Image via WikipediaThe San Francisco Giants have endured a lot since the franchise moved from New York in 1958. They've had great players such as Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal and Will Clark pass through there. They've played in a drafty ballpark called Candlestick, nearly moved out of town to either Toronto or Tampa Bay, and watched Barry Bonds set home run records under a cloud of suspicion.The Giants have been to the World Series three times since winning their last title at the Polo Grounds in 1954, losing all three times. Meanwhile, their hated rivals to the south, the Los Angeles Dodgers, have won five world championships in nine appearances since moving to California with the Giants.
But now the city of cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge have a World Series title to call their own, with the Giants defeating the Texas Rangers in five games behind the pitching of Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner and closer Brian Wilson. The hitting star was Edgar Renteria, who was named the Series' MVP.
Major League Baseball must have been thrilled that the Giants are the ninth different team in the last decade to win a championship. Not so much for Fox. With no Yankees to promote, this World Series stands to become one of the least-watched in history. Even the NFL prime time games drew more viewers than baseball.
With the Series going into November, MLB lucked out weatherwise with games being played in the milder climes of Arlington, Texas and San Francisco. No parkas were necessary, unless you needed it as a Halloween costume.
One sour note: Is it really necessary for MLB to jam "God Bless America" down our throats during the seventh-inning stretch? With the country so divided politically, MLB seems to have sided with Republicans and Tea Partiers in pretending it's still September 11, 2001 somewhere. We've moved on, and so should they.
Now that San Francisco has a baseball title, who's next? Seattle? Washington? Cleveland? Maybe even the Chicago Cubs? One can only dream.
No comments:
Post a Comment