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Seventh heaven? All-Star result has no affect on World Series

ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Not only had the San Francisco Giants won their city's first World Series in 52 years and the franchise's first in 56 years Monday night, but it almost unbelievably was the first time in 15 years that the National League had won the World Series and the All-Star Game in the same year.

In 1995, the Atlanta Braves captured their only World Series title. The National League also that year won the All-Star Game, which coincidentally was played at what then was called The Ballpark at Arlington. That is the only All-Star Game ever played in Arlington, just as this was the first World Series played there.

In reality, for the eighth season in a row, the winner of the All-Star Game didn't really have that much of a home-field advantage in the World Series. Since the rule was put in place in 2003 that the winning league in the All-Star Game gains home-field edge for its World Series representative and would play a decisive seventh game at home, there hasn't been a seventh game.

The Giants, for example, played more games (three) on the road than they played at home in this five-game Series, although they did get the jump by winning the first two games in San Francisco.

San Francisco became the ninth franchise in the last 10 seasons to win a World Series championship—only Boston has won two in that span. This stretch is rivaled only by the 10-season period from 1978 to 1987, when there were 10 different winners, including the 1982 Cardinals.

Given recent history, it would seem unlikely that the Giants will repeat next year, especially considering the potential flux of their lineup. Five members of their nine-man batting order for Monday's decisive 3-1 win are potential free agents.

But here's the rub: None of their four starting pitchers, or ace closer Brian Wilson, can get away. And all are likely to be around awhile.

Giants starters Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez and Madison Bumgarner held the Rangers to nine earned runs in five games, and the Rangers had just one run over the last 21 innings against anybody pitching in a San Francisco uniform.

Lincecum and Cain are only 26 years old, Sanchez is 27, Bumgarner 21 and Wilson 28. The four-man rotation—excluding veteran Barry Zito, who was left off the postseason roster—is the first entirely home-grown rotation for a World Series team since Boston's 1986 group of Roger Clemens (age 26), Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd (27), Bruce Hurst (26) and St. Louisan Al Nipper (27).

The young, home-grown rotation for a World Series that most emulates that of the Giants is the 1966 Baltimore group that helped pitch a four-game sweep of Los Angeles, blanking the Dodgers in the last three games. That quartet was Steve Barber (age 24), Jim Palmer (21), Wally Bunker (21) and Dave McNally (23).

Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who also has a 23-year-old rookie catcher in Buster Posey, is delighted by the present but also by the future.

"They're young and they're under (contractural) control," Bochy said. "That's what's special about it, four of these guys in the same rotation being home-grown. It'll be nice to have for years to come."

Manager Tony La Russa's Cardinals teams had beaten Bochy's San Diego clubs in first-round playoff competition nine games out of 10 over three seasons before Bochy moved to San Francisco. But that statistic in no way diminished La Russa's admiration for Bochy.

"Bochy has a really good feel for handling a bullpen," La Russa said late Monday night. "Look how he got to (Trevor) Hoffman all those years in San Diego. I'm a big fan."

There is no guarantee of anything for San Francisco in 2011, but some of the old Giants who were traveling with the team this week don't care about that.

In the seventh inning of the sixth game of the 2002 Series, when the Giants had a 3-2 lead in games and a 5-0 lead on the scoreboard in Anaheim, San Francisco manager Dusty Baker lifted starter Russ Ortiz. But instead of taking the ball from Ortiz, as is customary, he let Ortiz have it as a potential keepsake.

A few moments later, Scott Spiezio hit another ball thrown by Frankie Rodriguez for a three-run homer and the Angels went on to win that game and the next one. There is no word on whether Ortiz still has that ball.

First baseman J.T. Snow of the 2002 team admitted he thought about that Series a lot, but he told reporters late Monday night that the 2010 Series win by the Giants "helps out a lot for the fans and city, no question. They can put it to rest. It puts to bed the ghost of '02. We were so close, seven outs away. As a player, it'll never be out of our system, but this is the next best thing.

"With all due respect to the guys in '02—(Jason) Schmidt and (Kirk) Rueter and them—if we had this (expletive) staff, we'd have beaten the Angels four straight."

Perhaps Wilson said it best Monday: "I never could imagine how this would feel. I'd always wake up from the dream, right before the last pitch. I don't have to wake up for a while now."