subject: A Giant Repeat? Why not? [print this page] A Giant Repeat? Why not? A Giant Repeat? Why not?
Baseball great Rogers Hornsby was once quoted as saying, "People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." Well, the wait ends this Thursday. Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season is here.
Opening Day always brings optimism. Hope springs eternal. Fans always wonder if this year will be the year for their team. Maybe this is the year they can win it all. At least that's how I always used to feel. But this year is different.
As a lifelong San Francisco Giants fan, I was always optimistic as the season opened. I'd try to forget about the season that passed and focus on the new season ahead. Most years that was easy to do, as the Giants usually had disappointing seasons throughout my youth, and maybe next year' was a common mantra among diehard Giants fans.
But just five short months ago, the plucky, rag-tag band of misfits known as The San Francisco Giants won their first World Series championship since coming to San Francisco in 1958. So, as I look forward to the 2011 baseball season, I have a new question to ask myself, Can they do it again?'
Repeating as world champions in baseball is very tough. The last American League team to do it was the New York Yankees (they won three World Series titles in a row from 1998-2000), but the last National League club to achieve that feat was the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds (The Big Red Machine).
So can the San Francisco Giants repeat as world champs? I don't want to sound greedy, but why not? They have the same stellar pitching as last season (led by young starters Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, and bearded closer Brian Wilson) and have last year's Rookie of the Year, Buster Posey, catching for them. Third baseman Pablo (Kung Fu Panda) Sandoval shed 37 pounds this winter and is hitting and fielding better than ever. True, playoff heroes Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria left the Giants during the offseason, but San Francisco is hopeful that the veteran shortstop they picked up this winter, Miguel Tejada, will pick up the slack. Let's not forget about players who joined the team last year in mid-season, NLCS MVP Cody Ross and Pat the bat' Burell, who will both have the luxury of being in a Giants uniform all season this year. The lineup is rounded out by other hard-nosed players (gamers') like Aubrey Huff, Freddy Sanchez, and Andres Torres.
If winning in baseball is really all about pitching, then the Giants could make another serious run at the title this season. Last season's squad played many games which were close, which their broadcasters and fans described as torture'. After all, the Giants only clinched their division by winning their final game of the season. Maybe this year it won't have to go down to the wire.
