Brian Wilson ends World Series with 'most special' signal to dad
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Brian-Wilson-ends-World-Series-with-most-specia?urn=mlb-281783
Over the past few seasons, Brian Wilson has ended dozens of games the same way that he did on Monday night at Game 5 of the World Series.
It's a routine well-known to baseball fans. After recording the final out of a ballgame, the San Francisco Giants closer turns away from the plate, crosses his foreams in front of his chest and quickly looks toward the sky. It's a MMA signal that he says he adopted and adapted to honor both his late father — who passed away from cancer when Brian was only 17 — and his Christian faith.
After the celebration had calmed down somewhat, I asked the closer with the dyed beard he won't admit to if this signal meant more than the others he's made in the past.
His answer was not surprising.
"This one was the most special, sure" he said. "It showed that hard work really does pay off. That's what my dad always taught me."
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS - 2010 WORLD CHAMPIONS
Remember, you heard it here first.
http://slavieboy.blogspot.com/2010/04/pre-season-mlb-predictions-2010.html
NL Championship:
Giants stomp the daylights out of the Phillies, setting up, YES, my ultimate World Series for 2010. The Giants and the Rays.
In that match-up - the Giants sweep the Rays, four straight.
I didn't get the dream match up I wanted in the pre-season, I guess I will just have to settle for The Dream coming true.
The St. Pete Times columnist John Romano summed it up well, and I'm sure others will too. It was about the wait. The long excruciating wait. And getting off the futility list. As we watched the Red Sox, the White Sox and now, at last, the Giants.
San Francisco's crown has finally arrived
By John Romano, Times Sports Columnist
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/baseball/ml/san-francisco-giants-are-unlikely-world-series-champions/1131716
The past decade has been about reparations in Major League Baseball. It has been payback for millions of fans who endured losses, heartbreaks, curses, mismanagement and far too much bad luck for anyone to recall.
Red Sox fans? Their 86-year wait ended in 2004.
White Sox fans? Salvation came after 88 years in 2005.
And now Giants fans?
In their 53rd season in San Francisco, the Giants have finally won a World Series.
Giants President Larry Baer summed up the feeling of the franchise from the top down.
"It's for everybody who's ever worn a Giants uniform, for every fan that's ever frozen at Candlestick Park, for every person that's ever voted for a new ballpark, for every person who's listened to our games on the radio over the years. That's what this is for. The 2010 Giants delivered on behalf of those people.
"It's on behalf of 53 years of waiting."
This is true as well. Nobody believed in this team even up until the very end.
They are one of the most unlikely World Series champions in history. A team that seemed forever to be chasing someone else. They were behind the Padres in May, behind the Padres and Dodgers in June and behind the Padres, Dodgers and Rockies in July.
The knuckleheads on the local ESPN station were giddy announcing the Rangers plans to pitch Cliff Lee last night and bring him back on short rest to pitch Game 7, because as they put it, "There's no way the Giants can beat Cliff Lee two times". WRONG!!! On so many levels.
- The Giants had already defeated CLiff Lee once. Now twice, counting last night.
- They ignored the crucial question: How were the Rangers going to beat Tim Lincecum? JUST ONCE MAYBE.
- They ignored the question of how the Rangers were going to beat Matt Cain, in a potential Game Six.
And now they are left to cancel their flight plans for San Francisco, virtually guaranteed by new Rangers hot shot CEO Chuck Greenberg.
"This series: It is going back to San Francisco," Greenberg told the Ben & Skin Show on ESPN 103.3 FM in Dallas. "There's gonna be a Game 6. There's going to be a Game 7. Let's all hang in there and keep believing.
Maybe he can get a free bag of nuts from the charter service for his troubles. No Game 6. No Game 7.
In the end, this may have been the difference between these two teams. The Giants franchise by virtue of their past, know full well the experience best described philosophically by FSU football coach Bobby Bowden, "Not Enough Wide Rights": "They haven't had enough 'wide rights' yet. You have to get kicked around enough in the big ones to learn how to win them."
The Giants franchise finally learned how to win the big one, instead of the kick sailing wide right. They've sure been kicked around enough in the past.
In the end, Romano sums it up pretty well. I don't want to compare and contrast heartache with anyone and I'm glad that, in this area, I no longer have to. But I feel the Cubs fans pain. And the Indians, and now the Rangers, who move up the list. And the Astros, who enter the back end of the list.
Their heartache was not as celebrated as Boston's, and their wait was not as long as Chicago's.
But that does not mean the path was any less painful for those who lived it.
For those who saw Game 7 of the 1962 World Series end when McCovey lined out to Bobby Richardson with two on and two out in the ninth inning of a 1-0 loss to the Yankees.
For those who lived through the earthquake and World Series sweep by Oakland in 1989, and those who saw the Giants come within five outs of winning the 2002 World Series in Game 6 before manager Dusty Baker prematurely pulled Russ Ortiz.
Peter Magowan, who was the leader of the ownership group that purchased the Giants in 1992 and kept Vince Naimoli from buying the franchise and moving it to Tropicana Field, walked through the clubhouse Monday night hugging player after player.
"For a lot of people in San Francisco, this is the happiest day of their lives," said Magowan, who is now Giants president emeritus.
Maybe the happiest day in their sports lives. But yes.
So who would have thought that this team -- of all Giants teams -- would be the one to win it? It's why we watch, and why we play the games, because you just never know.
After all of the close calls and all the losing seasons, the deed was finally done by a group of players who refer to themselves as the Dirty Dozen. They have an ace with long hair, and a closer with a dyed beard. They have a third baseman who looks like Kung Fu Panda, and a first baseman with lucky undergarments from Victoria's Secret.
They are misfits, runts and castoffs. Their highest-paid player did not even make the Series roster, and their cleanup hitter was acquired on waivers a couple of months ago.
"Those Giants teams with Willie Mays and McCovey had four Hall of Famers on those teams," outfielder Aaron Rowand said. "But it takes a lot of luck too."
So, in the end, devotion pays.
Sooner or later, faith is rewarded.
Eventually, hope is not in vain.
What a wonderful take away message. How wonderful a day it must be for Edgar Renteria who endured the criticisms from many corners, including this one, about the worthiness of the contract? Well, I won't question it any more. It was well worth it and I'm so happy for him. Redemption is a wonderful thing.
And for Brian Sabean, who endured the criticism from many corners, including this one, about some of the moves he made to get the team here. Unfortunately for Brian, I can't guarantee that they will not continue. It kind of goes with the territory. But for now, actually forever really, he only needs to point to whatever finger this World Series ring ends up on and he will forever hold the ultimate mute key. Dang it, Life is so not fair.
BTW, How cool a day is it for Giants equipment manager Mike Murphy? World Champions and he'll just be chatting about it with Willie Mays. How cool is that?
Mike Murphy was a batboy in old Seals Stadium when the Giants played their first game in San Francisco in 1958. That happened to be the day he met a future Hall of Famer named Willie Mays. Murphy would go on to work for the Giants for the next 52 years, and continues to run the clubhouse as the equipment manager.
"There's a whole potful of people who have never been through this," Murphy said. "I wish they all could see it. It's a great feeling. You feel like you're sitting on top of the world.
"As a matter of fact, I'm going to call Willie right now."
It is a great feeling.
You do feel like you are sitting on top of the world.
You do feel like anything is possible today because of what happened yesterday. It's silly really, but true.
As Giants fans, we knew coming down the stretch that this season was going to end in tears.
We just didn't know which type.
We know too well, from many prior years of disappointment, the bitter, stinging tears of defeat.
We know not well, the sweet, liberating tears of joy.
Well now we know....
HOW SWEET IT IS.
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS - 2010 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
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