This year’s Fall Classic promises one thing – there will be a new champion. The Giants have never won since moving to San Francisco and Texas has never been to the World Series.
The Giants have waited eight years to get back into the World Series (losing in seven to the Angels in 2002), and it has been over a half-century since they won it all (1954 as the New York Giants).
The Lone(some) Star state Ranger fans have waited 49 years to even get in one, dating back to their 1961 creation when they were known as the Washington Senators.
It has been a hard-fought path to get to the finals as pretty much both teams were viewed as underdogs in the first two rounds of the postseason. With their combination of power, speed and fine pitching, Texas will likely be the favorites. Overcoming financial (bankruptcy) and drug (manager Ron Washington and AL Championship Series MVP Josh Hamilton) issues, GM Jon Daniels and President Nolan Ryan have overseen a team that is focused despite all the issues off the field.
Both teams have been led by pitching, but no one, not Roy Halladay nor Tim Lincecum have been as effective in the post-season as the Ranger’s free agent-to-be Cliff Lee. The 2008 AL Cy Young Award winner is 7-0 with a 1.26 ERA in eight playoff starts over the past two Octobers. He’s gone 3-0 with a 0.75 ERA and a 34-to-1 strikeout-to-walk rate in his last three starts and Colby Lewis was brilliant tossing against the Yankees. With power hitters Josh Hamilton and Vladimir Guerrero taking advantage of the speed and base path savvy of Nelson Cruz and Elvis Andrus, the Rangers look to match up well against the Giants.
But if the underdog trend continues, it will be San Francisco winning it all. This scrappy unit with a minuscule offense (not one player hit over 30 homers or drove in more than 90 runs) of journeymen have managed to get this far primarily on terrific pitching all down the line from the starters like Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain to relievers like Javier Lopez and Brian Wilson.
The Giants can’t match the speed and power of the Rangers and Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell are no Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds, but this team gets contributions from unheralded players like Juan Uribe and Cody Ross to provide just enough offense to get enough wins to make it to the World Series.
Though they do not have a deep history with each other, (Rangers played the Giants in MLB’s first interleague game on June 12, 1997) the Giants have won seven consecutive meetings overall. San Francisco will have the home-field advantage, and the Rangers are 0-9 all-time at AT&T Park.
Who will be the new champions of major league baseball? If they can reduce the number of double plays they hit into, continue to get brilliant pitching from the whole staff and manage to eek out any more offense, it will be:
San Francisco
Best-of-seven series
Wednesday October 27 Texas at San Francisco 4:30pm
Thursday October 28 Texas at San Francisco 4:30pm
Saturday October 30 San Francisco at Texas 3:30pm
Sunday October 31 San Francisco at Texas 3:30pm
*Monday November 1 San Francisco at Texas 3:30pm
*Wednesday November 3 Texas at San Francisco 4:30pm
*Thursday November 4 Texas at San Francisco 4:30pm
* If necessary. All games pacific time.
