one of my first memories of baseball is when the Giants won the west in 1970 in San Diego and interviewed Willie Mac...... they lost to the Pirates in the playoffs then the Giants sucked most of my childhood, but even then, the AM radio was always on during the summer months with Lon Simmons giving us play by play of ....Mays, McCovey Spier, Foster, Bobby Bonds, Gaylord....
I then remember Mays being traded to the Mets.....
2 years later McCovey was traded to the Padres, thus the rest of the 1970's were not kind to the Giants... they were not a good team and played in a lousy ball park while the rival A's, Dodgers and Reds had some great teams with consistent rosters and sucess....not a fun time to be a Giants fan.........but even during that lousy era, my brothers would take me to many games at Candlestick on weekends where we'd set in the bleachers for $1.00... we still had some fun memories despite the lack of Giants wins............ . when Willie came back to SF in 1979 or 1980 he was old, his knees were even worse and didn't play much.....
The last game I remember attending to see McCovey play was vs the Dodgers........ he came in to pinch hit in the 9th and doubled in the winning run... the crowd gave him a standing ovation........ I always remember that game.... , when I heard the news yesterday that Willie passed, I immediately thought of that game, coincidentally, shortly after the announcement of Willie's passing, KNBR (SF Giants radio station) re-played Lindsey Nelson's call of that game winning RBI.....
RIP Stretch....
Don Sutton vs Bob Knepper........
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