Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The 106th Fall Classic Begins Today

It would seem fitting that on the 50th anniversary of the Texas Rangers being admitted into the American League as the Washington Senators (After the previous version of the Senators moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season) to begin play in the 1961 season that the Rangers will play in their first ever World Series. After winning 3 American League West titles (1996, 1998, 1999) and suffering three straight defeats to the eventually World Series Champion New York Yankees in the postseason, the Rangers have finally found postseason success. In defeating the AL East Champion Tamnpa Bay Rays and the defending World Series Champion New York Yankees, the Rangers have set themselves up as the adversary to the San Francisco Giants, another transplanted franchise looking to bring the first ever World Series trophy to their "new" home.

The team formerly known as the New York Giants moved to the state of California (along with the Brooklyn Dodgers) at the end of the 1957 season and in a strange twist of fate traded places with their National League nemesis. Where the Giants found considerable success in New York with 17 National League pennants (1888, 1889, 1904, 1905, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1933, 1936, 1937, 1951, 1954) and 5 World Series titles (1905, 1921, 1922, 1933, 1954) compared to the Brooklyn Dodgers who won 12 National League pennants (1890, 1899, 1900, 1916, 1920, 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955 1956) and only 1 World Series title (1955), the success did not follow the Giants to San Francisco. While the Dodgers have thrived in Los Angeles with 9 National League pennants (1959, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1988) and 5 World Series titles (1959, 1963, 1965, 1981, 1988) the Giants have only one 4 National League pennants (1962, 1989, 2002, 2010) and have yet to win their first California World Series title. Lincecum, Wilson, Bochy and company hope to change that by next week.

The mighty bats and legend inspired pitching of the Texas Rangers meet the savvy arms and timely bats of the San Francisco Giants. History will be made with the World Series trophy being delivered to a city that has never had a World Series Champion. Who will win? Stay tuned to Fox and find out. Unless you live in a Cablevision are LIKE I DO where you will miss the game due to the bullshit between Cablevision and Fox. Luckily for me, I'll be at work for the next games 2-5 so I'll be able to watch those games.

Good luck and may the team that wants it the most win.

FH

1 comment:

  1. This tidbit comes courtesy of Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated:

    This is only the second time in 90 years that two teams never to win a World Series for the city they currently represent will meet in the Fall Classic. The only previous time was in 1992, when the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves.

    Read more: Twenty-four interesting aspects of this year's World Series teams

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