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Forty Years a Giant: The Life of Horace Stoneham
2022 SABR Seymour Medal
Finalist for the 2021 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year
When New York Giants owner Charles A. Stoneham came home one night in 1918 and told his teenage son, Horace, “Horrie, I bought you a ballclub,” he set in motion a family legacy. Horace Stoneham would become one of baseball’s greatest figures, an owner who played an essential role in integrating the game, and who was a major force in making our pastime truly national by bringing Major League Baseball to the West Coast.
Horace Stoneham began his tenure with the Giants in 1924, learning all sides of the operation until he moved into the front office. In 1936, when his father died of kidney disease, Horace assumed control of the Giants at age thirty-two, becoming one of the youngest owners in baseball history.
Stoneham played a pivotal role in not just his team’s history but the game itself. In the mid-1940s when the Pacific Coast League sought to gain Major League status, few but Stoneham and Branch Rickey took it seriously, and twelve years later the Giants and Dodgers were the first two teams to relocate west. Stoneham signed former Negro Leaguers Monte Irvin and Hank Thompson, making the Giants the second National League franchise to racially integrate. In the late 1940s, the Giants hired their first Spanish-speaking scout and soon became the leading team in developing Latin American players.
Stoneham was shy and self-effacing and avoided the spotlight. His relationships with players were almost always strong, yet for all his leadership skills and baseball acumen, sustained success eluded most of his teams. In forty seasons his Giants won just five National League pennants and only one World Series.
The Stoneham family business struggled, and the team was forced to sell off its beloved stars, first Willie Mays, then Willie McCovey, and finally Juan Marichal. Then Stoneham had no choice but to sell the club in 1975. While his tenure came to an unfortunate end, he is heralded as a pioneer and leader whose story tells much of baseball history from the 1930s through the 1970s.
Finalist for the 2021 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year
When New York Giants owner Charles A. Stoneham came home one night in 1918 and told his teenage son, Horace, “Horrie, I bought you a ballclub,” he set in motion a family legacy. Horace Stoneham would become one of baseball’s greatest figures, an owner who played an essential role in integrating the game, and who was a major force in making our pastime truly national by bringing Major League Baseball to the West Coast.
Horace Stoneham began his tenure with the Giants in 1924, learning all sides of the operation until he moved into the front office. In 1936, when his father died of kidney disease, Horace assumed control of the Giants at age thirty-two, becoming one of the youngest owners in baseball history.
Stoneham played a pivotal role in not just his team’s history but the game itself. In the mid-1940s when the Pacific Coast League sought to gain Major League status, few but Stoneham and Branch Rickey took it seriously, and twelve years later the Giants and Dodgers were the first two teams to relocate west. Stoneham signed former Negro Leaguers Monte Irvin and Hank Thompson, making the Giants the second National League franchise to racially integrate. In the late 1940s, the Giants hired their first Spanish-speaking scout and soon became the leading team in developing Latin American players.
Stoneham was shy and self-effacing and avoided the spotlight. His relationships with players were almost always strong, yet for all his leadership skills and baseball acumen, sustained success eluded most of his teams. In forty seasons his Giants won just five National League pennants and only one World Series.
The Stoneham family business struggled, and the team was forced to sell off its beloved stars, first Willie Mays, then Willie McCovey, and finally Juan Marichal. Then Stoneham had no choice but to sell the club in 1975. While his tenure came to an unfortunate end, he is heralded as a pioneer and leader whose story tells much of baseball history from the 1930s through the 1970s.
536 pages, Hardcover
Published June 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 30, 2021
At 32, Horace Stoneham became the youngest owner in Major League Baseball when he assumed control of the New York Giants after the passing of his father Charles. For the next forty years, Horace would see the Giants through not only the ups and downs that most teams experience on the field, but also through two seismic shifts in the baseball industry - integration and the movement of Major League Baseball to the West Coast. Horace was directly part of the latter and his role in that, as well as everything else related to the Giants, is told in this very good book by Steven Treder.
This is not a true biography, as there is not much written about Horace Stoneham's personal life outside of the Giants. In fact, there really is more about his father Charles' life outside of baseball in the first three chapters, leading up to when Horace takes over the club after his father's passing, than there is in the rest of the book about Horace. This isn't to say that there isn't plenty of material about Horace in which the reader can get a good glimpse into what kind of person Horace Stoneham was - it's just that this perception will be made based on how he handled the Giants.
If one said Horace's life revolved around his baseball team, that would be accurate and hence why it is fair to have this book based mainly around Horace's interactions with the team. The reading about the Giants, both in New York and in San Francisco, is rich in detail and whenever a major decision is made affecting the team, Treder will include Horace Stoneham's involvement in that decision. The best parts of the book in which this is done is when Horace made the decision to move the team west to San Francisco, when he made the decision to trade legendary center fielder Willie Mays to the New York Mets and when he was forced into selling the team because the team was close to bankruptcy - and this was just before free agency would drive up the salaries of players. For each of these topics, Treder not only provides good information - at least as good as can be derived without being able to speak directly with sources - but also dispels some of the stories that have grown over the years.
Most notable of these is that the story of Horace simply riding the coattails of Walter O'Malley in the move to the West Coast because O'Malley asked Stoneham to join the Dodgers in California is simply not true. Long before O'Malley met with Horace, Stoneham had already looked into leaving New York as attendance was plummeting for the Giants at the Polo Grounds. He not only considered San Francisco, but also the Twin Cities in Minnesota before that meeting and simply said okay. This was one of many passages about the Giants that made for very good reading.
The team's success or lack thereof on the field for every year of play under Stoneham's ownership is covered as well. Stoneham ran the team with treating those who remained loyal to the team with generosity, almost to a fault. This is illustrated in the writing about his reverence to figures like Mel Ott and Willie Mays. There were many questionable transactions made by Stoneham as well and the reasons that would seem to explain them (again, since everything obtained in this book is secondhand, there is no way to verify) are given in the text. A reader may not always agree with the conclusion or speculation provided by the author, but it doesn't diminish the work done to make this book an enjoyable read. Fans of the Giants will especially be interested in this historical book on the team as well as those who enjoy reading baseball history books.
I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
This is not a true biography, as there is not much written about Horace Stoneham's personal life outside of the Giants. In fact, there really is more about his father Charles' life outside of baseball in the first three chapters, leading up to when Horace takes over the club after his father's passing, than there is in the rest of the book about Horace. This isn't to say that there isn't plenty of material about Horace in which the reader can get a good glimpse into what kind of person Horace Stoneham was - it's just that this perception will be made based on how he handled the Giants.
If one said Horace's life revolved around his baseball team, that would be accurate and hence why it is fair to have this book based mainly around Horace's interactions with the team. The reading about the Giants, both in New York and in San Francisco, is rich in detail and whenever a major decision is made affecting the team, Treder will include Horace Stoneham's involvement in that decision. The best parts of the book in which this is done is when Horace made the decision to move the team west to San Francisco, when he made the decision to trade legendary center fielder Willie Mays to the New York Mets and when he was forced into selling the team because the team was close to bankruptcy - and this was just before free agency would drive up the salaries of players. For each of these topics, Treder not only provides good information - at least as good as can be derived without being able to speak directly with sources - but also dispels some of the stories that have grown over the years.
Most notable of these is that the story of Horace simply riding the coattails of Walter O'Malley in the move to the West Coast because O'Malley asked Stoneham to join the Dodgers in California is simply not true. Long before O'Malley met with Horace, Stoneham had already looked into leaving New York as attendance was plummeting for the Giants at the Polo Grounds. He not only considered San Francisco, but also the Twin Cities in Minnesota before that meeting and simply said okay. This was one of many passages about the Giants that made for very good reading.
The team's success or lack thereof on the field for every year of play under Stoneham's ownership is covered as well. Stoneham ran the team with treating those who remained loyal to the team with generosity, almost to a fault. This is illustrated in the writing about his reverence to figures like Mel Ott and Willie Mays. There were many questionable transactions made by Stoneham as well and the reasons that would seem to explain them (again, since everything obtained in this book is secondhand, there is no way to verify) are given in the text. A reader may not always agree with the conclusion or speculation provided by the author, but it doesn't diminish the work done to make this book an enjoyable read. Fans of the Giants will especially be interested in this historical book on the team as well as those who enjoy reading baseball history books.
I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
June 24, 2021
Treder has written an excellent narrative of the Giants franchise from it’s origins through the mid-1970’s. This book tells not only the tale of Horace Stoneham, but the major decisions that the Giants franchise made for more than 40 years. Treder also relates how the Giants franchise reacted to various events that effected major league baseball and the entire country, including the great depression, WW2, baseball franchise relocation, and integration. Highly recommend for any fan of the Giants and anyone interested in baseball history.
October 17, 2021
This is more of a great history of the Giants franchise than it is a biography of Horace Stoneham. Stoneham did not do many interviews and seems to have surrounded himself with a small circle of friends and long serving employees.
I found this to be a wonderful read. I am biased. I went to undergraduate school at Santa Clara and froze many times at Candlestick Park.
I found this to be a wonderful read. I am biased. I went to undergraduate school at Santa Clara and froze many times at Candlestick Park.
May 29, 2022
This is not a typical biography. It is more so a history of the Giants baseball club with an emphasis on Horace Stoneham as principal owner. No book could completely and exhaustively cover the Giants' annual journey towards a pennant, so the author provides highlights of every season. Yet we do get to know Horace Stoneham as best as one can know an introverted man. and what motivated him most; namely. Horace was bestowed the Giants team as a young man from his more extraverted father Charles. That organization became a sacred trust and a second family for Horace. Not only was he the principal owner, but he miraculously became the GM of the team after Bill Terry retired and carried those responsibilities from the 20's until the sale of the club in 1976. What I enjoyed most was finally getting to know more about Bill Terry and Mel Ott, two Hall of Fame players. (Other than on my Ethan Allen All-Star baseball set of cards.) I also enjoyed the stories about John McGraw and the great Giant teams of that era. I found the following stories equally absorbing: a recap of the sensational 1951 pennant drive (Although the author mistakenly has Clem Labine warming up and throwing his curve in the dirt when it was actually Carl Erskine) the decision to move the team from NY to San Fransisco, the managerial helm of the team by Al Dark and his conflicts with the players, the disaster that was called Candlestick Park, the rise of the super-star Willie Mays, and some of the infamous trades that didn't work out.
(Trading away Gaylord Perry for Sam McDowell, Orlando Cepeda for Ray Sedecki for instance) Also interesting was the financial descent of the team, the attendance of 1,700 fans or less in the 70's, the competition with the A's and Charly O, and the verge of bankruptcy that Horace found himself in 1975-76. We can only imagine Stoneham's deep sense of loss, frustration, and humiliation when he had to trade Mays, later McCovey, but we don't hear it from Stoneham himself because there are no interviews from him even from other writers. We get bits and pieces from Roger Angell or John D'Acquisto, but we can certainly infer the trauma that Stoneham endured after four decades of keeping the Giants relevant and fulfilling his sacred duty to his father. If you are a Giants fan, you will really enjoy this book.
(Trading away Gaylord Perry for Sam McDowell, Orlando Cepeda for Ray Sedecki for instance) Also interesting was the financial descent of the team, the attendance of 1,700 fans or less in the 70's, the competition with the A's and Charly O, and the verge of bankruptcy that Horace found himself in 1975-76. We can only imagine Stoneham's deep sense of loss, frustration, and humiliation when he had to trade Mays, later McCovey, but we don't hear it from Stoneham himself because there are no interviews from him even from other writers. We get bits and pieces from Roger Angell or John D'Acquisto, but we can certainly infer the trauma that Stoneham endured after four decades of keeping the Giants relevant and fulfilling his sacred duty to his father. If you are a Giants fan, you will really enjoy this book.
January 26, 2024
This is a solid bio of a solid owner. Stoneham is an easy to overlook owner in that he was publicity-shy and just in general shy. He didn't have many outside interests - he just loved baseball. He didn't really have any outside businesses - baseball was the family business. But he did a good job at it. The Giants weren't the first to integrate, but they were early ones at it, and they soon developed an impressive pipeline of minority talent, like McCovey, Cepeda, Marichal, Bobby Bonds - and oh yeah, Willie Mays. They won more than they lost, abliet often becoming the king of second place finishes.
Stoneham himself remains elusive here. This book really is a history of the Giants from 1936-76, as Stonehame nearly disappears completely at several points, and what we know of him feels at-arms-length.
A highlight of the book is analysis of the Frank Duffy trades, are Treder argues Stoneham was so busy fixating on the types of players in the trade he didn't really notice the specifics of the players.
Stoneham himself remains elusive here. This book really is a history of the Giants from 1936-76, as Stonehame nearly disappears completely at several points, and what we know of him feels at-arms-length.
A highlight of the book is analysis of the Frank Duffy trades, are Treder argues Stoneham was so busy fixating on the types of players in the trade he didn't really notice the specifics of the players.
May 17, 2021
The book appeared to rely mostly on a number of secondary sources. While I realize that the subject and most of the principals are dead, there are several obvious factual (although probably minor) errors in the book, which had the author reviewed primary sources, would have helped. For example, the author describes the incident in which the comedian Danny Kaye, while pretending to be a drunk Horace Stoneham at a stag dinner for then Giants’ manager Leo Durocher, exposed himself, placing his manhood on a saucer, occurred at the Friars Club in New York. Had the author consulted The Sporting News’ archives, he would have learned the incident (sanitized in TSN’s account) occurred at the Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles.
July 16, 2022
As a lifelong Giants' fan, I like to think I know everything about the franchise's history. But Steve Treder proves me wrong on many different levels. Not in a way that makes me feel dumb, but in a way that illuminates long-ago activities that I had only passing knowledge of.
I hadn't realized that Horace Stoneham acted as the Giants' GM for over 30 years. His performance arc was not terribly unlike a ballplayer's: Some learning challenges, followed by peak performance, concluding with evidence that time has passed you by.
Stoneham comes across as a composite of about eight people I know - nice enough people who value loyalty, but aren't exactly hip to changes going on around them. They can hold off for awhile, but eventually their insularity catches up.
I hadn't realized that Horace Stoneham acted as the Giants' GM for over 30 years. His performance arc was not terribly unlike a ballplayer's: Some learning challenges, followed by peak performance, concluding with evidence that time has passed you by.
Stoneham comes across as a composite of about eight people I know - nice enough people who value loyalty, but aren't exactly hip to changes going on around them. They can hold off for awhile, but eventually their insularity catches up.
July 19, 2022
Very solid biography of an important baseball exec. Research mainly drawn from secondary sources, which is makes it less vivid. Author does some excellent analysis of Stonham's strengths/weaknesses vs. more famous contemporary owner/GMs.
March 2, 2022
This is a fun biography! Especially for longtime Giants fans of the early San Francisco era. A blast from the past!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews