Pennant In The Rain

The San Francisco Giants won the National League championship yesterday evening, and are now going to face the Detroit Tigers in the World Series starting tomorrow. The Giants took an unlikely route to their championship by having to win 3 straight elimination games in two successive series, but this path didn’t seem to faze them in the end, and they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals last night in Game 7 of the NLCS 9-0. The final half-inning was played in a sudden downpour. Had the game not been so one-sidedly close to finishing there surely would have been a rain delay. As it was, everybody was quite happy to celebrate in the rain.

The Tigers are pretty heavily favored to win the World Series — they have possibly the best pitcher in the game in Justin Verlander and in terms of batting they have the first Triple Crown winner since 1967, Miguel Cabrera. Still, I’m relaxed about the series. The Giants won the World Series two years ago: there’s no longer the angst associated with never having won the series since the team moved to San Francisco in 1958. Unlike the Giants’ opponent in 2010, the Texas Rangers, or the team the Tigers beat quite decisively to reach the World Series, the New York Yankees, I don’t have any general loathing for the Tigers, and in fact rather like the team. The Giants are underdogs, so if they win, great, if not, it’s been a fine season for them. Meanwhile, the kitties are rooting for the Tigers, not that they show much enthusiasm for baseball, sleeping through most of the games we listen to.