The last time this writer rooted for an American League team to beat the New York Yankees in the ALCS so the San Francisco Giants didn’t have to face them was in 2002 when the Anaheim Angels surprised the Yankees and then shocked a heavily favored San Francisco Giants club in seven games of the World Series.
This year, no such prayer was made and yet the Giants face an equally scrappy Texas Rangers team reminiscent of those Angels who won the World Series despite all odds against them.
The difference this year is that even more like those Angels is the San Francisco Giants, a group of veteran journeymen making the most out of possibly their only playoff appearance of their career.
The difference this year is that the Giants aren’t the big bad dominant hitting force they were with Bonds, Kent and Ellis Burk in the 3-4-5 slots.
The difference this year is that the San Francisco Giants are an equal underdog and therefore have had to pull every baseball trick out of their caps to even get to the point to pull off an upset of the defending National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies short of a hidden ball play.
The Texas Rangers are the same way although the Rangers did their talking with their bats, bullying Broadway’s best out of a chance to repeat as champions.
While TV stations will lament the lack of ratings for two smaller market clubs; anyone who is a fan of rooting for the underdog will be able to take their pick from inning to inning, out to out, and pitch to pitch.
Underdogs are special because they speak to our heart.
In each and every humble man’s heart who accomplishes their life’s purpose is a sense of joy and gratefulness that even though the world was stacked against them, somehow the doors opened for them where normally there would only be doors that were closed.
Underdogs bring a pure joy to the sport and an ultimate bliss that comes from a group of people who are truly walking their own life’s path, following their individual bliss together as a team.
This is the beauty of the underdog in all of us and in this respect; both of these teams are already champions.
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