The Toronto Giants uniforms that, like their team, disappeared at the eleventh-hour.
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— The Athletic MLB (@TheAthleticMLB) April 27, 2020
The interlocking TG. The same orange and black. The full team name, region and nickname, scrolled across the front.
It provides concrete to a fascinating what-if. It also could supply nightmares to so much of the Bay Area.
We know Toronto ultimately failed in swiping the Giants from San Francisco, but we had not known exactly what the Toronto Giants would have looked like until Monday, when The Athletic published a re-creation of the uniforms that were set to be unveiled in 1976, until the Giants were wrested back by San Francisco.
Toronto had been trying for years to land a baseball team, renovating Exhibition Stadium to help convince MLB to grant Canada a second team. The Blue Jays wouldn’t be introduced until 1977, until after the city just missed on the Giants.
The Giants were struggling, last in attendance in baseball from 1974-76, little brothers to the A’s, and MLB approved the sale of the team to a group based in Toronto. But at the last minute, a court injunction held up the sale, and Bob Lurie stepped in to organize a group that would buy the team and keep it in the Bay.
