April 9, 1985: Giants’ Jim Davenport makes managerial debut with Opening Day victory over Padres

The San Francisco Giants exuded a sunny disposition for the 1985 season.

They hired popular former All-Star third baseman Jim Davenport as manager – his easygoing personality a vast contrast to his predecessor, intensely competitive Frank Robinson1 – and they traded slugging outfielder Jack Clark, who had a habit of clashing with managers and netted them four players from the St. Louis Cardinals.2

Furthermore, to combat much-maligned Candlestick Park, which was notorious for its chilly weather conditions for night baseball, the Giants scheduled 63 day games. A television commercial promised: “Yes, it’s old-fashioned, daytime baseball. … The 1985 Giants: Real grass. Real sunshine. Real baseball.”3

The script played out perfectly for the season opener on April 9 against the defending National League champion San Diego Padres.4 An overcast morning gave way to bright skies and 55 degrees for the 1:05 P.M. start, and the stage was set with Hall of Famer, former San Francisco Seals hero, and Bay Area native Joe DiMaggio throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.5 Then the Giants rewarded a sellout crowd of 52,714 with a thrilling 4-3 win, wiping away the bitter memories – for the moment, at least – of a major-league-worst 96-loss campaign in 1984.

The Giants “played well,” said Davenport, who had not previously managed in the majors.6 “They performed like I want them to. It was a good feeling.”7

The pitching matchup featured Giants left-hander Atlee Hammaker and Padres righty LaMarr Hoyt, acquired from the Chicago White Sox in an offseason deal.8 Two years earlier, Hammaker was the 1983 NL ERA leader (2.25) and Hoyt won the American League Cy Young Award (24-10, 3.66 ERA). But in 1984, Hammaker was limited to six starts by shoulder and elbow operations, while Hoyt lost 18 games.

The Padres, who debuted new grey pinstripe uniforms, were without two regulars – left fielder Carmelo Martínez and second baseman Alan Wiggins – because of injuries.

Hoyt retired the first nine Giants before Dan Gladden, who had batted .351 after a midseason promotion from Triple A in 1984, led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a double. Gladden took third base on a groundout by Manny Trillo and scored on a single by Chili Davis, a cue shot that went between Hoyt’s legs and reached center field.

Meanwhile, Hammaker faced the minimum through six innings. Fill-in second baseman Mario Ramírez reached on Hammaker’s error in the first and Jerry Royster singled in the third, but both were erased via double plays.

San Francisco made it 2-0 in the sixth. With one out, Gladden stroked his second double – a hooking line drive that got caught in the wind and glanced off the glove of rookie reserve outfielder Gerry Davis near the left-field line – and scored on a single by Trillo.

Davis and Ramírez singled to begin the seventh, then Hammaker retired 1984 NL batting champion Tony Gwynn on a fly ball. Davenport summoned Frank Williams from the bullpen. The side-armer caught pinch-runner Bobby Brown off first base but threw the ball over the head of Trillo at second; Davis scored and Brown went to third. Steve Garvey singled to drive in Brown with the tying run. Mark Davis took over for Williams, striking out Terry Kennedy and getting Royster to ground out.

San Francisco reclaimed the lead, 3-2, in the bottom of the seventh. Brenly led off with a single and advanced to second on a sacrifice by David Green – part of the Giants’ return in the Clark trade – and to third on Chris Brown’s groundout. He scored on Scot Thompson’s first-pitch, pinch-hit RBI single.

“I thought at first that they might walk me, or bring in (left-hander) Craig Lefferts,” the left-handed-swinging Thompson said. “They probably would walk me eight times if that same situation came up 10 times in a season.”9

Padres manager Dick Williams said: “We talked about (an intentional walk). We decided to pitch him tough, but we didn’t pitch him tough enough. I’ll take the responsibility. I could have ordered four balls. But I don’t care.”10

Mark Davis retired the Padres in order in the eighth but allowed three straight singles – by Kurt Bevacqua, Gwynn, and Garvey – to load the bases with no outs in the ninth. Scott Garrelts replaced Davis and induced a double-play groundout off the bat of Kevin McReynolds, as pinch-runner Al Bumbry, making his NL debut after 13 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, scored to tie the game again.

Vida Blue, in his second stint with the Giants and back in the majors for the first time since August 1983,11 relieved Garrelts, received a loving welcome from the crowd, and got Kennedy to fly out to end the inning. Blue was coming off a season-long suspension by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn in 1984 after pleading guilty to cocaine possession and serving 81 days in prison.

In the bottom of the ninth, Jeffrey Leonard led off with a single against Luis DeLeón, who had replaced Hoyt an inning earlier. Williams went with DeLeón over more high-leverage relievers like Rich “Goose” Gossage, Tim Stoddard, and Lefferts because those three had struggled in spring training.12

Brenly sacrificed Leonard to second and Green was intentionally walked – the only walk of the day by either team. Brown, who made his major-league debut in 1984 and batted .286 in 23 games with the Giants, singled through the left side to score Leonard with the winning run in the 2-hour 23-minute game. The Opening Day victory was San Francisco’s first since 1979.13

“If you were going to write a script, this one couldn’t have been any better,” said Giants owner Bob Lurie, who, frustrated by his inability to garner support for a new ballpark to replace Candlestick, attempted to sell the franchise during the offseason. “This team has spirit.”14

Observed Padres third baseman Graig Nettles: “It’s too early to start making comparisons, but they looked like they had a better attitude. They looked a little more fired up. It could be Opening Day, too.”15

Hammaker impressed, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits (all singles) with three strikeouts in 6⅓ innings. He threw 65 pitches. The 35-year-old Blue earned his first win since September 1982 after throwing only two pitches.16

“I just tried to stay within myself,” Hammaker said. “I didn’t try to overthrow. It was a good outing, and with Vida Blue getting the win, it was a great day.”17

Blue said: “To win is nice, but I’m just happy to be here smiling, talking, pitching under any circumstances. It’s been a long time.”18

Hoyt gave up three runs on six hits with four strikeouts in seven innings. He went on to be the starting – and winning – pitcher for the NL in the 1985 All-Star Game en route to a 16-8 record with a 3.47 ERA for the season.19

“I feel like I had control of all my pitches,” Hoyt said after throwing 70 of his 92 pitches for strikes in the opener. “I made a few stupid choices, but what are you going to do? I say that if I continue to pitch like this, we should do just fine.

“I like what I saw of this team. They don’t quit. They keep clawing. The intensity level during the ninth inning really got up there. They keep coming and that’s what’s important.”20

The Giants’ warm and fuzzy feelings were short-lived. Their last winning record was 3-2. Sinking into last place in the NL West Division on April 18, San Francisco wallowed there for all but five days the balance of the season. With a record of 56-88 at the end of play on September 18, Lurie fired general manager Tom Haller and Davenport, replacing them with Al Rosen and Roger Craig.21

The Giants wound up 62-100 – the first team in the franchise’s 103-year history to lose 100 games – 33 games behind the division-winning Los Angeles Dodgers, beating out only the Cleveland Indians (60-102) and Pittsburgh Pirates (57-104) for the worst record in the majors. The Giants’ .383 winning percentage ranked fourth worst in franchise history as of the 2025 season.22

Blue enjoyed a commendable bounceback season, going 8-8 with a 4.47 ERA in 33 games, including 20 starts. He recorded his 2,000th career strikeout on June 30, fanning Jim Pankovits of the Houston Astros. Blue finished the campaign with 199 career wins after beating the Atlanta Braves, 7-1, on October 5 with his first complete game since 1982.23

Fan apathy increased as the season trudged along. Besides the Opening Day sellout, the next two biggest home crowds were 32,963 on April 28 and 29,181 on August 18. The Giants failed to draw 10,000 fans in 28 of their final 39 home games. For the season, they averaged 10,107 fans per game, 11th in the NL – ahead of only the Pirates.24

At the same time, Lurie was seriously considering moving the franchise to Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum as cohabitants with the Oakland A’s for the 1986 season.25 Speculation about the Giants’ future continued until January 1986, when Lurie announced that the team was returning to Candlestick.26

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Jim Davenport, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent material and the box scores.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN198504090.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1985/B04090SFN1985.htm

Notes

1 Robinson was fired on August 4, 1984, and third-base coach Danny Ozark served as interim manager for the remainder of the season. Davenport was hired on October 30. Since being drafted by the Giants in 1955, Davenport had been part of the organization for 28 of the previous 30 years as a player, coach, scout, and minor-league manager. He was an original member of the San Francisco Giants in 1958, making his major-league debut in the first game played in California (April 15 against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Seals Stadium) and driving in the game’s first run. Davenport spent the 1974 and 1975 seasons as third-base coach for the San Diego Padres.

2 The Giants traded Clark to the Cardinals on February 1, 1985, for first baseman David Green, pitcher Dave LaPoint, shortstop José Uribe – known as José Gonzalez at the time of the trade – and first baseman Gary Rajsich. Clark, who had missed the last three months of the 1984 season with a knee injury, made the NL All-Star team and received a Silver Slugger Award with the pennant-winning 1985 Cardinals.

3 Laurie Row, “New Ticket Tack for Giants: Sell the Sunshine,” San Francsico Examiner, April 2, 1985: A1.

4 The Padres reached the World Series for the first time in franchise history, losing to the Detroit Tigers in five games.

5 In 1933 DiMaggio had a 61-game hitting streak for the Seals, who played in the Pacific Coast League.

6 Davenport managed the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate in Phoenix from 1971 to 1973. He was San Francisco’s third-base from 1976 to 1982 and again in 1984 when Ozark took over as interim manager.

7 Bucky Walter, “Sun Shines on the Giants,” San Francisco Examiner, April 10, 1985: F2.

8 On December 6, 1984, San Diego obtained Hoyt from the Chicago White Sox along with minor leaguers Kevin Kristan and Todd Simmons in exchange for shortstop Ozzie Guillen, pitchers Tim Lollar and Bill Long, and infielder Luis Salazar.

9 Phil Collier, “Giants Spoil Padres’ Opener with Run in 9th,” San Diego Union, April 10, 1985: D-1.

10 Barry Bloom, “Hoyt Looks Like Stopper Padres Need,” San Diego Tribune, April 10, 1985: D-1.

11 Blue, who previously pitched for the Giants from 1978 to 1981, made the 1985 team as a nonroster invitee to spring training. He had been released by the Kansas City Royals on August 5, 1983. San Francisco traded Blue to the Royals on March 30, 1982, in a six-player deal that included Atlee Hammaker going to the Giants. Hammaker wore uniform number 14 with the Giants from 1982-84 but surrendered it to Blue, who wore it during his previous stint, and donned number 7.

12 “Giants Spoil Padres’ Opener with Run in 9th.”

13 The Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 11-5, on April 4, 1979, at Riverfront Stadium. Coincidentally, Vida Blue was the winning pitcher in that game.

14 Art Spander, “From the Owner’s Chair,” San Francisco Examiner, April 10, 1985: F1.

15 Mark Soltau, “Pads See Improvement in Giants’ 1985 Lineup,” San Francisco Examiner, April 10, 1985: F2.

16 Blue was 0-5 for the Kansas City Royals in 1983.

17 John Hillyer, “Early Answers for Giants,” San Francisco Examiner, April 10, 1985: F1.

18 Tom Cushman, “Baseball, Apple Pie and a Little Sun in Your Eye,” San Diego Tribune, April 10, 1985: D-1.

19 The All-Star selection was the only one of Hoyt’s career. He pitched three innings in the game at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, allowing two hits and one unearned run and being named the game’s Most Valuable Player. After the 1985 season, Hoyt endured a series of arrests on drug-possession charges that led to his being suspended by Commissioner Peter Ueberroth in February 1987. He subsequently was released by the Padres in June 1987 and attempted a comeback with the White Sox but did not pitch again.

20 “Hoyt Looks Like Stopper Padres Need.” San Diego finished 83-79, good for a third-place tie in the NL West, 12 games behind the Dodgers.

21 Owner Bob Lurie gave Rosen and Craig “a mandate for change,” and the duo restored a winning culture to the franchise. The Giants were 83-79 in 1986, then won the NL West in 1987 and the NL pennant in 1989.

22 The Giants had worse winning percentages in 1901 (.380), 1902 (.353), and 1943 (.359).

23 Blue pitched one more season in the majors, going 10-10 with a 3.27 ERA for the Giants in 1986. He concluded his 17-year career with a 209-161 record, a 3.27 ERA, and 2,175 strikeouts.

24 The Pirates averaged 9,199 per game in 1985.

25 Frank Blackman, “Candlestick’s Last Game – for Now,” San Francisco Examiner, October 7, 1985: F1.

26 Lurie wound up being rebuffed by the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum board of directors, then, as reported in the January 29, 1986, San Francisco Examiner, explored Denver as a temporary home until a new ballpark could be built in San Francisco. He also “opened discussions with officials in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties about possible new stadium sites.” Lurie never got a new ballpark. He sold the Giants in 1993 to a group of local investors headed by Peter Magowan, who began building a privately financed ballpark in 1997. Pacific Bell Park opened in 2000, and as of 2025 it was known as Oracle Park and was regarded as one of the major leagues’ finest ballparks.