SF Giants: Pitching Wins Championships

A curve ball’s what my pitch is.  So here we here we come like dum ditty dum, I keep all five boroughs in stitches.  -Beastie Boys

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  The Giants win the World Series!  The Giants win the World Series!  Casey Stengel said, “Good pitching will always stop good hitting.”  Warren Spahn said, “Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing.”  Satchel Paige said, “My pitching philosophy is simple – keep the ball way from the bat.”  In this here World Series, the San Francisco Giants’ good pitching stopped the Rangers’ good hitting.  In this here World Series, the San Francisco Giants upset the Rangers’ timing.  In this here World Series, the San Francisco Giants kept the ball way from the Rangers’ bats.         

Yes sports fans, the San Francisco Giants’ pitching staff did all of those things.  Like LL Cool J always says, “Doin’ it and doin’ it and doin’ it well.”  The 2010 Giants became just the second team in the last 30 years to win three World Series games in which they held their opponent to one run or less. The other was the 1985 Royals, led by Brett Saberhagen, who rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Cardinals in seven games while limiting St. Louis to no more than one run in all four victories.

For the Giants, this was no easy task.  The Texas Rangers led the major leagues with a .276 team batting average during the regular season.  In the World Sreies?  Not so much.  San Francisco’s pitching staff held the mighty Texas bats to a meager .190.  Yowza! That might not seem such a big deal to you but you should know: Among the 31 teams to play in the World Series after leading the majors in batting average that season, the only others that batted under .200 in the Fall Classic were the 1948 Indians (.199) and the 1995 Indians (.179).  That’s right.  Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the World Series, only two others walked into this one.

Vince Lombardi once asked, “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”  In baseball, according to sportswriter Arthur Daley, it’s because “baseball fans have the digestive apparatus of a billy goat.  They can, and do, devour any set of statistics with insatiable appetite and then nuzzle hungrily for more.” 

For those of you keeping score at home, it’s statistics like this:  The Rangers had an 18-inning scoreless streak spanning Game Three to Game Five, after their longest such drought during the regular season was 15 innings.  From 1969 through 1972 three teams had longer scoring droughts in the World Series than they had during that entire regular season: the 1969 Orioles, 1971 Orioles and 1972 Athletics. But since 1973 the only other team to do that was the 2001 Yankees.  That’s what good pitching does.  Casey Stengel was right.  Good pitching does stop good hitting.

Nobody pitched as good as one Big Time Timmy Jim Lincecum.  It has been said that said you’re only as good as next your next starting pitcher.  But what if the other guy’s next starting is CLiff lee?  Then your’s has to be better.  Anything you can do, I can do better.   I can do anything better than you.  Big Time Timmy Jim was better.  Anything you can be, I can be greater.  Sooner or later, I’m greater than you.  For Big Time Timmy Jim it was soon and later.   The Giants won both of the Tim Lincecum vs. Cliff Lee matchups in the 2010 World Series. 

They took Game One in San Francisco and Game Five in Arlington. They took them because was Lincecum was better than Lee.  They took them and it was Lincecum who was carried on the shoulders of his teammates.  They took them and it was Lincecum who won the title outdoors at the ballpark and what does Lee get?  A one-way ticket to Palooka-ville!  Or Yankees stadium.  Same thing.  Either way, pitching wins championships.

Public Spectacle:

Peace out homies. Six two and Even!

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