February 15th, 2012
Happy Birthday – Nate Schierholtz
Nate Schierholtz watches from the dugout of the Giants game on April 24, 2011
- Was team captain and 3-time MVP at San Ramon Valley High in Danville.
- Graduated in 2002 with a 3.9 grade point average, but chose to attend Chabot College in Hayward instead of the University of Utah, which had offered him a full scholarship. The reason he did this is because a player attending a 4 year college is eligible for the draft only after his junior year, a junior college player can be drafted at any time. After setting the freshman record at Chabot for home runs with 18, he was selected by the Giants in the 2nd round in 2003.
- Schierholtz’s brother, Vai, is a cadet at the Air Force Academy and played baseball there for two years.
- His father, also named Vai (pronounced Vy), was an accomplished skateboarder in Southern California and still skateboards most weekends at a park in Dublin.
- If he could start any business, it would be some kind of auto business working with high-performance cars.
- Schierholtz’s mother’s house in the Bay Area burned to the ground during spring training in 2009. The family escaped unharmed but lost nearly all of their belongings. Among the losses: Schierholtz’s Bejiing Olympics jersey, the baseballs from his first Major League hit and first Major-League home run, and the lineup card from his first Major League game.
Francisco Casa Grande
An aerial view of the Francisco Casa Grande complex
With just 3 days to go until pitchers and catchers report we thought it would be fun to look back at our Spring Training facility before we came to Scottsdale. For over 20 years the Giants practiced at the facility Horace Stoneham (the Giants owner at the time) created near Casa Grande, Arizona. In case anyone is wondering, this was not a normal facility, this was a BASEBALL facility. The pool was shaped like a bat, while the hot tub looked like the ball. The top of the hotel was shaped like the brim of a cap, while the stairway looked like it would at a major league ballpark. In the center of it all stood the Crow’s Nest, an observation tower where baseball minds could watch all 4 practice fields, and if that wasn’t enough there was also a 3,000 seat ballpark for games. Even with all these unique features, our favorite thing about the complex is that anyone can still visit, and even stay at, a wonderful part of our history.
The swimming pool and main hotel
A current view of the pool and hot tub
The Crow's Nest
A current image of the Crow's Nest and hotel
Hall of Famer, Carl Hubbell looks over the practice fields
