NEW YORK — Jim Davenport, an infielder who played third base for most of his career with the San Francisco Giants and battled the New York Yankees in the World Series in 1962, the first time the Giants had played in one since they left New York, died Thursday in Redwood City, Calif. He was 82.

The cause was heart failure, the Giants announced.

Mr. Davenport was a Giant for most of five decades — as a player, a coach, and a manager — beginning in 1958, the team’s first season in California.

A right-handed hitter who was often in the leadoff spot, he took the Giants’ first at-bat on the West Coast, according to The San Jose Mercury News, and played alongside stars like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Orlando Cepeda.

Mr. Davenport had 10 game-winning hits in 1969 and retired after the 1970 season with a career batting average of .258.

In 1962, Mr. Davenport won a Gold Glove. The Giants lost the World Series that year even though they had a higher cumulative batting average and a lower earned run average than the Yankees in the Series, and hit more home runs, triples, and doubles. The decisive seventh game ended when McCovey’s line drive was caught by Bobby Richardson.

“I was smart enough to do the little things — hit and run, bunt, and catch the ball — to make myself a decent player,’’ Mr. Davenport told SFGiants.com.

After his playing days, he continued to work for the team on and off. In 1985, he had a brief stint as the team’s manager after Danny Ozark spent a year in the role. Mr. Davenport was replaced by Roger Craig after compiling a 56-88 record.

He also coached briefly for the San Diego Padres, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Detroit Tigers before returning to the Giants in the early 1990s.

He leaves his wife, Betty; four sons, Randy, Ken, Don and Gary; and a daughter, Cathy.