Being a life-long San Francisco Giants fan (I even have Willie Mays’ autograph) it’s really been something to follow their 2010 season and now the postseason.
At the beginning of the year they were picked to finish as high as third in the National League West Division… Yes, they’ve got good pitching but can’t hit their way out of a wet paper bag or something like that. Well through one close game after another the pitchers for the most part held up their end of the bargain while the everyday players scratched out enough runs to keep posting W’s through a season of flux.
Since moving to Florida from the left coast I’ve been sucked into the Rays’ Craze
and it’s been great following a young ball club mature into a winning team and yet I’ve suffered along from afar over my poor Giants. A couple of years ago the Rays signed Pat Burrell who had just come off the Philadelphia Phillies’ World Championship season (Yes, the same Phillies who beat the Rays that year). Burrell was going to be the bat to put the Rays over the top but it turned out that Pat was a National League guy. He just couldn’t get a handle on American League pitching. After a season and a half of frustration the Rays released him to be gobbled up by the bat hungry Giants. Back in his element in the National League Burrell’s bat came to life. His veteran presence on the San Francisco club and his Playoff experience has all played a key role in the Giants’ late season surge.
Then there’s the emergence of a rookie catcher from Leesburg Georgia named Buster Posey. The Giants drafted him out of Florida State where he garnered nothing but
praise as the real deal. With one of the Flying Molina Brothers (there’s three Molina’s in Major League Baseball, all catchers and all very good at what they do) holding down the Giant’s catching duties the team’s brass pulled a totally unexpected coup when they traded the 36 year old Bengie Molina to none other than the Texas Rangers in mid-season and inserted the first year pro Posey in as starting catcher, handling the great Giants’ pitchers. Posey’s calm, steady demeanor for a first year player in such a key position in baseball’s scheme of things has been another key to the Giants’ success (and it doesn’t hurt that there’s some pop in his bat either).
Finally, from the on-field perspective, the late-season emergence of right fielder
Cody Ross (Commander Cody) has given the Giants’ offense a huge kick just when they needed it. The circumstances that placed Ross in the starting lineup have just begun coming out and it wasn’t some slick move on Manager Bruce Bochy’s part as I would’ve liked to have thought. No… The team had brought in another veteran player to play right field during the regular season, one Jose Guillen, then late in the year rumors started to swirl about a connection between Guillen and performance enhancing drugs (based on his performance you could have fooled me and probably the vast majority of Giants fans). Based on those drug revelations Manager Bochy didn’t include Guillen on the team’s postseason roster, giving journeyman Ross his shot. Cody responded in story book fashion by going 7-for-20 with three home runs, three doubles and five RBI in San Francisco's six-game series win over the Phillies. Then he was named MVP of the NLCS. Ross has followed up that performance by getting key hits in both World Series wins so far. Talk about falling into it! Just what the doctor ordered!
Last but certainly not least, something’s got to be said for the San Francisco
Giants’ fans. Playing in their relatively new and very innovative AT&T Park (did you know there’s an area beyond the outfield where fans can watch the game for free?) with a seating capacity of only 44,000, it’s been said that the atmosphere is more like an East Coast baseball venue like Philadelphia or Boston. The supposedly laid back California lifestyle and consequently laid back California fan perceptions couldn’t be further from reality. These fans are nuts! I think it came as a shock to the Texas Rangers just how into it the Bay Area fans are. This ain’t the Yes Ma-am, and No Sir south… This is the raucous West Coast Baby!
And while the fans for the most part are into seeing the Giants bring their first World Series Championship to San Francisco, there’s still that laid back element as this Dallas Texas TV sports commentator found out…
The Series is far from over and knowing the attraction of sports (as Yogi Berra says: It ain’t over till it’s over) I have to temper this a little, but isn’t it something to be a Giants fan and have them up 2-0 going into tonight’s game in Arlington Texas?
Tim Lincecum was on top of his game pitching 8 innings and giving up only one run in the Championship clinching game...
Edgar Renteria smoked a three run homer in the top of the 7th for the winning margin!
In honor of long time and long deceased Giants radio announcer I'll paraphrase Russ Hodges' call from 1951 when Bobby Thompson beat 'da Bums...
THE GIANTS WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP!
THE GIANTS WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP!
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