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giants_win_the_series

where to start? a few weeks ago i highlighted the "torture" of being a giants fan. i could go on and on about what this means to giants fans. just ask one. for me, though, this is a different world. anything is possible now!

the only regret i have is not being able to call my grandma boutry. she would have LOVED this team, and she would have loved this moment.
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for the next week or so baseball nerds will try to figure out this giants team. the new school guys will talk about strikeouts, homeruns, xfip, and a bunch of stuff like that. they will drool over the pitching staff and the extra base hits. the old school guys will talk about team effort, grit, determination, and gamers. 

the "team" angle of this story is certainly legit. the list of hero's is long: ross, renteria, huff, uribe, posey, sanchez, lopez, affeldt (game 6), bumgarner, cain, wilson, even burrell hit a 3 run bomb against the braves and jonathan sanchez struck out 11 in that series as well.

that said, 2 people stand out to me. bruce bochy used to be a source of joy for me and my dad back when he (bochy) was managing some of those punching bag padre teams. the look of exasperation on boch's face when some middling reliever would leave a hanging slider for bonds to whack 500 feet was a guaranteed laugh for my dad and i to share on a random august afternoon. when the giants hired him in '07 i thought the pick was pretty uninspiring. have to tip my cap though, he had the best month of any manager i can remember in a long time. several teams have won the WS in the past few years in spite of their manager, but everything bochy did this postseason turned to gold.

however, the old cliche is that players play the game and that's why, for whatever its worth, if i had to pick one guy as the MVP/most-important-player it would be tim lincecum. no other player perfectly represents san francisco, and no other player on this team better encapsulates the whole.

lincecum is a baseball mystery...no matter how much they analyze him no one really grasps how he does it...how does such a weird little dude dominate so thoroughly? how does this giants team win a world series? mystery...

lincecum beat derek lowe (NL pitcher of the month in september), roy halladay (probably the NL Cy Young winner who was coming off only the second playoff no-hitter of all time), and cliff lee (the "unbeatable" cliff lee of recent post season dominance) twice. he won all three game ones...the giants (for all the torture talk) never trailed in any of the three series they played in the playoffs. he threw 37 innings (16 more than any other giants' pitcher) and had 43 strikeouts, a 2.43 era, 0.92 whip, and 4 wins.

renteria is a hero, cody ross will never have to pay for a meal in SF again, and buster is the future, but the Giants are not champions without tim lincecum.