After this afternoon's dominant pitching performance by Matt Cain, I'm pretty stoked at the Giants' chances of making the World Series. (I should also point out the incredibly opportunistic hitting with two outs against both Halladay and Oswalt. The offense may not be pretty, but they don't leave a bunch of men on base like they did in that tragic 2003 NLDS against the Marlins.)
Although it would be great to play and beat the Yankees, I'm actually pulling for a Giants-Rangers World Series and it has nothing to do with the schadenfreude of watching the Yanks lose or because the Rangers haven't ever won a World Series. No! It's because the Rangers and the Giants were both hubs of steroid activity in the 1990s. Perhaps, "hives" is more appropriate. Or "dens." The Rangers seemed to really be the major purveyors of steroids in the early and mid-1990s with Jose Canseco personally injecting as many teammates as he could and then the Giants are the primary recipients of the really good stuff from BALCO in the late 1990s and early 2000s. So, of course, both teams were built around hugely muscled sluggers and no pitching, perfect embodiments of the steroid era. And, yea, verily, both teams were punished by the baseball gods with lack of success. As penance, they both moved away from the muscled slugger approach to emphasize pitching. OK, I know that the Rangers made an effort to work on pitching. I think the Giants have some great pitching talent evaluators and wretched position player evaluators, so they do great in drafting pitchers but have no good position players in the farm system. And Brian Sabean hasn't realized that those aging vets no longer have the Fountain of Youth in BALCO to tap into any more, so many of the position players are decomposing in the field or the dugout.
Anyway, the baseball gods seem to be smiling on the Giants and Rangers. After besmirching the name of baseball and providing fodder for yet another volume of Ken Burns's interminable Baseball saga, these two teams are finally out or purgatory. I think the more power-deficient the Giants are, the more they prove how devout their penance is and thus more worthy to be chosen to win the World Series.
Or the Yanks and the Phillies move on because the baseball gods, like the basketball gods, want a rubber match between the last two champs. I think my storyline is more compelling.
Although it would be great to play and beat the Yankees, I'm actually pulling for a Giants-Rangers World Series and it has nothing to do with the schadenfreude of watching the Yanks lose or because the Rangers haven't ever won a World Series. No! It's because the Rangers and the Giants were both hubs of steroid activity in the 1990s. Perhaps, "hives" is more appropriate. Or "dens." The Rangers seemed to really be the major purveyors of steroids in the early and mid-1990s with Jose Canseco personally injecting as many teammates as he could and then the Giants are the primary recipients of the really good stuff from BALCO in the late 1990s and early 2000s. So, of course, both teams were built around hugely muscled sluggers and no pitching, perfect embodiments of the steroid era. And, yea, verily, both teams were punished by the baseball gods with lack of success. As penance, they both moved away from the muscled slugger approach to emphasize pitching. OK, I know that the Rangers made an effort to work on pitching. I think the Giants have some great pitching talent evaluators and wretched position player evaluators, so they do great in drafting pitchers but have no good position players in the farm system. And Brian Sabean hasn't realized that those aging vets no longer have the Fountain of Youth in BALCO to tap into any more, so many of the position players are decomposing in the field or the dugout.
Anyway, the baseball gods seem to be smiling on the Giants and Rangers. After besmirching the name of baseball and providing fodder for yet another volume of Ken Burns's interminable Baseball saga, these two teams are finally out or purgatory. I think the more power-deficient the Giants are, the more they prove how devout their penance is and thus more worthy to be chosen to win the World Series.
Or the Yanks and the Phillies move on because the baseball gods, like the basketball gods, want a rubber match between the last two champs. I think my storyline is more compelling.
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