Congratulations, Giants!

Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants for winning the 2012 World Series in a sweep over the Detroit Tigers.

Despite a back-and-forth, fairly exciting extra innings Game Four, and Pablo Sandoval's three round trippers in Game One, I will maintain that unless you are a fan of both the Giants and Tigers, this World Series will go down as one of the most unmemorable Series, if not of all-time, certainly in my experiences in watching Fall Classics since 1959.  However, if you are a member of the Giants, and if you are a Giants fan, you don't particularly care what me, or anyone else might think.

Congratulations and enjoy the celebrations!

By the way, did you catch the reaction shot of Jim Leyland after Miguel Cabrera struck out to end the game and the Series?  Turned around and headed straight for the clubhouse.  That ought to be a fun post-game interview for the reporters.

The World Series (and LCS) Thoughts

Well, my prediction of a Cardinals-Tigers World Series was only half right, so I will need to readjust my World Series prediction.  I am going to call for the Tigers to win, and I base that on the fact of their superior starting pitching, and by that I really mean, I base it on Justin Verlander.  He is pitching in another world right now, and I think that that gives Detroit the edge here.  Let's call it a six game series.

Both League Championship Series were interesting to say the least, and both featured one of the teams inexplicably forgetting how to hit.  Of the two teams that failed at the plate, the Yankees were the most mystifying.  The headlines and the focus was, of course, on Alex Rodriguez, but how about Cano, Texieria, Swisher, and just about every other guy on the team except Raul Ibanez, just not showing up?  Some times both teams and individual athletes can get "old" very quickly in professional sports, and for that Yankees, that aging process seemed to happen sometime between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs.  Watching what they do in the off-season, including how they handle what to do with A-Rod, will be an interesting mini-drama.  I only hope that ESPN will report on it for all of us out in the hinterlands.

As for the Cardinals, a funny thing happened between Games 4 and 5 of the NLCS: they turned into the Cardinals who were shutout back-to-back by the Pirates in late August.   And they ran into a resurrected Barry Zito (and, by the way, I think I enjoyed watching that game Zito pitched over almost any other this post-season) and that legendary ex-Bucco, Ryan Vogelsong (do the indignities of being a Pirates fan ever stop?).

Should be a fun World Series with some great pitching what with Verlander-Fister-Scherzer matching up against Cain-Zito-Vogelsong.  Somehow, though, I see the Tigers hurlers reigning (I mean, really, Ryan Vogelsong!?!?) and the Tigers claiming the title.

Enjoy!

Cardinals 3 - Rangers 2...Game One Reactions

Well, that was a dandy of a game last night to open the World Series. None of those high scoring extravaganzas that closed out both LCS's, but some great pitching by both teams and very timely hitting on the part of the victorious Cardinals.

I was watching the game on TV, of course, but in the company of many friends out there in the Facebook and Twitter worlds. I don't want to go all geeky on you, but it's kind of a neat experience, I have to say. Much of the talk centered on the Fox broadcasters and how much everyone seems to hate them. Tim McCarver seems to be a bigger lightning rod for anger and hatred that Barack Obama and John Boehner combined. I remain in the distinct minority of those in the audience who actually like McCarver on the broadcasts. Am I the only one??

I will also take the two man tandem of Joe Buck and McCarver over the three-in-a-booth circus that TBS inflicted on us in the playoffs and that ESPN went with all season long. I also recall watching the the rebroadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series last year and having solo announcers, Bob Prince and Mel Allen, split the announcing duties. One guy doing the telecast in the booth. Can you imagine such a concept. I am betting that if some network tried it today, it would be a huge hit. Of course, they would first have to find someone as good as Mel Allen, which might prove more difficult that the Pirates finding a decent catcher for 2012.

Of course, the big talk was about the Adrian Beltre did-the-ball-hit-his-foot-or-not call in the ninth inning. I did not listen to Mike & Mike today, but I am guessing that Mike Greenberg was probably weeping over the need to install instant replay in baseball RIGHT NOW. I say NO to this idea, and here's why. IF you had replay challenges, and IF you applied the same football logic to the baseball system, the replays last night did not provide "indisputable video proof" to allow the call on the field to be overturned. Not to my eye anyway. I am not sure if the umpire consulted with his colleagues - I think he did - to confer and get the call right, as they say, but that should be as far as it goes. Now, did the ball hit Beltre in the foot? It probably did, because it doesn't seem likely that Beltre could have come up with a fake act as quickly as he did, but, hey, to apply a golf metaphor here, that's just the rub of the green. Plays like this happen all the time in baseball. If this happens in a Royals-Mariners game in September, or, say, in the 19th inning of a Pirates-Braves game in July, no one notices. Well, they did notice that Pirates-Braves snafu, but you get my point. Too bad for the Rangers that this happened in Game One of the World Series, but that, as they say, is baseball, and they have as many as six games left to even things out.

And, hey, wouldn't it have been great if Jerry Meals was the home plate ump last night?

TEASER: The Grandstander and Mrs. Grandstander have a special viewing experience lined up for viewing Game Three of the Series. No, we will not be in Arlington sitting with Nolan Ryan and George Bush, but it might be something even better. I will provide a full report for you later in the weekend.