The team was coached by Jeff Tesreau, a former Giants player himself, who instilled values of working toward establishing a solid basis for consistent victory as a program.

Upon separation from the Navy, he joined the New York Giants front office at the age of 24 as vice president in 1946 while he attended Fordham Law School.

Asked by Stoneham to evaluate his new team, Durocher, no sentimentalist, reportedly replied: "Back up the truck", meaning wholesale changes were needed.

[5] Within 1+1⁄2 years — and with the decision to follow Brooklyn in breaking the color line — Durocher, Stoneham and Feeney's front office had built the Giants into a hard-playing, balanced team of pitching, hitting, speed and defense.

Brooklyn dominated the NL for the next two seasons, but, in 1954, Durocher's Giants — led by the league's two leading hitters, batting champion Willie Mays and runner-up Don Mueller — won the pennant by five games.

Attendance plunged in the years that immediately followed, and after Durocher's resignation in 1955 to become a "Game of the Week" baseball broadcaster, the team played poorly.

By 1957, owner Stoneham had decided to leave for greener pastures, ultimately choosing San Francisco as the team's destination to preserve its historic rivalry with the Dodgers, who simultaneously moved to Los Angeles.

The Dodgers built an early lead in the National League race, but began to fall to earth when ace left-hander Sandy Koufax was sidelined by a finger ailment.

After his candidacy for Commissioner of Baseball fell short, Feeney succeeded Warren Giles as National League president on December 5, 1969.

The NL also dominated the Junior Circuit in home attendance, outdrawing its rival league in each of Feeney's 17 years as chief executive, including the period of 1977–86, when the AL had two more member teams.

[6][7] Feeney rallied NL owners to resist adoption of the designated hitter and presided over a period of stability, as the league neither expanded nor moved a franchise during his term.