Category: San Francisco Giants

Former Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants pitcher Brian Kingman featured with the A’s Five Aces in 1981 on Sports Illustrated (top far right) is today’s He Was A Giant? Feature (file photo from newsbreak.com)

HE WAS A GIANT?

By Tony The Tiger Hayes

BRIAN KINGMAN: Oakland’s Big Time Loser, Was Worse with San Francisco

Brian Kingman – RHP – 1983 – # 25

If a 20-game win season is the magnum opus for a starting pitcher, you would figure that 20 losses would be the equivalent of finding a turd in the punch bowl.

But not for Brian Kingman.

Since losing 20 games for the 1980 Oakland A’s, Kingman has not only accepted his place in the 20-game loss fraternity, he has became the ignominious club’s self-appointed president, treasurer and spokesperson.

His 20 -game loser status has became Kingman’s calling card – his reason to be remembered.

“I feel sorry for all those guys who (only) get to 19 wins – all that frustration and never be talked about,” Kingman, tongue pressed only partially in cheek, once said. “They might as well take the final step and lose 20.”

Kingman did not lose 20 games for the Giants in 1983 – in fact he had no desisions in the three games he appeared.

But the Los Angeles native did something as a Giant that he didn’t do quite as often as you might have thought in his Oaklandish 20-game loss season.

As a Giant, Kingman pitched exceptionally ghastly.

Why Was He A Giant?

After going 4-12, 4.48 for the 1982 A’s, Kingman was dealt to the Red Sox in a cash deal. But Kingman failed to make the Boston roster the following spring and wound up hooking on with San Francisco.

He debuted in Orange & Black at Candlestick Park in a pair of games vs. Montreal in early June and was promptly battered by Expos hitters.

After two relief outings he was suffering from a 13.50 ERA, which was worse than the 9.00 figure posted by slugger Dave Kingman after his two random mop-up relief appearances for the 1973 Giants.

Before & After

As a rookie in 1979, Brian Kingman was one of the bright spots for Oakland, going 8-7, 4.31 for a confused Green & Gold club that lost a staggering 107 games.

But the A’s made an incredible turnaround the following season after the hiring of fabled firebrand skipper Billy Martin.

An unforeseen Oakland team stunned the Junior Circuit posting a winning record (83-79) with an appealing brand of baseball that relied on daring base running, power hitting and macho starting pitching.

A’s iron -armed starters would complete a staggering 94 games that season. Kingman threw 10 of those full-games, but even that meaty figure ranked fifth among A’s starters.

Despite his very reasonable 3.83 ERA over 211.1 innings, Kingman frequently pitched in tough luck in ‘80.

He lost six one-run decisions. The A’s were shutout in five of his starts and OakTown scored a paltry average of 2.8 runs in his 30 starts.

Kingman had lost nine decisions in a row when Martin mercifully (Billy had a ❤️!) yanked the righty from the rotation late in the campaign with 19 losses on his ledger.

Still, like Wilbur Wood, Jerry Koosman and Phil Niekro, the three previous 20 game losers prior to Kingman – it seemed Kingman was destined to be a historic flop.

Ironically, Kingman’s 20th loss came in relief in a game he would have normally been scheduled to start.

Kingman was forced into the game in the second inning of a game vs. the visiting White Sox when starter Matt Keough was pulled from the game with an injury.

Kingman would allow just two earned runs over 5.2 innings of work in a 6-4 home defeat, but he absorbed the loss when the A’s kicked the ball around like FC Barcelona, committing four errors (9/25/80).

“I thought I was going to be stuck 19,” Kingman quipped at the time.

More than 20 seasons would pass before Mike Maroth of Detroit became baseball’s next 20 game loser. There have been none since.

By the way, the Giants have not had a 20 game loser during their SF era.

He Never Got His Own Bobblehead. But…

Several days after his distressing Giants debut, Kingman made his third and final Giants appearance at Atlanta and pitched decently – allowing three hits and one unearned run over two innings in a 7-3 loss to the Braves (6/10/83).

But it was too little, too late and Kingman was soon optioned to Triple-AAA Phoenix. He pitched in the Giants system through 1984 but never returned to the majors.

Giant Footprint

In the World Series era, 189 pitchers have lost at least 20 games in a MLB season. The group includes several excellent pitchers including a few of immortals, including Hall of Famers Niekro, Steve Carlton, Cy Young and Walter Johnson

That fact has helped Kingman salve the sting of being labeled a big-time loser.

“That would be like if you were a scientist getting linked to Einstein or something,” Kingman said. “I was being mentioned with Walter Johnson and Cy Young.”

Jose Cardenal as a San Francisco Giant who played in San Francisco during the 1963 and 1964 seasons (Amazon file photo)

HE WAS A GIANT?

JOSE CARDENAL – OF – 1963-64 – # 10

By Tony the Tiger Hayes

If you collected baseball cards as a kid in the 1970s there were three givens: “bubblegum” that crumbled into brittle shards the moment you touched it; hideous air-brush art work, and, finally, the incremental Chia-Pet like growth of Jose Cardenal’s unwieldy Afro. (Think TV artist Bob Ross.)

A fiery competitor with a stylish hairdo, Cardenal was a career .275 hitter and a familiar presence on the MLB scene for parts of five decades as both a player and coach.

But before the Cuban fly chaser picked his hair out to resemble a spinning classroom world globe, Cardenal broke in with the Giants, appearing in 29 games over 1963-64.

Why Was He a Giant?

Cardenal was one of the last ball players to escape Cuba before Fidel Castro shut the island’s borders. He was just 17 when the Giants paid him $200 to sign with the organization in 1960.

Though off the field he struggled with assimilation process – fueled by being cut off from family back in Cuba – Cardenal had no such issues in the batters box and produced gaudy minor league numbers.

Cardenal was just 19 when he broke camp with SF in 1963. He came and went a few times over the next couple of seasons but never could crack SF’s All-Star studded lineup.

Before & After

Despite great reviews for his on field play in the Giants farm system – hitting for power and stealing bases like a bandit – Cardenal developed a reputation of being a bit of a scoundrel.

As a young man he got into scrapes and arguments with teammates and ran afoul of team management and opposing clubs.

In one 1962 incident, when he was with the El Paso Sun Kings, Cardenal menaced the opposing Austin Senators dugout with a letter opener.

Mouthy bench jockeys had gotten under the young Cuban’s skin by calling him a “Castro Lover” and a “Communist.”

Cardenal became so enraged he considered skinning an entire minor league club. He was stopped however before he could initiate his Davy Crockett routine.

“There’s a lot behind the boy’s flare up,” said El Paso manager George Genovese after Cardenal was placed on Texas League probation. “He is immature all right but he hasn’t been home in a long time and hasn’t seen his family in two years. And there’s a language problem.”

Due to his hair-trigger temper and the fact that the Orange & Black were already brimming with talented OF prospects, the club moved on from Cardenal after the 1964 campaign, trading him to the Angels in a swap for C Jack Hiatt.

Cardenal jumped from team to team for awhile before finding a home with the Cubs for much of the ’70s. He later appeared in the 1980 World Series with Kansas City.

From 1993-2003 Cardenal was a major league coach for several teams including the 1996 World Series Champion Yankees.

He Didn’t Get His Own Bobblehead Doll (Or Chia-Pet). But…

Cardenal smacked the only hit of his Giants career in his second MLB at bat, lining a two-run, pinch hit single to left off the Cardinals Curt Simmons. Cardenal was then nabbed however trying to steal second base in a weekday afternoon 4-3 home loss (4/24/63).

Giant Footprint

It was against the Giants that Cardenal assembled a career best six- hit game at Candlestick Park (5/2/76), batting 6-for-7 with four RBIs in a 6-5, 14-inning Chicago win at Candlestick in the matinee of a double header.

The last several innings of that game can be viewed on You Tube – providing a good look at Cardenal’s glorious Afro in action and a rare look at the Giants much maligned mid-1970s AstroTurf era.

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