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Giants Back on Top
After seeing their team win its third World Series championship in five years, Giants fans will be able to savor their San Francisco treat throughout the 2015 season at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Artifacts donated by members of both the Giants and the Kansas City Royals from the 2014 World Series will be on display beginning Monday, Nov. 24 in the Autumn Glory exhibit on the Museum’s third floor. The artifacts, which tell the story of this year’s thrilling Fall Classic, will be displayed throughout the 2015 Major League Baseball season until a new champion is crowned next fall.
Michael Morse of the San Francisco Giants celebrates the team's third World Series title in five seasons. (Jean Fruth/National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)
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Madison Bumgarner wore this cap during Games 1, 5 and 7 of the 2014 World Series en route to the Most Valuable Player Award. (Jean Fruth/National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)
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World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner started and won two Series games, then earned a five-inning save in Game Seven to secure the Championship. “Mad-Bum” set records in this Giants cap with a 0.25 ERA for the Series, 0.43 ERA for his Series career, and 52.2 innings pitched in a single postseason. - B-180-2014 (Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame)
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Giants manager Bruce Bochy donated the cap he wore throughout the 2014 World Series to the Museum. (Jean Fruth/National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)
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Bruce Bochy guided the Giants to victory and became just the tenth manager to secure three modern World Championships. The San Francisco skipper’s World Series cap is a size 8 1/8, among the largest in the majors. - B-185-2014 (Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame)
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Giants catcher Buster Posey wore this jersey during Game 7 of the 2014 World Series. Posey has been the starting catcher on the Giants’ three World Series champion teams since 2010. (Jean Fruth/National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)
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Buster Posey was behind the plate wearing this Giants road jersey when the club clinched Game Seven’s victory. The catcher is one of eight Giants to be on the active roster for all three of San Francisco’s World Series Championships: 2010, 2012, and 2014. Only Posey started every one of those clubs’ postseason games. - B-182-2014 (Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)
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Giants pitcher Jeremy Affeldt holds the spikes he wore during Game 7 of the World Series. Affeldt was the winning pitcher in the game that clinched the Fall Classic for the Giants. (Jean Fruth/National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)
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In Game Seven, Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt earned the win wearing these shoes, pitching 2.1 innings while surrendering no runs and just one hit. The veteran lefty also won the pennant-clinching game in the NLCS and threw 11.2 scoreless innings in the postseason, where he appeared as early as the second inning and as late as the 10th. - B-183-2014 (Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame)
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In Game Six, Kansas City’s 10-0 victory, Royals starting pitcher Yordano Ventura dominated the Giants for seven innings. The Dominican fireballer’s cap from the game bears his tribute to a friend, Oscar Taveras, the promising young St. Louis Cardinals outfielder who was killed in a car accident two days earlier. - B-178-2014 (Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)
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Ned Yost's jersey in honor of becoming the first manager ever to start his post-season career with an 8-0 record - B-163-2014 (Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)
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Brandon Finnegan made history wearing this Kansas City cap while pitching in Game Three, becoming the first player to take part in the College World Series and the MLB World Series in the same year. The 21-year-old induced two outs to hold a one-run lead in the Royals’ 3-2 victory, just four months after he was a starter for Texas Christian University. - B-177-2014 (Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)
Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson and Vice President Brad Horn were on hand in the Giants’ clubhouse at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium to ask players and coaches if they would be willing to send their equipment to Cooperstown.
“It’s a very euphoric and ecstatic place to be,” Horn said. “The clubhouse celebration is unlike anything else in baseball, given its pure and unscripted joy.”
Horn said the process for assembling this year’s collection could not fully begin until Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval secured the final out in Game 7.
“Early on in the day (of Game 7), Jeff and I had ‘if the Royals win’ and ‘if the Giants win’ plans – and then the storyline unfolds,” said Horn. “(World Series MVP) Madison Bumgarner was a consistent piece of the puzzle, but (Game 7) winner Jeremy Affeldt really came out of the blue. He shut down the Royals at a really key moment in the game, and he became a wild card for us that emerged as Game 7 was happening.”
Visitors will be able to view caps worn by Bumgarner and manager Bruce Bochy, a jersey worn by catcher Buster Posey and spikes worn by Affeldt. Additionally, fans will see the bats that delivered some of the Giants’ biggest hits, including ones used by Sandoval and Hunter Pence during the Fall Classic, and the bat used by outfielder Travis Ishikawa to hit the series-clinching home run in Game 5 of the NLCS.
After the Giants swept the Detroit Tigers in 2012 and the Red Sox rode their “Boston Strong” mantra to a title last year, this fall’s World Series featured a tighter matchup between the Giants and Royals. Lenny DiFranza, who is serving as lead curator for this year’s Autumn Glory exhibit, said the championship display case will feature artifacts from both clubs.
“Each series has its own storyline,” DiFranza said. “With a seven-game series, we want to try to illustrate the back-and-forth nature where either team could have won.”
Artifacts marking the Royals’ first World Series appearance in 29 years will include: The cap worn by pitcher Yordano Ventura during his Game 6 victory, and in tribute to former Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras, in Game 6; the cap worn by pitcher Brandon Finnegan in Game 3 when he became the first player to appear in the College World Series and the MLB World Series in the same year; and the jersey worn by manager Ned Yost in Game 4 of the ALCS when he became the first manager in history to win his first eight postseason games.
Hunter Pence’s green-handled bat helped him become the leading hitter during the World Series. No regular topped the Giants’ right fielder’s marks of seven runs, 12 hits, three doubles, one -home run, five RBI, a .444 batting average, a .500 on-base percentage, and a .667 slugging average. - B-181-2014 (Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)
Once all of these artifacts were brought back to Cooperstown and accessioned, they were cataloged, examined and photographed by the Museum’s collections staff.
While most items will be kept in the same condition in which they arrived, DiFranza said other artifacts require cleaning in order to ensure their long-term preservation.
“If Pablo Sandoval’s bat is covered in pine tar, we’re not going to clean that – although you have to be careful where you set it down because will stick to things,” he said. “But Buster Posey’s jersey was soaked in champagne, and in that case we had to clean the champagne because the alcohol will degrade the jersey.”
In addition to the three-dimensional artifacts used on the field, DiFranza and his colleagues like to incorporate other elements from the stands to help tell the story. Past exhibits, for instance, have featured memorable items such as a Brian Wilson-themed “Fear the Beard” T-shirt from the Giants’ 2010 victory, cowbells from Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field in 2008 and a rally monkey stuffed animal from the Angels’ come-from-behind triumph in 2002.
“Fans might not always think of these things when they think about the World Series,” said DiFranza, “but when they come to the exhibit and see those items, it will remind them of what they were thinking and feeling during that series in different ways than seeing an artifact that was used on the field. They’ll remember the fans and the excitement and the emotion of the series.”
Every artifact accessioned by the Museum is photographed immediately after it arrives in Cooperstown to document its condition. (Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame)
DiFranza said the new exhibit should be fully installed by Friday, Nov. 21, before it officially opens to the public the next day. Red Sox fans, meanwhile, have no need to worry: Several Boston artifacts from the current Autumn Glory exhibit will simply be relocated around the Museum. The bat used by 2013 World Series MVP David Ortiz will be featured in the World Series timeline on the third floor, while two other artifacts will be placed in the Red Sox locker in the Today’s Game exhibit on the second floor.
The rest of the 2013 World Series artifacts will continue to be preserved by the Museum and may be used for new exhibits in the future.
In the meantime, though there have been no official plans made yet, Horn said he is working with the Giants’ representatives to try to bring the team and the World Series trophy back to Cooperstown for another “Giants Weekend.”
“We’re very hopeful that they’ll once again bring the trophy here,” said Horn. “We’ve done the Giants Weekend twice now (2011, 2013) and they were both very large events.
“There’s still a big New York Giants fan base here, and San Francisco fans travel well. It’s a fun opportunity for fans to relive the excitement and have a tailored experience in the Museum that is based around their team.”
From the diamond to Cooperstown
To the topThe National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum accessions (admits to the collection) hundreds of three-dimensional artifacts every year. The process starts with the Accessions Committee, which meets once a month to vote on each offered artifact. Though all artifacts come to the Museum as donations, a significant cost is involved with the perpetual care of each piece.
When the Museum agrees to accession an artifact, we agree to care for it in perpetuity.
Once accepted, the artifact is cataloged, measured and photographed. Each piece is preserved in its original form, which can include grass stains, dirt and other foreign matter than combined to tell the tale of the artifact’s history. In cases where an artifact’s composition could be compromised (such as a jersey soaked in alcohol following a clubhouse celebration), the piece will be conserved to sustain it as long as possible.
Once thoroughly documented, the artifact goes to the Museum’s Curatorial Team, which decides how to present the piece in the Museum. Labels will be written to describe the piece and its historical place. Artifacts from the current baseball season will usually be displayed in the Museum’s Today’s Game exhibit. Following the season, many artifacts from Today’s Game will find their way into other exhibits in the Museum.
At any given time, about 15 percent of the Museum’s 40,000-plus three-dimensional artifacts are on display in the Museum.
Buster Posey's 2014 San Francisco Giants World Series road jersey being accessioned. (Milo Stewart, Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame)