“What in the world did this merry bunch of misfits just do?”
-–Tim Kawakami, San Jose Merc News
The Daily NewsSpecial Sunday Edition1 Towards the end of July, I was sitting around the pool in Lake Tahoe when my brother-in-law Chris came to the table with some sort of odds sheet.
2 The Giants were starting to look okay, with a little bit of hitting coloring a lineup of young guns. He had a bit of a smile on his face.
3 “Do you know what the odds are right now of the Giants winning the World Series?” he asked.
4 I chuckled, because for just a second I thought, “If they just get a LITTLE hitting, they very well could possibly get to the Series.”
5 I said, “What are the odds?”
6 “Twen-teee-to-one,” he grinned.
7 A little devil in me awakened inside. I rarely gamble, but at the time, I thought seriously of laying down a hundred bucks on that bet. I told Chris that.
8 “I’m thinking, by October, IF we are anywhere close, it will be an awesome ride, even without laying down some money. I will have already spent the hundred, so hmmmmmmm…”
9 Chris said he was seriously considering putting something down as well.
10 I decided against it, but that’s just because when it comes to gambling, I have absolute control and excellent sales resistence. Chirs laid off that pitch as well.
11 Last night’s three-hour-forty-one minute game spun me around every which way, beginning with Jonathan Sanchez’s chokingly horrid performance, to the benches emptying, to Baumgarner, Lincecum, and Uribe, and ending with Wilson getting guys on again.
12 Cost of all this TORTURE: Teeth down to around a millimeter each, and lips with purple bite marks all over them.
13 The look on Buster Posey’s face when we clinched: priceless.
14 And the look on Ryan Howard’s face after his game-ending third called strike: A kid whose ice cream just fell off the cone.
15 And The Giants win the pennant!
16 And Cody Ross is the unlikely NLCS Most Valuable Player.
17 Who’da thunk, way back in July? My recollections of Ross had something to do with him spinning a bat at us, somewhere in all this orange fog. Who’da thunk?
18 I was actually thunkin’. That day that Chris showed me the odds, I thunked that our pitching could do that. Way back then. Way back. Before Cody. Before Huff Daddy. Before Pat the Bat. I was thunkin’ way back.
19 Bochy went after this with everything he had, including freaking out the Phillies with Lincecum AND Baumgarner. Bochy is arguably the greatest coach in San Francisco Giants’ history, and that’s a bold statement.
20 Kawakami’s article caught it all. Here’s a bit more: “It was just unadulterated joy–for what they achieved and for the warmth of being with each other while doing it.”
21 Kawakami quoted Brian Sabean: “I think this team is going to go down as one of the most endearing in Giants’ history.”
22 Indeed. It’s like a Disney cartoon cast.
23 Trivia: The Bridge School Benefit had Billy Idol up there when the Giants clinched. A huge ovation ensued, and word on the street is that Idol thought it was for him.
24 More Trivia: If either team wins, Benji Molina gets a ring. He played enough games for the Giants to earn one when they win.
25 This morning (Monday), KNBR unveiled their song for Brian Wilson: Blackbeard Singing in the Dead of Night.
26 Cam Inman of the Merc News had two quotes from Brian Sabean. He referred to Bochy as “the most understated, most underrated manager in baseball. This guy is aces.”
27 He also threw this treat out there: “I’m a little frustrated we didn’t get more credit in this series for pitching well and having that be the compliment, rather than ‘What the (heck) happened to (the Phillies’) guttubg?’ We shut ‘em down. That’s the bottom line!”
28 At 7:15 Monday morning (today), KNBR will play the entire last inning.
29 And to end his article, the deft Tim Kawakami delivered the goods on Sunday:
“What have they done? They’ve fought their way
to the brink of a World Series Championship, and why
not finish it off with more tension, more anxiety, and
possibly the most joy this franchise has felt in almost forever?”
30 I couldn’t have said it better myself.
31 Who’da thunk?~H~ 
www.xanga.com/bharrington“Swing, and a high fly ball to right field. Deep. Going back is Werth. Still going back.
at the wall. Adios, pelota!”
–Jon Miller’s call of Juan Uribe’s dramatic eighth inning home run.
