Baseball's Over, 2010 Edition

Caption: San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum displays his unique pitching style as he delivers to Texas Rangers batter Michael Young in the first inning of Game Five of the 2010 World Series. Young is one of the best hitters in the league, but Lincecum's control and "hide the ball" delivery seemed to keep him and the rest of the Rangers off balance all night. [Click on the picture to enlarge.]

Image credit: Screenshot of the Fox Sports broadcast by Cujo359



Only one day into November, the October Classic is over. It was quite a show, even if a bit one-sided. The San Francisco Giants won in impressive style, with only the Ranger's one victory, a 4 - 2 game, and last night's game being close.

A few random observations:

• It was lucky the game was in Texas. Seventy degrees at game time, especially when game time is after dark, is a lot nicer than 2008's Game Five conditions. If Major League Baseball is going to insist on making the season this long, maybe they should just agree to play all the games in the South, or in domed stadiums.
• The Giants' pitching staff is impressive, to say the least. They shut out what was supposed to be the Major Leagues' best offense twice, and one of those shutouts was a 9 - 0 blowout. You couldn't blame that one on bad hitting conditions.
• I suspect that the Giants will be playing winning baseball for a while longer. Not only was their pitching impressive, but some of the moves they made to acquire players, and manager Bruce Bochy's on-field judgment show that the management knows the game pretty well. As he demonstrated by asking Aubry Huff to bunt late in the game, he knows what his players can do. That's what a manager is supposed to know. Effective management usually makes for effective organizations.
• The Phillies' hitting problems don't look quite so bad in hindsight. I assumed that the Phillies' big hitters were just doing what they'd been doing all year. Shutting down the Rangers, though, was a very impressive performance.

Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants. Their last World Series win was a long time ago, and they weren't even the San Francisco Giants back then.