San Francisco Giants Logo
From LoveToKnow SanFrancisco
Like the logos of all classic baseball teams, the San Francisco Giants logo instantly conjures up images of summer afternoons, hot dogs, and cold beer. From Willie Mays to Barry Bonds to Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum, some of the greatest baseball players to ever play the game have proudly worn the orange and black.
A Brief History of the Giants
The San Francisco Giants are one of the oldest franchises in major league baseball with a history that goes back to the late 1800s. The team was originally founded in 1883 in New York City as the New York Gothams. Legend has it that sometime around 1888 their name evolved into the Giants after one of their principle owners declared them "My giants!" after a particularly satisfying win. Obviously, the name stuck. The New York Giants called Harlem and the Polo Grounds home for almost seventy years, and during their stay there, the early seeds of what would become the San Francisco Giants' logo began to take root.
The New York Giants logo featured the letters N and Y printed on top of each other in a manner very similar to the logos the Yankees and Mets still use today. The familiar orange and black colors were also present since the beginning, as the New York Giants caps were black with orange letters. The font of the logo went through minor evolutions over the years, becoming slightly more ornate. By the time the Giants left New York in 1957, their logo had become iconic.
The Birth of the San Francisco Giants Logo
The San Francisco Giants were one of the first original baseball franchises to move their team out west in the 1950s. Along with their hated rivals the Brooklyn Dodgers (who became the Los Angeles Dodgers), the Giants' moved west in 1957 as major league baseball became a coast-to-coast industry. While many of the original New York Giants fans resented the move as a betrayal, the Giants quickly adopted legions of new fans in San Francisco who were eager to cheer on their own hometown baseball team. The Giants original San Francisco home was on the corner of 16th and Bryant at the old Seals Stadium. In 1960, the Giants moved to Candlestick Park for forty foggy years before the current jewel of a stadium was opened on the shores of China Basin in 2000.
In an effort to maintain as much of the team's identity as possible during the move, the new San Francisco Giants made minimal changes to their logo. An S and F written in a similar font replaced the N and Y on the team's cap. The team's colors remained orange and black, and the logo used in promotional materials, a baseball with the word Giants written over it in cursive, remained unchanged. The promotional logo has gone through evolutions that reflect the changing styles of the times. In the 1970s, the white baseball behind the Giants name was changed from white to orange, and in the 1980s a bolder, uppercase type font replaced the cursive Giants from the earlier logo. Through it all, the S and F on the team's cap have remained a constant, although in minor league play and on special occasions throughout the season, the team plays with caps displaying a cursive G that harkens back to the old promotional logo.
A Timeless Classic
One of the most endearing things about the San Francisco Giants is their tradition. In an era when teams change their entire color schemes regularly (consider the Arizona Diamondbacks, who changed their colors from purple and turquoise to red and black less than ten years into their existence), the Giants are truly of the old school. Their logo preserves their history and reflects the class and self-confidence of a franchise not tempted by the whims of the moment. In this way, the San Francisco Giants logo also reminds fans of the great game of baseball's storied history.
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