3-1 in Game five to clinch their first World Championship since 1954, the year of Willie Mays and 'The Catch', something baseball fans will remember as long as the game's played.
This game was a real pitcher's duel.
Giant's Ace Tim Lincecum was tossing real aspirin tablets, going for 8 innings, giving up only three hits and just one run with 10 strike outs. The Ranger's Cliff Lee allowed only three hits and no walks up until the seventh, which is when the roof fell in when Giants SS Edgar Renteria smacked a three-run dinger.
"I got confidence in me, but I was joking like I'm going to get it out," Renteria said. "But it went out. But I got confident, looking for one pitch, and if he throws I'm going to hit it back to the middle. So he tried to throw the cutter, and the cutter stay in the middle and that's why it go out."
The Rangers managed to get a run off Lincecum when Rangers rightfielder Nelson Cruz smacked a solo homer off a breaking ball that hung a little, but that was it.
Congrats to the San Francisco Giants - World Champs!
The memories ! The monochrome pic must be from the Polo grounds, yes ? My grandma loved the New York Giants & was crest-fallen & dejected by the move to Cal in the 1950s. She was a genius with numbers ( but not me ! ) & could rattle off players' & teams' stats at the hat's dropping. I was born too late to see the NY Giants in person, but she & several adults took me to see what must have been the Mets during a brief sojourn there ( already a very dangerous area ! ). She witnessed a day's destruction of the Grounds in the 1960s & said every eye at the site were to tears, including the workers' eyes. She had witnessed at Yankees' Stadium seeing the Babe ( viz, Babe Ruth ), & I think it possible that she may have seen him there as well ( perhaps an All-Star Game ? ) from another account of a visiting game away from YS.
ReplyDeleteEveryone, please vote on Tuesday ! I have already ' early-voted ', for I must leave early, & I can't be in certainty as to whether or not I can return from the conference centre through the traffic in time ( will they ever repair that turn-off ? ).
Remember : dissent is the highest form of patriotism, & it's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness, & one should speak truth to power, & only you can prevent forest bears ! You can be the difference. You can be the 1st person to scale the ramparts of the Bastille &, erm..., well, get killed. Well, anyway, I need to work on the mental analogies & imagery, obviously, but I trust you got the point.
If I voted Republican & am an American Indian, does that make me a latter-day red Indian ? ( Do they still employ the term Red Indian in the UK ? ) In the event, make this indienne proud & vote the revolting, ribald rascals out. Do it for the indienne !
--dragon/dinosaur
I often wonder why americans call it world series when only americans play it.
ReplyDeleteI had the same question Mats. I think it is generally agreed that the American teams are the best in the world, however, before you can truly call yourself world champion you should have to prove it by beating the best teams from other nations. While the US teams might be better "on paper", one should still have to prove that on the field!!
ReplyDeleteEither play the best teams from around the world and have a true "World Series" or drop the title World Series!! To call yourself world champion when you haven't accomplished such a feat on the field suggests a level of arrogance that is unacceptable I think.
Now with that said congratulations to the Giants for proving they are the best team in the United States and Canada. That's all they've done however. Until they play the best teams from other nations, they have no right to refer to themselves as world champions and major league baseball should drop the title "World Series" for their championship immediately. That is unless they wish to prove it by playing the best teams from around the world.