he would rave and drool whenever he would mention Willie Mays.

Because I thought he was good, but also because even when I was 9 I really liked saying his name. Candido Maldonado…

I think in the mid-eighties I actually wrote a letter to him and received a picture and letter back. I wonder if their PR department still does that.

Then Jack, then Will (and Eric Davis for a while when he was awesome), then Barry and now Timmy.

A reminder of what a baseball n00b I really am. Though I remember thinking Matt Williams was pretty swell when I was little.

robert e. howard is rolling in his grave after your half-hearted attempt at conan-esque fiction.
for shame grant, if that is your real name…or should i say mr. tom clancy

I remember loving him.

I’ve said it 100x but my grandmother worked in player tickets in the 80’s, so I got all the memorabelia, etc. I also have Will Clark’s chair (the director type) – which makes him a close second.

God I loves me some giants.

Because really, how could you not like them?

There needs to be more Robby Thompson love in this thread.

First great player whose career I watched from the very beginning. I was so upset when they got rid of him. I thought he would be one of those once-ever career on the same team heroes.

I used to collect random pictures of them from magazines and all other printed media I could get my hands on. I wish I still had them…

When I was a kid there was something magical about a pitcher with one hand and someone playing two professional sports. I kept asking my dad again and again how played football and baseball and just loved hearing about missed practices for football late in the baseball season.

I was born in Orange County and we (mom, dad, and I) lived there for a few months after I was born. My parents say they took me to California Angels games (1982) all the time before we moved up to the Bay Area. Both my parents were born and raised in San Francisco. Bay Area sports just ran in the family.

Anyway I considered myself an Angels fan for most of my early life. My favorite player was JT Snow. Then the Giants traded for him and that was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I stopped caring about the Angels when they went through their identity crisis and changed their uniforms to that awful red shit they wear now. Something about that cancelled World Series turned me against them permanently.

But anyway JT was the bee’s knees then and now. I also liked the usual guys: Matt Williams, Will Clark, et al. I was a really big fan of Rod Beck and Stan Javier too.

my dad went on a business trip one time and brought me back a Chris Speier autographed pic and my first real Wilson glove. He was signing at a sporting goods store in Medford, Oregon. I thinked he lived near there or something. I estimate this was in 1974. I turned 7 that summer. Used that glove until I was 12 and replaced it with a sweet Wilson George Brett model.

I’m not sure if he was my first favorite, but I remember inexplicably liking Darren Lewis. As I remember it, the first game I saw him play, shortly after joining the team, he got several bloop singles and played some good center field. I thought it was unfair that he didn’t win the Gold Glove award, until I learned that the Gold Glove award is kind of a joke.

My Giants gamer still has #30 on it.

I was pretty fickle before that, hopping from one favorite Giant to another repeatedly from 1977-1981 while consistently digging on Rod Carew as a non-Giant. Jack Clark was a big deal for a few years. John Montefusco was a big deal for a few months. Vida was a sensation. Larry Herndon’s 1979 Topps card said he lived in Pacifica. Greg Minton clowned around with us Little Giants at an on-field clinic one year. Darrell Evans was a favorite as well; I have a vague memory of crying the day he became a Tiger; I just checked and I was 13 when he left town. That would be a much cuter story if I was 10.

An aside: I have two 45s of the Giants version of “Talkin’ Baseball (Giants By The Bay)” from 1982; one was a ballpark givewaway. One was recorded before Vida left town (“the City’s excited by Chili and Vida”) and one after (“It’s bound to be thrilling with Reggie and Chili”). They each contained a lyric that Morrissey would have rejected as too depressing: “Holland, Minton, Evans and Milt May/The San Francisco Giants of today.”

for his “power stroke” with the bat!

Anagram of “underappreciated Giants” = PUTRID RENEGADE CAPTAINS

For two reasons that I can think of right now:

1.) When I was little, I would play baseball with my brothers in the backyard and I would imitate an array of players batting stances. For some reason, when I would imitate Andre’s, I would hit a dinger…. every time.

2.) Many many years later, he became a Giant and I went to an A’s-Giants game in Oakland… and I caught my first (and only) foul ball off his bat.

First favorite Giant however was Darryl Hamilton…. why? I have no idea… I also liked Calvin Murray and Marvin Benard… must be the whole speedy CF thing.

Always loved this little lead-off hitter. Made me dream of one day also playing Center for the Giants and hitting lead-off.
Then, he signed with the Dodgers, and has been playing down in Hades ever since…

Did Youngblood shave in between those pictures on that card?

Anyway, Will Clark got me into ball as a kid, and I stopped watching when they didn’t resign him. I missed the majority of the Bonds era.

Then Robb Nen brought me back. At first I liked him because he looked like Adam Carolla. Then I liked him because he was AWESOME.

Was my first. Not because he was the second best hitter on our team, but because I had this memory of him standing in RF, with his knees shaking. Well, I couldn’t actually remember it, I don’t remember watching any games those years (no MLB.TV), but I remember my dad telling me that sometimes you can see Burks’ knees shake when he’s in RF, and that immediately made me like him.

I remember three things from the 2000 season – I remember not falling asleep on Saturday nights, getting up to get me something to drink, and finding my dad listening to the Giants game (10 hour difference, I remind you). My English wasn’t good enough to understand what the heck those announcers are talking about, but my dad would tell me whenever an AB ended. Then I’d get sleepy, and I’d tell him to only tell me when there’s a run scoring play.

I remember Kent winning the MVP, and Bonds saying something nasty about it.

And I remember Burks standing in RF, his knees shaking. I probably had no idea what he looks like – I Googled him about a month ago to find out – but he was my favorite player.

Then he left, and Snow instantly became my favorite (Xanthan, have you still not figured out my avatar?). I stuck with him until Cain came up.

I lived in Seattle before the Mariners were hatched, so it wasn’t a baseball town. For some reason, about 1972 I got a Slurpee cup with a drawing of Reggie Jackson (kind of like those drawings in the Wall Street Journal, except with color) and a little bit about him. He immediately became my favorite player. A couple of years later, I actually followed baseball a little, and came to admire Pete Rose, and wore #14 in little league.

(I also developed a severe gambling habit at 9, but that’s normal.)

Then I’m not sure for a while…. then Robb Nen for pitching through injury in 2002…. for being a Gamer… then Munter in 2005 (I liked that sinker, ok?)… then Barry (because I was sad that the Giants weren’t very competitive with him post 2005)…. then last year I was not monogamous (between Cain and Lewis) until I saw Aaron King pitch (though I’m not sure why…. maybe because he’s quirky; and I know he’s not a Giant yet, techinically) and so now it’s King

Though I really do like Fred. and loooveee Matt

Grew up a Mets fan. Born in 61 so I remember being really into pro baseball from 67 on.
Also liked the Orioles in the AL. So the 69 WS was a great one for me.

My favorite players came from those two teams: Cleon Jones and Bud Harrelson from the Mets; Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell, and Dave McNally from the O’s.

Like every other 10-year-old kid in San Diego at the time, Dave Winfield was my favorite player. Dude was larger than life.

Along with Nuschler, Matt Williams, Manwaring, those were the two. Scott Garrelts for the ’stache and the 1989 ERA title, and Bill Mueller was the reason I spent like two years trying to hit with an open stance.

so Lamar is by far my first favorite player. Watching him back in the day was just awesome- every pitch was an event. The haters can shove off IMHO. I think my username betrays my affections.

So, back in probably 1990 or so, 7-Eleven had this promotion where they put these little caps (they may have been pogs, I don’t recall) with pictures of baseball players on the bottoms of their slurpee cups. They were like little round baseball cards. Anyway…

Me and my friend Ethan rode our bikes to 7-Eleven one day with the intention of getting slurpees, so we could check out these little baseball cap things. We only had a dollar each, so we could only buy one slurpee each. The guy filled up our slurpees (I guess this was before the days of do-it-yourself slurpee machines) and set them on the counter. Me, being a year older, picked first, so I grabbed the one that was filled to the very brim, rather than the one that had about a half-inch of space at the top. On this fateful day, my greed would be my detriment…

We paid and walked outside and sat down on the curb. I peeled away the plastic covering on the bottom of the slurpee cup and pulled out the disc. I stared down at a pog with Roger Clemens on it. Hmmm, I thought. The Rocket is okay, I guess. But me and Ethan were huge Giants fans and both totally obsessed with The Thrill. I think there were something like 50 players you could collect, so the odds of us getting a Will Clark pog were minuscule at best. But of course…

Ethan pulled out a Will Clark pog. I almost shit my pants. I remember being so unbelievably jealous as Ethan squealed with delight. I considered hitting him over the head with a rock, but he was my friend and I didn’t want to have to explain that to his mom. So I told him that was really cool, I was happy for him. But the whole bike ride home I was fuming.

Later that day I was waiting for my dad to drive me back to my mom’s house, and we were playing around on Ethan’s porch. I asked to see his Will Clark pog again, and when he showed it to me, I tried to pull the old switcheroo with my Clemens one, but he was wise to it and busted me. I went home with a Roger Clemens pog, and a lesson learned: the bigger slurpee is not always the better slurpee.

Outside of Barry, it was either Rich Aurilia for his batting stance and facial hair, Robb Nen for the toe-tap, JT Snow for making it look easy, or John Johnstone for some reason, possibly the cement-mixer.

Being left-handed had something to do with it, but I started following the Giants in the early 70s when Stretch was just coming off a stretch of monster years.

My randomest favorite from that era was Tito Fuentes, mostly for his name. It was exotic and slightly comic at the same time, and had a great cadence to it.

Ortiz was the first player who I was really passionate about. He came up right as I was starting to really get interested in baseball. I’ve always been a sucker for homegrown talent, and he was pretty much the first success story from our system who I could call my own.

My neverending love for Bonds came later.

When playing whiffle ball in the front yard I would do the shoulder bite like Matt. He was a great Giant.

Though Kirt Manwaring is a close second.

Remember listening to a KNBR broadcast, and Joel was up in a key pinch hitting situation. I believe the Giants were playing on the road against the Reds? At any rate, the pitcher was really taking his time, throwing to first repeatedly, stepping off the rubber, etc. Apparently, this was bugging the crap out of Youngblood.

Hank Greenwald read the batter’s body language and said something along the lines of: “Youngblood is so anxious, he would swing at the rosin bag if the pitcher threw it.” Sure enough, the next pitch was a swing and miss. End of anecdote.

Not just my first favorite player, but the first player whose name I knew.

My first favorite player was not a Giant, but this guy, the MVP of the 1982 World Series:

There really was no mystery as to why I liked him. My T-ball team was the Cardinals and like Porter, I was a catcher. We lost every single game that season, but that didn’t sap my admiration for the real catcher of the 1982 Cardinals.

He became my first favorite player during the 1982 World Series, which was the first one I ever watched. It helped that it was a riveting 7 game series. What also stood out to me the most about Porter was that he wore big eyeglasses, so I nicknamed him the “Glasses Guy” as my 7 year old mind wasn’t quite able to remember his name from one game to the next.

Well, Will Clark.

Aldrete and Youngblood got some collateral admiration because they also played 1B.

Terry Mulholland earned a lifetime of devotion from me by signing a ball, but was traded before he really did anything for the Giants.

I saw Mike Remlinger pitch when he was in college. He went to Dartmouth, and I saw him pitching against Princeton, where my family was living at the time. We saw him throw a shut-out, and the next year, he was the Giants’ #1 draft pick. I was thrilled. Like with Terry Mulholland above, though, he was traded before he could do much of anything for the Giants.

I didn’t realize there were a few older fans here noticing others saying players from the 1970s.

I also liked Jim Rice.

But I hated and still hate #25. I only tolerated him because he played for the Giants.

One of the few to play all 8 defensive positions at some point during his career.

I was enamored of Juan Marichal, Willie Mays, and Willie McCovey, as was every other Giants fan in the ’60’s. So I’ll mention Jim Davenport. His career stats don’t look that impressive, but he was an excellent 3B who batted 6th usually and got lots of key RBI – as I remember it, anyway. The original gamer. He eventually had brief, unsuccessful, stint as Giants manager. His son Gary is one of our minor league hitting coaches.

Plus, when I was a kid he did a cool commercial for a product I’d never heard of before then: brown mustard. Cool guy, and educational! And, of course, I insisited that my mom buy brown mustard for hot dogs from then on.

My first favorite, though hardly under-appreciated. He was MVP when I was nine, and played alongside a remarkable, awe-inspiring specimen named Bonds. Bobby Bonds. Now that fellow was under-appreciated! As far as superstar talent goes, Jack Clark was a tremendous force, and quite under-appreciated during his time as a Giant. But in the spirit of Joel Youngblood, I always liked Chris Brown. I really thought he was going to be a big star for us. I still remember him coming up in the 9th in the 1986 ASG with a chance to win it and hitting into a DP. (He’d doubled and scored earlier, replacing the God of All 3B, Mike Schmidt.)

My formative years were the late 60s/ early 70s, and my favorite players were Boog Powell, Willie Stargell and of course, Stretch (my all-time favorite ballplayer). One of my favored Giants in the 70s was Ed Goodson, he owned a sweet left-handed swing (when The Thrill arrived he reminded me a bit of Goodson with a lot more power)…of course Gooden didn’t last too long, ended up playing for the Dodgers, ugh…The only Dodger I liked (can there be such a thing?) was Steve Garvey.

1984 OF Dan Gladden.351/.420/.447/ OPS+ 145 Fourth In ROY Voting

1981 Catcher Milt May .310/.376/.383/ OPS+ 118

I’m not even sure where to go on that one. Early in the 90’s I’m sure I liked Matt Williams and Rob Beck. I’d always do the sleeve nose wipe in my batting stance when hitting in T-Ball and when I’d pretend to pitch I’d do the hanging arm swing. But I never really got into them as favourite players. My first was Bill Mueller, as many of you may know.

I went to a game for my 7th birthday one year, sat in the general admission section on the 1st base side, and sat awaiting a foul ball to come. I’d never caught a foul ball there but wanted to so badly (Note: Still haven’t.). So when a ball went up and over I didn’t think anything of it until a “TING.” Then once I turned around I tried to reach between the seat back and the cement bottom behind me but couldn’t get the ball. Then of course, being seven I started crying and the people who got the ball wouldn’t give me the ball.

Just so turns out that someone sitting next to us turns to my parents and says, “Don’t worry, I’ll get him a ball after the game and get some people to sign it. I’m Bill Mueller’s mom.” At the time I probably didn’t know Bill Mueller’s name, yet after that night I did. After the game I met him down by the clubhouse and he signed a ball for me and he gave me a joke broken bat signed by Jay Canizaro (still waiting for him to do something great so that will be worth something). And that’s how my obsession for Bill Mueller as a kid started.

Dude Esterbrook

“Rowdy Richard” Bartell

Cannonball Titcomb

Silver King

Ace Adams

Skip Pitlock

Vida Blue

Atlee Hammaker

Dave Dravecky

Bill Swift

William Van Landingham

I don’t know why these names were burned into my baseball consciousness as a little kid. The only ones I was old enough to even remember see playing are Dravecky and Swift. But I collected old Giants baseball cards & magazines when I was little, and these were the names that defined baseball player names for me. Wierd – but I still think all their names are cool.

Think I got his autograph in the 4th grade. He was just cash money awesome. Then I grew to appreciate Bonds but subsequently liked Kirk Reuter, Benito and Shinjo. Voted Shinjo for the allstar game 30 times, felt proud he came in 4th in the NL for OF votes but it would’ve been awesome if he had enough to start.