I’m a Giants fan and have been since the days of Mays, McCovey, and Marichal when I was seven. I was stoked when I heard early this season we had signed Travis Ishikawa to a minor league deal even though he was injured at the time and had been designated for assignment(basically fired for those not up on MLB terminology) by the Pirates. When he was last a Giant he had helped us to a World Series and batted over 300 as a pinch hitter. I did not think he would do what he did last night but I knew he was good and he was hungry and those are the kind of players I like to see added to the roster. The two teams left have both had amazing runs to get this far, who will you root for and why?
Woohoo! Not to gloat (much) but happy my team won and did it with their great defense, scrappy offense, and onemanshow starting pitching. Amazed at how poised a guy with the name Panik was after only 1/2 season in the majors. The SF broadcast crew had nothing but good things to say about KC and it’s fans. That team seemed to me to play with more heart than any others but just kept swinging away instead of trying for contact. He may be a fireplug but I hope they can resign the Panda, that guy has what it takes to win in October. No idea what Sabean will do to rebuild the pitching staff but 1 ace won’t get them back to the playoffs next year. Seeing the faces of the other teams players each time the Giants moved on makes me sad for them since unlike the Olympics there’s no silver or bronze, just the winner and everyone else. Just a note on how close the series were(after Pittsburg)
Run differential:
Vs Washington ( 0 ) the Nationals won 1 game by 3 runs and the Giants won 3 games by 1 run.
Vs St Louis ( 8 ) 2 - 1 run games and none more than 3
Vs KC (only 3 ) each team had 2 blowout victories (7-1,2-7,11-4,0-10), and each won a 3-2 victory. The difference was a 5-0 game 4 where SF had only a 2-0 margin until the 8th inning.
Other than the 1-game playoff against the Pirates the Giants were out homered in every series but I think they won because they didn’t try to hit them. They led every series in 2-out and 2-strike hits. They hit homers when the other pitcher was vulnerable but otherwise beat good pitching by not over swinging.
KC was supposed to steal SF blind but both teams only had 1 stolen base.
KC was supposed to have a better defense and while their outfield was outstanding, Pence and Blanco were just as good and the Giants infield put on a clinic.
The Royals bullpen was given the nod by the pundits but SF reliever ERA was 2.9 vs KC’s 4.2
Each series was close and could have been won by the other team but while blind stinking doo dah luck does play a part when you stop and look at what happened it usually boils down to one team playing a little bit better and being a little more consistent.
Most memorable bits?
Vs Pirates, Crawford’s slam ( you know, that shortstop with not much pop but hit a slam in his first major league game) paired with complete game shut out by Bumgarner.
Vs Nationals, Belt’s 18th inning solo shot after 14 1/3 innings of shut out pitching by Hudson and the relievers plus one more to close it.
Vs Cardinals, Ishikawa’s Penant winning walk off 3-run homer with props to Morse’s game tying pinch hit 8th inning solo shot and Pablo’s dive/tip to Crawford
Vs Royals, Perez’s deep shot after hearing the sad news of his friend, Oscar Taveras who had played against him the week before. Panik’s glove flip to Crawford to turn a double play.
Yeah, they can hit home runs, play defense, and pitch some, but it’s much easier to win when the other guy doesn’t see it coming so I hope espn just keeps under rating the Giants.
RIP Oscar.
Well this thread went well. I thought it would do much better…
But even though Im too late, Ill back Fiji. Wait what, they arent in it? Canada then. Oh, not them either? How about Columbia? No? So only one country is actually in the World Series? 
Well, you guys are no better in terminology, you got the 'test matches'. They just went on and on and it took me a full year living in England to realise that the real matches were never going to happen 
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:lol: Thats true, lets not mention the no balls.
Cricket: You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.
When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!
It couldnt be simpler really.
All this is exactly why I like the Dallas Cowboys.
No matter what, I can always rely on them to choke when I’m really looking for a win. That kind of reliability is rare these days.
What I enjoy about baseball vs other sports is that the team with the most talented players isn’t a slam dunk to win in a short series. Over the course of a season the best teams will win more than they lose but if you can get to the post season anything can happen. It’s very rare that one player or pitcher can dominate a series since no single player can be involved in every play. A hot goalie can and usually does determine who wins the Stanley cup, with only 5 players a side basketball allows a few great players to control a game. You don’t change quarterbacks every game in the playoffs. The Giants lost the season series against every opponent they faced in the playoffs yet won 4 more series in a row ( I think up to 9 straight post season series wins) and while MadBum was dominant in the post season, getting past Washington required other pitchers to get wins since he lost his only start against them. I enjoy watching many different sports but it just seems there’s more room in baseball for Cinderella stories.
And for the record I totally agree on misuse of “world” and since I don’t think it will change I can only hope that more countries create leagues and make it come true.