The Giants won 109 games but their season is over. Taking a look at the three World Series championship teams of the last decade only amplifies this accomplishment. The 2010 team won 103 (92+11) games, the 2012 team won 105 (94+11) games and the 2014 team won 100 (88+1+11) games.
This Giants team had the poor luck to face a superb playoff opponent. The Dodgers are the defending champions and were nearly a consensus pick to repeat. And seeing how well they shut down the Giants I think they are clearly the best of the four remaining contenders. Losing to a good team is easier to deal with. It was a coin-flip kind of series--the winning run came in the final inning of the last game.
What's my takeaway for 2021? This was a fun team. A really fun team. And an interesting team! The most interesting team I've ever followed. There was no electrifying celebrity like Timmy or lightning-rod personality like MadBum. Despite having a face-of-baseball player like Buster Posey this team did not attract much media attention. But there was nothing boring about this club. Every single game was an adventure.
I've noted throughout this season the team's remarkable consistency. They played good baseball all season long. They played their best baseball in the second half and in the final month. I've never followed a team that was this good from week-to-week and month-to-month.
There's lots more to say, naturally. Part 2 will be about Gabe Kapler.
--M.C.
1 comment:
For the sake of including some long time names. Let us consider Crawford and Belt as two more sunset players who gave us much to love.
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