Third title in five years for the San Francisco Giants. Celebration earned. (Photo by James Squire/Getty Images)
Madison Bumgarner is bigger than life.
The San Francisco Giants are the newest sports dynasty.
Major League Baseball had a season to win back fans.
Grand statements all, most certainly. As I watched the happy squad from the city by the Bay hop around the field in Kansas City after holding off the brash-to-the-last Royals 3-2 before midnight Wednesday night, those three thoughts wouldn’t go away. Not even after FOX cut away from impressed Ken Rosenthal and Erin Andrews interviewing players and management receiving trophies — and the big truck Bumgarner got for being named the World Series MVP — was I ready to let go of these feelings.
The tall and powerful left-handed pitcher Bumgarner is past amazing. He won the two games he started to help the Giants beat the tough Royals. And on short rest, he took the ball out of the bullpen in deciding game seven on the opponent’s field and turned in a game that will forever put his funny name in baseball history. To explain: He only had two days to rest since his second victory. Yet he followed manager Bruce Bochy’s decision to start the fifth inning with his team leading 3-2 and went the full five to earn the save, leaving the potential tying run — only the second hit he allowed — on third base. He dominated in such a way that some folks are calling his World Series pitching performance the best they’ve ever seen.
And now the Giants have won three of the past five World Series titles, masters of the even years, 2010 over the Texas Rangers, 2012 over the Detroit Tigers and now 2014.
The way the Royals won the Wild Card game in extra innings over the Oakland Athletics and then swept the Los Angeles Angels and won the first three games against the Baltimore Orioles — that’s eight straight in the playoffs — to reach their first World Series since George Brett led them to their only crown in 1985 was a great story, too. So was all their cheering fans. And the way the Giants fans thirsted for former Journey singer Steve Perry’s between-innings lip-sync performance of “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” at their park.
The postseason was great this year.
More people seem to be talking about baseball again.
And now, before I ask you my three questions, some loose ends to address.
About Madison Bumgarner’s funny name: There’s a blog to chronicle achievers of his kind by the not-so-surprising and oh-so-appropriate title of The Blog of Funny Names. A cool roster of talented writers pick personalities to share with the world, and I join the lineup Tuesday. The thought of debuting with Madison Bumgarner crossed my mind, but frankly, I think he’s too famous already. No spoilers on my first subject.
Here’s the link for The Blog of Funny Names.
Two days remain until the start of NaBloPoMo.
Or, as we like to call it over here, Nano Poblano, a name that came about because, well, you try saying NaBloPoMo three times fast. Or with a straight face, even.
There’s been a loose collective of tigth folks who’ve gathered together for the month of November in spirit and otherwise to support each other to post every day on their blogs. Team Pepper.
I’ve been talked into hosting the proceedings this year, taking over from Rara, by all accounts the best host ever, as evidenced by the cool pepper logo she made. But she can’t now. So I will try, as evidenced by the photo logo I staged.
Here’s the link to our Nano Poblano/Team Pepper home page for November. Please click over, take a look, find the link to prompts. It’s the kind of place to find interesting blogs and bloggers. You can add your link in the comment section. No obligations. The only requirement, really, is curiosity.
And that one above just came in this afternoon, from Fish of Gold, the new logo for 2014. This is the kid of talent you’ll find at Nano Poblano/Team Pepper.
Did you watch any of the World Series this year, and did you enjoy it more or less than usual? Do you think baseball is more or less popular than recent years, and what can it do to become better or worse? What’s your favorite baseball team, and why?
Here’s the source for the photo of the Giants celebrating Wednesday night.
Mark Bialczak 
My sports news was full of disappointment in the Cavaliers’ first time back for Lebron James! Randy had a few Oktoberfest Great Lakes brews while I drank some Sangria with Mom, eating hummus on cornbread crackers, so yummy and lime chile pepper cashews… Fun night, just bad score! Frowny face! Take care, Mark!
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Yes, the Knicks prevailed. Carmelo Anthony, Syracuse man of one season. Sorry about the homecoming re-debut, Robin. It’s a long season, though.
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I think you already know that I did not watch any baseball, Mark. But I did have to hear some of it when my sister, Michelle, watched it in the kitchen. 🙂 Favorite team? The one with the prettiest uniform of course!
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Michelle has to watch baseball in the kitchen, Rachel? What’s up with that? 🙂 Pretty uniforms fluctuate between home and away sometimes by the way.
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She was in there cooking… and sneaking baseball because I was at my computer in the living room and I have a “no sports with Michelle” policy for the same room… because she screams at the TV!
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yes, it truly can now be called a dynasty and mb is king, but i still was rooting for kc to take it all. ) you are a brave and busy man, mark – hats off to you!
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I can be such because I have the same inititials as the new baseball king. MB for president! Thanks, Beth, for the salute. 🙂
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I watched a bit of the series in hopes that KC would make it happen. Would have been nice for their fans.
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Yes, K.C. played valiantly but came up 90 feet short, Aud. The third-base coach should have sent the runner around in the bottom of the ninth on the error, I think. Oh, well.
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i didn’t realize the World Series was still held in seasons when the Yankees do not qualify for it…
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Yeah you do. The devil told you all about it, Austin. 🙂
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Did he???
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It was an incredible series thus year. Really proud of both, but enjoyed watching Giants win. Joe Buck and Erin Andrews have ruined sports for me, I had to watch it on mute. Those two just are too much, I just can’t. Gonna enjoy hockey, football and NASCAR now. On mute, im sure, but I’ll be watching.
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I gotta have the sound up to get the NASCAR engine growl at least, Apple Pie. Love that. The first time my dear wife Karen brought me to Pocono for my NASCAR initiation and they started the engines and I felt it as much as heard it, the sport had me for life. So I kind of like it loud on TV.
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Mark, as a Dbacks fan, I’ve seen Bumgarner in action live. He sooooo flies under the radar yet I knew he was good, real good. Now I know he is great. After watching him pitch his second World Series Game for a win, I thought, I would totally bring Bumgarner back on short rest, visions of Schilling/Johnson Game 7 win. (I dream of being an MLB manager, lol.) But never, never, never could I have guessed what would unfold! History in the making right before my eyes. What a privilege ❤
And a bit of personal trivia, my oldest son is a college pitcher with long hair, “flow”, like Madison. Who knows, what the flow will bring next? 😀
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Oh, sign up up for your son’s bandwagon right now, Angie McFly. Go with the Flow! That’s so cool. You and I are old-school baseball fans. Figures, northeasterners both, even though you moved out to Phoenix.
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I’ll let him know! Maybe not too surprising, I was a football fan back east. It was my son with the flow who brought baseball into my life when we moved here over 10 years ago.
Mark, I literally don’t know how I lived without baseball! I’m such a geek about it, study up on the history, love talking strategy, watch too much if it, lol. I connect it with my management inner-geek to really appreciate baseball managers. Bochy killed it!
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I’ve been a baseball lover my whole life. New York Mets fan since I was 5. I was born in 1957 and they were born in 1962 and we’ve been playing in the sandbox together every since. 🙂
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That’s so awesome, Mark! David Wright…Mike Piazza…among my fave players of all time ❤
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Thank you, thank you, Angie McFly, for understanding my passion for the New York Metropolitans. 🙂
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When I was younger, I followed baseball closely. I was a big Pirates fan. Then, in the early 90’s, my team got blown up by large-market poachers with deep pockets. I lost most of my interest in the sport, which wasn’t an altogether bad thing for a Pirates fan to do at that time. I was passively rooting for KC this year to win one for the small market, low payroll guys. Guess I can go on being minimally interested.
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Yeah, but your Buccos have made the playoffs twice in a row now, Snoozer, so I think it’s time for you to come back to the diamond. Lots of squads — Royals, A’s, your guys, Yankees (take that from this Mets fan) — are proving that payroll and success are less directly correlated than the years of which you speak.
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I’m on the Giancarlo float generally, Bill, but I still think that if a pitcher is clearly the best player in the league in a given season, the pitcher is the MVP. We’ll have to agree to toss acorns at each other on this one.
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And just for the heck of it, Bumgarner also became the first pitcher in half a century to hit two grand slams in one season this year. If only the postseason also counted, he’d have been a lock for the NL Cy Young…
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I know. He’s beat Kershaw if the postseason counted, for MVP, too, I think. I love your two grand-slam stat. Tony Cloninger? That’s without Googling, so I might be wrong, Bill.
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That’s who I’m thinking was the last to do it since I knew Cloninger hit two in a game. I know it had been a long time since anyone had done it, and even one grand slam by a pitcher is pretty rare…
I agree with you on MadBum trumping Kershaw, though while I feel a pitcher can certainly be MVP during a postseason run, that award in the regular season should always go to a position player. I got Stanton for NL MVP, since I believe he shouldn’t be penalized for taking a fastball to the face… and in true MVP form, his team fizzled from contention as soon as he hit the DL…
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