I’m entirely thrilled for the San Francisco Giants and everyone who was rooting for them, including all those yuppies FOX was showing having congregated at the Civic Center Plaza over in San Francisco.
I was cheering on the Giants in part because my father was cheering on the Giants. He grew up rooting for the franchise when it was based in New York, when the powers that be hadn’t yet ripped their fans’ hearts out and left for the west a hundred years after the Gold Rush. It might have been a day or fifty-six years too late but the black and orange of the season still looked pretty good.
I was also cheering on the Giants because they handily beat the hated Philadelphia Phillies, something my New York Mets haven’t been able to accomplish for a pathetic number of seasons now. I had been supporting the Rangers for having taken out the Rays, whose homegrown talent I can’t dispute but whose aesthetics are reprehensible, and also the Yankees, for obvious reasons. The Giants disappointed Nolan Ryan, of whom I’m a fan, but also seemingly the whole Bush family, who saw the loss in person which is a very small but noticeable personal victory.
This Giants team had some of the spirit of the ’04 Red Sox in them, though some might say fewer of the performance enhancing drugs. Those guys were the “Idiots,” these Giants were often called “Misfits,” by themselves and by the broadcasters covering the game and quickly running out of hyperboles and new wrinkles. “Misfits” they might be, based only on timing, but that’s not giving enough credit to true teams full of misfits out there. When a Cy Young Award winner is given a 7-year, $126 million contract and he’s not one of your top four starters, I’m not sure “misfits” is the right term. There’s a lovable underdog mentality with that word, and it’s not to say the Giants weren’t lovable or underdogs this postseason. Really, they have an enormous collection of talent that arranges itself not around a tentpole like Bonds (the only time I’ll mention him) but rather as a series of complementary pieces, all very good players if not great ones.
Recent World Series Champions seem to be built this way. Many have had the one or two MVP-type players, but look at the 2005 White Sox, or the 2003 Marlins, or the Angels of the past decade. Relentlessly talented teams. Of course for each of them there is a Yankees team and a Phillies team, but the point shouldn’t be lost. Those types of powerhouses sometimes win, but when they don’t, they’re beaten by teams who are stacked in other ways.
Think of this San Francisco team (stats via Baseball-Reference.com):
-Buster Posey: Possible Rookie of the Year
-Aubrey Huff: 2008 Silver Slugger – best DH in baseball
-Freddy Sanchez: 3x All-Star, Batting Champion (.344 in 2006)
-Pablo Sandoval: Backup 3B, 7th in NL MVP voting last year
-Aaron Roward: Backup CF, All-Star in 2007
-Edgar Renteria: 5x All-Star (!)
Not to mention the pitchers:
-Tim Lincecum: 3x All-Star, 2 Cy Youngs
-Matt Cain: All-Star
-The Aforementioned Barry Zito: 3x All-Star, Cy Young
-Brian Wilson: 2x All-Star
That’s a hell of a lot of awards right there. Maybe it’s true that especially on the offensive side, these guys are a little past their prime, that a younger player beating them out to start doesn’t mean as much two or three years later. But they’re not so far gone that the Mets would want them. They’re skilled players, and beyond chemistry that caliber of player in the clubhouse does wonders, I’m sure. This is by any definition a collection of All-Stars, fairly recent ones, for whom success is familiar. The non-All-Star talent were also no slouches. The same can’t be said about most teams in baseball. But it can be said about the four teams who made it to the League Championship Series, the two in the World Series, and the winners. Approaches were different, personalities came out, some players outperformed their recent selves.
The Giants outplayed the Rangers and the better team won, but “Misfits”? No, probably not.
Congratulations anyway! You made a lot of people very happy tonight.