Willie Mays

It's time to make the cuts. Spring training is over, the contracts have been signed. Now it's time to play some ball.

But who should actually play? There have been a lot of great players in San Francisco Giants history.

Bonds, Mays, McCovey, Cepeda.

The list goes on endlessly. But let's cut it down to the best 25. How would you put a roster together?

How many pitchers do you carry? How many lefties?

I need a backup catcher, don't I?

No matter how you build a team, you need to have a solid base and a pitching staff that will carry you the distance.

The New York Giants were established in 1883. In 1958 the club moved out west, becoming who they are today - the San Francisco Giants.

Along the way, there have been many fun players, many great players. Some players we hated, and loved to boo and heckle. Many players stuck around for a season or two at best, while others played their entire career for the Giants.

Who is your favorite Giants player?

Giants' fans everywhere have their own opinion about how they would rank their favorite players.

The ultimate hero of the 1951 NL pennant race has passed away.  Bobby Thomson, the Flying Scotsman, died peacefully Monday night at his home in Savannah, Georgia.  Thomson played 15 seasons for 5 teams but is best remembered for his "Shot Heard Round the World" in the 3rd and deciding game of the 1951 NL playoffs. Thomson's three-run blast in the bottom of the ninth inning capped what is thought by many to be the greatest pennant race in the history of baseball.

The San Francisco Giants might win the 2010 National League pennant.

In the 2010 MLB All-Star Game, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier will be starting in his first ever All-Star Game. For Ethier, just being selected is, no doubt, a thrill, and being chosen as a starter probably doubles his excitement.

Perhaps Andre Ethier will one day be on this list of the players who have the most All-Star Game starts, by position, in National League history.

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I don’t know how this is going to turn out, but it is going to be interesting to find out.

When Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were active, the majority of fans rated Mays ahead of Mantle, often with the disclaimer that if Mickey had Mays’ health, it might have been different.

Now that we have “experts” such as Bill James and his ilk, a bevy of measurements exist that have led to the conclusion that Mickey was better than we thought.  The primary reason is that his peak years were better than Willie’s.

A five game skid will do wonders for local bars and corner stores. Just today, before the Giants got healthy on the Nationals 4-2, I wandered into the convenience store and they were clear out of alcohol, not a single drop… not even an O’Douls or Vanilla or Nyquil!

The bandaged and bruised grocer explained, “Giants fans have raided. It’s crazy, I haven’t seen this much chaos since prohibition!” Yes, he’s old enough to remember the 1920s.

Getting off to a good start is important in almost every facet of life.

In baseball, starting off the season on the right foot can set a team up for a nice run deep into the season.

The ability to collect a surplus of wins in April does wonders for losing streaks that a team may experience further down the long road that is the Major League Baseball season.

Like any team in the MLB, the San Francisco Giants have had their own ups and downs during the first month of baseball.

To pick four players from the history of baseball is what impossible looks like.

To even start, you would have to define the list. In baseball, the difference between position players and pitchers is enormous.

When Curt Schilling started Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS and beat the Yankees, was their a better baseball player than him on that day?

Probably not but that does not mean I am going to carve his face into a mountain.

Babe Ruth might be the greatest baseball player ever but he played in a different era.

Before Hideki Matsui signed a one year, $6.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels, he had never known a major league team other than the New York Yankees.

The reasons that Matsui left New York; injury concerns, payroll, age, meant nothing to the bleacher creatures who worshipped him at the height of his outfield playing days in the Bronx.