I loved me some North. I remember him being a weaker then average arm, decent range and sure handed defensively by the time he was Giant. He was not a name I expected to see on this list at all. As for Kingman’s development path it was the 70’s Giants. I am not sure there has been a more inept front office in baseball since. Seriously if they did something right it was most likely an accident. Great stuff as always Chris.

Kingman is a really fascinating story. I think I could write several posts on him. As to why the Giants gave up on him, I'm guessing it's equal parts of frustration with his hitting approach, poor management, and maybe some financial issues as well. Here's a fabulous Hardball Times article on Kingman and his development path with the Giants. http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/where-d... The Giants made some "interesting" decisions with him in the early years of his career. A couple of quotes: In his first full big league season, Kingman struggled with his batting average. He also dealt with the challenge of playing third base for the first time, although he handled it gamely, and his performance there truly wasn’t all that bad; the Giants weren’t helping him by running him on and off the new position on a daily basis. Overall Kingman had a good year; there was still every reason to expect he was developing into a major star. It was a bizarre, mixed-up season for Kingman. The Giants gave Ed Goodson (Ed Goodson?!?) the regular job at third base ahead of him, and with Willie McCovey generally healthy at first base, Kingman spent the first half mostly riding the pine. In the utility role (including service as an emergency pitcher), Kingman hit miserably: entering the final week of August, he had just 191 at-bats, in which he was batting .183, with 11 homers, 13 walks, and 75 strikeouts. It's a really great article that you should read -- if you haven't already. It also notes that Kingman pitched some at the collegiate level, that's something I never knew. Maybe it's why the Wiki Editor made note of it.

Checking further, he played a lot more games at 1B than 3B his last year with the Giants (91 games vs. only 21), and it appears that they put him there because that was where they had a free spot in the lineup, he did not play one game at 3B in his first season with us, mainly 1B with some in LF and RF. That would explain his stone hands at 3B and why he never played there again, the teams that had him could fit him into LF, 1B, or DH. And think, you and I know better, but the person who wrote that entry made the point of noting that Kingman never pitched again. Only a tyro would do that, most experienced baseball fans would know that position players normally don't pitch anyway, it was noteworthy, maybe, to say Babe Ruth didn't pitch another game (don't know if that's true, just saying) because he had a great pitching career before detouring to full-time hitting. But Dave Kingman? Not so much.

Hey, they let any hack write in Wikipedia: I once updated one of the Giants entries with more details that I knew. :^) Well, maybe my memory is wrong, won't be the first time (I could have sworn that Bobby Bonds had hit a HR in a rained out game that wiped out the HR in the season he hit 39 HR and had over 40 SB, which would have been the first 40/40 season; I was geeky enough to know and was hoping for that, but he obviously fell short). But to make my case, the Giants also got rid of Willie Mays in 1972 for Charlie Williams (not the umpire) and $50K because Stoneham couldn't afford to pay Willie the money he deserved, then traded McCovey in '73 (with another player thrown in!) for a pitcher who was 5-14 the year before with ERA+ of 92, 7-11 with 82 the year before that, 13-26 career record and ERA+ of around 85 (though I must note that he had a great first year with the Giants - though bad next two seasons, leading to a trade - and eventually was a 20 game winner with the Brew Crew, Mike Caldwell, who was basically a below average pitcher his whole career with 3 great seasons of note). And to be clear, I wasn't disputing that Kingman was a horrible fielder - he got homer happy and let that and batting averages go unfortunately - only that I don't recall that fact being the impetus for the trade. I mean, the Giants traded him for $150,000 and he was a plus hitter the whole time he was with the Giants and only 26 when they traded him. I think it was all about the Benjamins Stoneham was getting for him.

Thanks, OGC. RE: Kingman Wikipedia seems to think it had something to do with his errors and inability to play third base. Kingman came up with the San Francisco Giants and played in the outfield, at first base, and at third base (besides two emergency appearances as a pitcher). After a difficult season in 1974 when he had 12 errors in 59 chances, the Giants not only stopped playing him at third base, they sold him to the New York Mets. Thereafter, he played only 14 games at third, and never pitched again. As for Jack Hiatt, you're right. I didn't even make that connection. After his playing career, Jack managed minor league teams for the Chicago Cubs organization, including the GCL Cubs (1975), the Pompano Beach Cubs (1976-1978), and the Wichita Aeros (1979-1980). Under the California Angels farm system he managed the Holyoke Millers in 1982. With the Houston Astros, he managed the Columbus Astros in 1983. The final managerial position he took in the minors was with the San Francisco Giants farm team, the Pocatello Giants in 1988. Over the course of his minor league managerial career Jack amassed a 501-599 record with only 3 winning seasons. Hiatt was the Giants' director of player development for 16 seasons, before his retirement in October 2007.[4]

Keep up the great work! Yeah, I remember Billy North too! Mark has him covered right. Seemed like a nice guy, I wonder what he's doing today. Is that Jack Hiatt, who had been our director of player development? From what I remember, Dave Kingman got traded because he got too expensive for the Giants, not for his defensive woes. He was my first phenom to get excited over. I remember his hitting homers and triples, and doing great his first season up with the Giants, and thinking that we're set for a long time... When he had appendicitis, I suddenly was in pain and told my mom that I might have it too... :^) Yeah, I totally agree, Dick Deitz was our best catcher in SF Giants history. Good times!

@Mark Awesome! I was hoping someone could reflect on him. That's really cool though. North's career line is pretty interesting: 261/.365/.323. He never SLG'd over .400 in his career and fell under .300 a couple of times. Maybe he'll give some of us hope for Emmanuel Burriss.

Of course I remember Billy North! He had been a solid leadoff-type for the A's and even had a stint with the Dodgers before finishing his career with us. Giants fans knew him, and he had one good season, though he felt like a cast-off at the time we picked him up. He was the kind of hitter that made Duane Kuiper look like a slugger, but he could get on base at a decent clip and had speed. Brett Butler came along 10 years later and gave us a better version of the speedy, slappy CF/leadoff guy. (I was a university student 1977-1981 and I wasted many days and nights at Candlestick Park).