The 2010 Giants: Are they stealing a page from the 2005 White Sox?

The 2010 Giants: Are they stealing a page from the 2005 White Sox?
The 2010 Giants: Are they stealing a page from the 2005 White Sox?

The 2010 Giants: Are they stealing a page from the 2005 White Sox?

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I don’t think I’ve watched a World Series game in three years.

The Phillies were in it the last couple years, right? I am just too busy and even if I made it home, there was usually better TV to watch. And let’s face it, by the time two teams you barely care about get around to playing a seven game series in late October, you’ve moved on to football, hockey and NBA basketball (as of last night).

But there I was, watching all of Game 1 between the Texas Rangers and my new favorite team,  the San Fransisco Giants.

The game turned out to be a sloppy blowout. The Rangers’ ace Cliff Lee got lit up and the Giants poured it on. But while watching the Giants play, I saw something familiar: The Giants are the 2005 Chicago White Sox.

The team similarities are endless:

The Giants have transcended baseball and become a movement. Their fans wear beards, sing anthems and go absolutely nuts on balls and strikes. Their orange and black garb is strikingingly crisp. The players are becoming folk heroes (Posey, Ross and Lincecum). Sound familiar? Do you remember 2005 when every fan wore black to make the ‘Cell’ an intimidating sea of dark color?  Do you remember when we had a weird obsession with classic rock singer Steve Perry? And do you remember how little known players named Rowand, Konerko and Crede became World Series stars?

The Giants aren’t the most popular team, but they have heart and hustle. Their offense is base to base and yesterday night, they placed the ball all over the field. They are playing small ball in San Fransisco. Score on singles and doubles and timely hitting. Sound familiar? Ozzie’s preferred brand of baseball is small ball.

Juan Uribe. Sound familiar? 

The Giants line-up include guys I’ve never heard of. They have a guy hitting clean-up named Schierholz. Isn’t that the name of my dentist? Sound familiar? If I’m not mistaken, a certain Carl Everett hit DH for the World Series champion White Sox. And he said dinosaurs never existed. Come to think of it, I wish Carl Everett really was my dentist. Think of the awesome stories you would hear while getting a root canal.

The Giants pitching is lights out. They get excited and make pitches when the game is on the line. But beside their ace pitcher Lincecum, the Giants starters aren’t aces (yet). And although they have done very well in the playoffs,  none of them would be a #1 on another team. Sound familiar? Buehrle, Contreras, Garland, Freddy Garcia. The 2005 playoff run showcased the greatest pitching performance Chicago has ever seen.

And let’s not forget Journey. The San Fransisco faithful have adopoted “Don’t Stop Believin’” as their team song. Sound familiar? On second thought, you can keep it, SF. It was lame in 2005.

I could go on: they are both playing teams from Texas (Sox played the Houston Astros in 2005), they both have closers with dyed facial hair and they both have hated crosstown rivals. Did I mention Juan Uribe?

So this random night of televised baseball gave me the opportunity to reminisce about a baseball team that just five years ago won the World Series. It was must-see TV. I thank you for that, San Fransisco.

That being said, if the next World Series game is up against 30 Rock or even a Geoffrey Baer special on channel 11, I’ll just catch the highlights.