After a year of fake-outs, near-misses and political stonewalling, it was hard to believe the San Francisco Giants were coming from New York — even after the official announcement was made.
But then Willie Mays arrived in the city on Oct. 31, 1957, and it all seemed thrillingly real.
The Chronicle still has that documentation of Mays’ arrival, including arguably the first San Francisco Giants images in history — two deteriorating-yet-striking photo negatives of the 26-year-old legend standing in front of Seals Stadium, where the Giants played in 1958 and 1959 while Candlestick Park was being built.
“Willie Mays, bouncy, chatty and as alive as a Mardi Gras, came ‘home’ yesterday,” The Chronicle reported in 1957. “The incomparable Say Hey kid of the San Francisco Giants won’t be around very long this time, but in January (he said) ‘I’m gonna buy or rent a home out here and San Francisco is gonna be my town.’”
Mays, who turned 88 this week, made good on the promise. He has remained a revered figure through two iconic San Francisco ballparks, three championships and four of the greatest parades in city history. (For the three titles, plus a welcome parade before the first Giants season started in 1958.)
But for city residents reading their local newspapers, the New York Giants baseball team’s move to San Francisco in 1958 seemed like an impossibility. Through the first half of 1957, as Mayor George Christopher publicly lobbied to acquire the Giants, his political rivals mocked the potential of the deal.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, predictably, spent 1957 fighting with each other and dragging their feet when deciding tax issues related to the team. Financier Benjamin Swig said the team was playing Christopher for a fool to leverage a New York stadium deal.
“The trouble with George Christopher is that he goes off half-cocked,” Swig said in May 1957. “There’s not much chance of San Francisco getting a major league club at the present time.”
But as conflicting rumors spread on both coasts, Mays remained cool.
“I’ll play anywhere there’s a game,” he said, after a big win in June.
On Aug. 19, 1957, the move became official, with a Page 1 headline (“S.F. GETS GIANTS IN BARGAIN PACT”) that was larger than the font size used by The Chronicle for the 1969 Moon landing.
Mays arrived 2½ months later, for an off-season exhibition game between stars from Major League Baseball and the Pacific Coast League. He was driven in a car to Seals Stadium in the eastern end of the Mission District. Immediately after exiting the vehicle, Chronicle photographer Joe Rosenthal — who won a Pulitzer for his shot “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” during World War II — took two portraits of Mays in front of a Seals Stadium marquee that said: MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 1958 SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS.
Mays was dressed in a brown suit, but he was quickly given a makeshift Giants jersey and hat, with temporary “S.F.” logos that didn’t match the eventual 1958 style.
Mays was an enthusiastic and electric presence, bantering with sportswriters, a few politicians and Giants manager Bill Rigney.
”他新闻发布室的反弹进门,“the Chronicle’s Bob Stevens wrote, “lighting it with an infectious smile that had people chuckling before he opened his mouth to say anything, and tore over to the window that looks down on the freshly mowed garden to which he will bring his incomparable style next season.”
From the beginning the best ambassador a team could ask for, Mays grabbed a bat, ball and glove and — still in his slacks and dress shoes — let Rosenthal take some photos on the ballpark grass.
“Man, that’s a big outfield,” Mays said. “I’ve played here before, but, man, let me tell you, there’s room to roam out there.”
Rosenthal’s photos were rediscovered in the Chronicle archive a few years ago. The images of Mays trying on a baseball hat and playing in Seals Stadium are pristine. But the two earliest photos of Mays near the marquee are damaged by time and the elements, with warped bubbling on the negative that gives the images a spiderweb effect.
The Chronicle shared one photo on social media last month, asking whether staffers should digitally repair the damage and restore the image to its original look.
Leave it alone, fans responded, almost unanimously. Seals Stadium is gone but Willie Mays and the San Francisco Giants are both still here. And, if anything, time has added character to the 1957 photo that marks the day the two became one.
Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle pop culture critic. Email:phartlaub@sfchronicle.comTwitter:@PeterHartlaub
