The Year of the Fox: 1971 San Francisco Giants

The 1997 major league baseball season marked the first time in 26 years that the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers finished 1-2 in the National League Western Division. Recently, the manager of the 1971 Giants was interviewed at his home in San Mateo, California. With the skipper’s help, here is a look back at that magical season for the Giants.

The 1971 San Francisco Giants were a unique ballclub. Manager Charlie Fox mixed four future Hall of Famers, numerous wily veterans, and an eclectic group of promising rookies into a spirited team that held on to win the National League Western Division championship by one game over the arch-rival Los Angeles Dodgers. Willie Mays called the ’71 Giants the most spirited club the Giants had produced since the move to San Francisco. The 40-year old Mays “felt young just to be a part of it.” So did most Giants fans.

From 1965 through 1969, the Giants had finished second five consecutive seasons. In 1970, after a slow start, owner Horace Stoneham fired manager Clyde King in May, and replaced him with Charlie Fox. Fox had been with the Giants organization since he joined the 1942 New York ballclub as a backup catcher. His career lasted seven at bats before he headed overseas for military service in the Navy during World War II. Returning to baseball in 1946, Charlie found himself an out-of-shape third-string catcher behind Ernie Lombardi and Walker Cooper. Shortly thereafter, at the young age of 24, Fox was given an opportunity to manage the Giants’ minor league team at Bristol, Virginia, in the Appalachian League.

Over the years, Fox worked with great baseball minds like Carl Hubbell, Bill Rigney, and Herman Franks. Franks, who managed the Giants from 1965 through 1968, was Charlie’s mentor. “He was the best manager I’d ever seen. He was always two, three innings ahead of most people,” says Fox. “I managed a long time in the minors and after two months in the big leagues with Franks, I knew four times as much as I thought I knew when I came up.”

For reasons unknown to Fox, he was passed over for manager in 1969 in favor of Clyde King. Charlie looks back at that time and still relishes the opportunity to have taken over the team at that time. “All the young people we had on that ballclub had matured by 1969 I worked with them in the instructional league. I just marvel at the club we had put together in ’69.”

Finally, after replacing King the preceding year, Fox was getting his chance to manage his first full season in the majors in 1971. Coming out of spring training, Fox had a lot of confidence in his ballclub, although he was concerned with the depth of his pitching staff. “I had about seven or eight youngsters there, and the backbone of the club was naturally Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry, and two fine relievers in Don McMahon and Jerry Johnson.” Although Charlie says he had little or no hesitation in going with the young arms, his patience was often tried.

Ron Bryant, a young southpaw who would go on to win 24 games in 1973, was 7-10 for the 1971 Giants. Fox recalls, “I had a lot of confidence in Bryant, but he was a little childish. He just couldn’t realize he was in the big leagues and there was no fooling around here. But he came along pretty good during the season.” Steve Stone, who was 5-9 that season as a rookie, had a fine curve ball, according to Fox. Working with Stone was occasionally frustrating because “we could not get him to realize you set the batter up and then go with your strength, in his case the curve ball.” Years later, Stone would go on to win 25 games and the Cy Young Award for the Baltimore Orioles. Fox believes Stone was just not quite ready for the majors when the Giants brought him up in 1971.

John Cumberland was another young arm on the club. Cumberland was one of the few youngsters on the Giants not to come from their farm system. John began his career with the New York Yankees in 1968 and came to San Francisco in a trade during the 1970 season. Cumberland started 21 games for the Giants in 1971 and won nine games while posting a 2.92 ERA.

The key to the Giants’ success in 1971, however, were the duos of Marichal and Perry in the starting rotation and McMahon and Johnson in the bullpen. “Without Marichal and Perry, we would never have won the division,” says Fox.

Marichal, who was later elected to the Hall of Fame, was coming off an injury-plagued season in 1970. Juan won 18 games in 1971, in what would be his last winning year for the ballclub. Marichal was consistent throughout the season. pitching a near no-hitter in mid-April, and then pitching a five-hitter in the season finale, clinching the division title for San Francisco.

Future Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry had his typical work-horse year in 1971. Starting 37 games and pitching 280 innings, Perry was 16-12 with a 2.76 ERA. Charlie Fox’s respect for Perry is obvious. “Gaylord pitched his heart out every time out there.” During the season. Fox noticed Perry would often struggle in the sixth inning. So in the last part of the season, Charlie started breaking up the inning by going out to the mound and talking with the pitcher about nothing in particular. Once the umpire would come out, Fox would stall for another minute or two by chatting with him. When Fox was back in the dugout, Perry would re-group and settle down. The strategy worked as Gaylord was a strong performer down the stretch, including his win against Pittsburgh in the first NL playoff game.

The bullpen duo of McMahon and Johnson produced 22 wins and 22 saves in 1971. Jerry Johnson had come over from the St. Louis Cardinals in 1970 and really came into his own for the Giants in 1971, pitching in 67 games and posting a 12-9 record. Fox tells the story of one day when he told Johnson to stay home and rest his arm. Late in the game, however, when Fox needed an arm out of the bullpen, there was Johnson, telling the pitching coach he was ready to come in and win the game. And Johnson did just that. Forty-one-year-old Don McMahon threw in 61 games in 1971 and doubled as a part-time pitching coach, according to Fox. “McMahon would come into a game and tell the youngsters, ‘Now watch me’ and then set down the side in order. He’d come into the dugout, call the bullpen, and ask what they thought and we’d see the towels waving in the bullpen.”

Charlie Fox was never concerned about his offense in 1971. “The team had a great rapport with one another. They got along well together and enjoyed playing the game. Of course, we were an exciting ballclub. We hit and run a lot and ran the bases well.” The team was anchored by future Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, but Fox believed the true star of that season was right fielder Bobby Bonds.

“The best thing about the year was how Bobby Bonds showed how he belonged in the majors with the likes of Mays and McCovey.” Fox speaks fondly of Bonds. “He learned from Mays, talking about what pitcher threw what pitches to get him out.” Fox hit Bonds leadoff most of the season despite the fact that Bobby led the team with 33 home runs. “With Mays and McCovey hitting 3-4, you didn’t have to worry about power in the middle of the lineup. I can’t remember how many times late in the season Bobby would come through with a three-run homer to win a game. There’s no question in my mind that Bonds was the most clutch player on the ’71 squad. … Bonds’ speed was also a help in the leadoff spot, as he stole 26 bases that year.

1971 saw the great Willie Mays’ last full season with the Giants. Mays started the year with four home runs in the first four games. But Willie turned 40 years old in May of that year and Fox developed a system for resting the aging superstar. Because the fans would come out on the weekend to see the great legend, Fox would always rest Mays on Friday night and let him start both Saturday and Sunday. This way, the majority of the fans were pleased and the Giants had a rested Mays down the stretch. It was a special year for Mays, marking the 20th anniversary of his big league career. And just like he did as a rookie in 1951, Mays led the Giants to the postseason. Charlie Fox has little doubt that if Mays had played his career in a more hitter-friendly stadium instead of Candlestick Park, Willie would have broken Babe Ruth’s home run record before Hank Aaron.

Fox talks about Mays and Bonds and the emphasis today that is put on a player hitting 30 home runs and stealing 30 bases. Fox was a coach on the 1965 Giants when Mays hit 52 home runs. “Willie could have done 50-50 that year if the Giants would have let him. Due to the risk of injury, we asked him not to steal much that year.” Likewise, Bonds could have easily stolen four more bases in 1971 to complete a 30-30 year, but statistics were not a focus on this ballclub.

Charlie Fox, as a former catcher himself, had a special friendship with the Giants’ backstop, Dick Dietz. Dietz was second on the team in 1971 with 72 RBI and improved a great deal on defense. Fox worked with Dietz on mechanics and legend has it that Charlie spent the winter of 1970-71 thumping his fist into a new glove to break it in for his catcher. “Dietz had a nickname of ‘The Mule’ and he was a workhorse. He was strong and healthy and caught a tremendous number of games for us and never wanted out.”

The Giants had their share of characters on the 1971 ballclub as well. “Dirty” Al Gallagher was the team’s regular third baseman who would frequently dive for line drives after they were already past him and into left field. Fox remembers Gallagher to be a “happy-go-lucky” type of player. The middle infield had to be good with Al at third because he just played for the sake of being out there.” Gallagher was also known for his clothing style. “He would come into the clubhouse for a night game and be dressed in some outrageous outfit,” Fox reminisces. “There would be some hootin’ and hollerin’ and the clubhouse would always light up.”

Fran Healy was another personality in the clubhouse. The Giants catcher that year was an offensive threat off the bench and was a “jolly guy with a quick wit,” according to Fox. Pitching coach Larry Jansen would force Healy to sit at the end of the bullpen bench because he would be so loud Jansen couldn’t hear when the bullpen telephone rang.

Another player Fox has fond memories of on the 1971 Giants was their 21-year-old rookie, Chris Speier. Speier grew up in nearby Alameda and was promoted from Double-A Amarillo to be the team’s regular shortstop. Charlie Fox first saw Speier in the fall instructional league and thought immediately that this was his shortstop. Fox looks back now and believes the team may have rushed the youngster a bit by bringing him up so fast, but Speier handled it well, playing solid defense and contributing on offense. Fox recalls a play the Giants made against the Reds’ Johnny Bench during the season. Bench grounded one up the middle and second baseman Tito Fuentes “dove and batted at the ball with his bare hand like a handball. It deflected to Speier who threw to McCovey at first to gun down Bench. Those two would turn your head if you were a baseball man.”

San Francisco favorite Willie McCovey also contributed in 1971, with 18 home runs and 70 runs batted in while limited to only 95 starts at first base. “Stretch” suffered from a nagging knee injury that would eventually require surgery. When McCovey did play, the Giants offense was always turned up a notch. When Mac would not play, Fox often used Mays at first base. Fox noted, “You take out a McCovey and put in a Mays, you don’t lose much.”

The Giants’ other option at first base was a 6-foot-6 rookie out of the University of Southern California, Dave Kingman. In 1971, Kingman hit 278 with 6 home runs and 24 runs batted in while playing in only 41 games. Fox remembers the towering first baseman best for his majestic home run that clinched the division title in the season finale in San Diego. Kingman, a last-minute replacement for an injured Bobby Bonds, hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning to cap a 5-1 Giants’ victory. As Kingman watched the ball fly over the fence, he thrusted both fists into the air and raced around the bases to enter a dugout full of delirious teammates.

The 1971 San Francisco Giants started off fast, winning 27 of their first 36, then held on to win the NL West by beating the Los Angeles Dodgers by a single game. The Giants would lose to the soon-to-be World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, three games to one, in the NL playoffs. It was a magical season as the Giants fielded four future Hall of Famers, several budding superstars, and numerous rookies who would go on to fine careers.

Charlie Fox says it best: “I think that was the finest bunch of young fellas that you want to put together and go to a war. They proved it by going right down to the last bell. We had a chance to be in the World Series, but it wasn’t meant to be. But they never gave up. The team had fun and the spirit was fantastic.”

The 1971 Giants will always be remembered in San Francisco as The Year of the Fox.