Fifty-six years after their last World Series triumph, the San Francisco Giants have been crowned champions of baseball for the first time since their move from New York in 1957.
Due to their mammoth wait for a World Series title – the third longest stretch without a win behind the Chicago Cubs (102 years) and Cleveland Indians (62 years) – the Giants had developed an underdog tag despite being the most successful franchise in the MLB history in terms of total games won.
The Giants have worked that title to the full this season, playing down their chances of success even after they had disposed of National League favourites Philadelphia in the Championship Series.
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Baseball fans and the media have not for nothing been taken along with this story – after all, the 2010 Giants are a team that, on paper, shouldn’t be in the play-offs let alone the World Series.
Their hitting is held together by a rookie catcher, Buster Posey, and a collection of unwanted odds and ends from around the Major League.
Post-season hero Cody Ross was dumped by the Florida Marlins and picked up for free by the Giants in August. World Series MVP, Edgar Renteria, is on big money but had the worst year of his career in 2009.
The other key bats – Juan Uribe, Pat Burrell and Aubrey Huff – were equally shocking in their success.
Less of a surprise was that their pitching would prove the difference, particularly when their hitting stalled.
They have in their armoury two of the best starting pitchers around in Matt Cain, who didn’t give up a single run in the play-offs, and Tim Lincecum, twice crowned the best pitcher in the American League.
As it happened they rarely needed to be brilliant as the Giant hitters surpassed themselves again and again, winning by four clear runs on three occasions in a World Series that became marred by one-sided matches.
The Giants will hope that history will look back on their historic victory as precisely that, instead of the relatively uneventful, largely ignored series it has also been.
In a sport more popular on the east coast than the west, a World Series between two western teams was always going to struggle for attention and a 4-1 series win is likely to have helped contribute to the lowest viewing figures for a World Series in years.
The decline in support for the sport’s showpiece event is unlikely to be terminal, as the New York Yankees will have another big-spending winter, the Boston Red Sox will do something similar to match them and the Cubs will dream of ending their century-long drought.
In the meantime, the misfits of the Giants have more than earned their day in the sun.
