It's seems fitting that on a day when Randy Moss, arguably the most selfish and petulant athlete in recent memory, gets jettisoned from his second team in less than a month, that one of the great teams (in the truest sense of the word) in recent memory wins the World Series. The San Francisco Giants captured baseball's ultimate prize with a patchwork lineup, brilliant starting pitching and a lock down bullpen. It reads a lot more simple than it was
Give credit to Giants manager Bruch Bochy who somehow got a lineup full of overpaid, underperforming veterans to buy into a team concept. Guys like Aaron Rowand and Pablo Sandoval who have seen better days playing-wise could have been poison to a clubhouse. Instead, they embraced their roles as bench players, doing whatever they could to help their team win.
Even Aubrey Huff, a player known around the league as being a "bad clubhouse guy", seemingly came up with big hit after big hit, only to lay down a bunt in a key situation in Game 5 of the Series to move runners to second and third.
The Giants starting pitching completely stifled the best lineup in baseball. The trio of Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner submitted three classic World Series performances.
In other words, the Giants are an easy team to like. Catcher Buster Posey seems like he was put on this earth to be a big league catcher. Closer Brian Wilson, he of the absurd black beard that is the West Coast's answer to Jimmy McMillan from the Rent is Too Damn High Party, has entered the upper echelon of baseball firemen. And then there's Lincecum - the pot smoking hipster, who was passed over by nine teams because of fears his small frame would break down before the Giants selected him in the 2006 MLB Draft (The Mariners determined a drafting a diabetic pitcher would be a better choice).
In an era where many teams spend way too much time obsessing over OBP, pitch counts and UZR, the Giants went out and showed the country what real baseball looks like.
The Giants struck out a ton. They didn't get on base much either. But they hit bombs and were anchored by outstanding pitching. The object of the game is to score more runs than the other team. Not get more walks. The Giants understood this as well as any team.
Six teams made the 2010 postseason. The Giants easily had the weakest lineup of the six. Yet what set them apart was that every member on that team knew exactly what was expected of the them and they understood their roles.
And now they're World champs.
As for the Texas Rangers, I for one am relieved that they crashed and burned in the World Series.
The way I saw it, unless Justin Smoak became Albert Pujols 2.0 and lead the Mariners to a World Series title, the Cliff Lee to Texas deal would forever go down as one of the most lopsided in history.
It would go something like this - the Rangers got Lee and a World Series. The Mariners got Justin Smoak and a rapist. Terrible trade.
It's bad enough the Rangers even got to the Series. They can thank the Mariners for that. But as a great friend once told me, almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
Come next April, Lee will be in pinstripes, and the Rangers lone World Series appearance will be a distant memory.
