How are we, as baseball fans, supposed to react to what we witnessed in the 2014 World Series? A dynasty like no other was born, stemming from some of the most unlikely circumstances. We witnessed history, and I’m not sure it will ever be repeated again.
History would tell us that a team playing game 7 of the World Series on the road isn’t supposed to win. History tells us that when your starting pitcher exits in the second inning, that team is supposed to be demolished. History tells us that when three of your team’s five highest paid players are either injured or in significantly reduced roles, that team isn’t supposed to stand a chance. But the Giants don’t seem to like history much; at least not the kind that doesn’t adhere by their rules.
Since 2010, the Giants have defied pretty much every law of baseball. When it seemed as though they didn’t stand a chance against the more talented Braves, Phillies and Rangers in 2010, or down 3 games to 1 against the Cardinals in 2012, or being forced to play a playoff game on the road against the Pirates in 2014, the team found a way.
It’s safe to call the San Francisco Giants of the past five seasons a dynasty. In the age of Free Agency, seeing a team win three World Series in five years is unprecedented. While some may argue that the team’s lack of a repeat mutes the point of this franchise being a dynasty, the kind of success the Giants have had really doesn’t allow for much argument.
But perhaps the most impressive part of this dynasty are not the obvious points. It’s not the fact that Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain pitched the best baseball of their careers in 2010. It’s not that Pablo Sandoval by some miracle of God hit three home runs in game 1 of the World Series, including two off of a stunned Justin Verlander. And it’s not even the legendary performance of Madison Bumgarner in 2014. What is most impressive about this dynasty is the turnover of role players and the way guys who were castoff by other, more conventional teams, came together to form baseball’s first dynasty since the ’96-’00 Yankees.
While I’m not arguing that baseball will never again see another dynasty, I’m saying baseball probably will never see another dynasty quite like this. Where teams like the Dodgers and Yankees can run up their payrolls like the government racks up debt, teams with money to blow could conceivably build a dynasty. But a dynasty like the Giants? Unlikely.
When examining the common denominators of the three championship runs, one can look down the rosters and see names like ‘Pablo Sandoval’, ‘Buster Posey’, ‘Madison Bumgarner’ and even ‘Jeremy Affeldt’ consistently. Those guys obviously contributed in enormous ways to the team’s success and the championships almost certainly would not have been won without them. But the name that up until recently was totally overlooked, was Bruce Bochy. He is perhaps the most important piece in all of this.
This season in particular, the Giants dealt with an abnormal number of oddities and unfortunate events. Forget about significant injuries at different junctures of the season to Angel Pagan, Brandon Belt, Michael Morse, Matt Cain, and Ryan Vogelsong; injuries were the least of Bochy’s concerns this season.
Let’s remember how Bochy had to demote his closer midseason (Romo) and somehow keep him happy and willing to pitch in the 8th inning or any other situation Bochy felt necessary. Let’s remember how Bochy had to demote the team’s second highest paid player and fan favorite (Lincecum) out of the starting rotation and into the dreaded long-reliever role, all while keeping him content. Let’s remember how the team got absolutely NO production out of second base for four and a half months of the season but Bochy still managed to get the most from his lineup. And let’s remember how Bochy somehow managed to pull all the right strings using names like Ishikawa, Panik, and Petit to get big hits and outs at just the right times.
Some might say the Giants are undeserving or got lucky. Some might say that the Giants cannot possibly be viewed as a dynasty because they never finished higher than 4th in baseball during the regular season in any of their championship runs. But all of that will be forgotten. All of those things are splitting hairs in the grand scheme of things. And even if you still want complain about the Giants place in history, they can’t hear you; they’ve got RINGing sounds in their ears. Three to be exact.
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