The Giants Win the Pennant! The Giants Win the Pennant! The Giants WON the WORLD SERIES!

HOORAY!!! What a rush! The Giants not only put themselves on the verge of winning the World Series, but they went ahead and won it... PERIOD! After putting themselves and their fans through a variety of ways of getting close in past years, they went ahead and took care of finishing business last night.

That's what makes sports so fascinating... it's unpredictable. Underdogs do win. Expect the unexpected. Just prior to the game, two of the announcers predicted that there was no way that the Giants would wrap things up last night, and the series would be going back to San Francisco. Well, looks like they were wrong yet again. No, the Texas Rangers didn't win in five, they didn't win in six, in fact, they didn't win the Series at all - and the San Francisco misfits and castoffs won instead. Nothing against the Rangers - they look like a great group of guys, as do just about every other team in the league. But after over 50 years, it was the Giants' time at long last.

Good pitching beats good hitting. That's probably the point the Giants made most emphatically throughout this postseason. I can remember listening to the radio during the regular season and hearing people saying that the Giants needed to trade a pitcher to get a decent hitter, and the Giants' management steadfastly kept their starting rotation intact. Good thing, wasn't it? Can you imagine a staff without Matt Cain or Jonathan Sanchez?

Speaking of Jonathan Sanchez, much was made of how brilliantly Cliff Lee pitched last night (he did) only giving up a single three-run home run. Well, all told, Sanchez only gave up a three-run home run plus a solo shot himself in Game 3 before being taken out - not his best performance, but still not so bad considering. It wasn't as dominant as Cliff Lee's last night, but not as bad as people have made it out to be. When Sanchez is on, he's as on as the others on the Giants pitching staff, and I'm looking forward to next year - make that the next several years. And I heard another member of the media mention that it should be easier for the Giants to attract the best free agents with a World Series championship and their great pitching staff under their belt. Excellent... most excellent...