Willow Glen Resident

Sports

Past, present, future Giants at San Jose Giants banquet

By Dick Sparrer

Fans can get a good look at the San Francisco Giants--past, present and future--this Sunday, compliments of the club's Class A minor league affiliate, the San Jose Giants.

The occasion is the San Jose Giants annual baseball banquet on June 24 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown San Jose, and the featured guests include former San Francisco Giants manager and all-star third baseman Jim Davenport, current San Francisco players and coaches and past and present San Jose Giants.

SF Giants broadcaster Dave Fleming will serve as the night's master of ceremonies at the event that begins with no-host cocktails at 6:30 p.m. followed by a steak dinner at 7 p.m. The cost is $50, $20 for children.

"The banquet raises money to help the players that are here, to make their lives a little bit better," said Linda Pereira, San Jose's director of player relations. "People think that all professionals make big money, but in the minor leagues most of these players are just young guys trying to make it."

The evening will include a raffle with "some great prizes," said Pereira. "We have tons of autographed stuff."

Members of the San Francisco Giants expected at the banquet include San Jose's own Kevin Frandsen, a Bellarmine and San Jose State University graduate now with the big league club, up and coming stars Nate Schierholtz, Tim Lincecum, Freddie Lewis and Matt Cain, Major League veterans Mark Sweeney and Eliezer Alfonzo and Guillermo Rodriguez and Jack Taschner. Coaches Joe Lefebvre and Willie Upshaw are also expected along with trainer Dave Groeschner.

The Giants future will be represented by the likes of Lincecum and Lewis, the present by Cain and Sweeney and the past by the great Jim Davenport.

Davenport is a throwback to the days of San Francisco Giants glory in the 1960s, when he was the all-star third sacker for the club that battled the New York Yankees in the 1962 World Series.

An anchor on the Giants infield for 13 seasons, Davenport was drafted by the New York Giants out of the University of Southern Mississippi in 1955. He made his Major League debut when the Giants opened on the coast for the first time in 1958, and he ripped a pair of hits in an opening day win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 15 in old Seals Stadium.

A career .258 hitter, Davenport had his best year in 1962 when he hit .297 and a career-high 14 home runs for the Giants club that beat the Dodgers in a playoff series to win the National League pennant. He also was a Golden Glover that season for his play on the hot corner.

Davenport managed the Giants in 1985.