November 1, 2010: The Giants win their 1st World Series since moving to San Francisco. Édgar Renteria, who drove in the winning run for the Florida Marlins against the Cleveland Indians in the 11th inning during Game 7 of the 1997 Fall Classic, joins Yankees legends Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra as only the 4th player in baseball history to collect two World Series-winning hits. (He had also made the last out for the St. Louis Cardinals as the Boston Red Sox won the 2004 World Series *.)
He was named the Series' Most Valuable Player. His 3-run home run off Cliff Lee in the 7th inning led to San Francisco's 3-1 victory over the Texas Rangers, and brings an end to 56 seasons of what some Giants fans had been, in recent days, describing as "torture." (Clearly, they'd never been truly tortured.)
Since the 1957-58 move, the Giants had won the National League Pennant, but lost the World Series, in 1962, 1989 and 2002; lost the NL Championship Series in 1971, 1987; lost the NL Division Series in 1997, 2000 and 2003; fell just short of the single-division Pennant in 1959, 1964, 1965 and 1966; and fell just short of the NL Western Division title in 1969, 1982, 1993, 2001 and 2004.
This was made worse by the fact that the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had been their Brooklyn-based arch-rivals when both were in New York City, and whose move to L.A. led to the Giants moving to San Francisco to continue the rivalry in a geographic sense (instead of moving to the site of their top farm team, Minneapolis, as they'd planned), had been far more successful.
From 1958 to 2009, the Giants had reached the postseason 8 times, winning 7 Division titles and 3 Pennants, but never a World Series; while the Dodgers had reached the postseason 18 times, winning 11 Division titles, 9 Pennants, and 5 World Series -- although their last Pennant, at this point, was in 1988.
But this 2010 title changed baseball history, at least on the West Coast. Bruce Bochy, a former major league catcher, had helped the San Diego Padres win both of their Pennants, in 1984 as a player and in 1998 as their manager. Now, he was managing the Giants to glory.
Catcher Buster Posey was the team's on-field leader, starring with shortstop Renteria and Juan Uribe, 1st baseman Aubrey Huff, 3rd baseman Pablo Sandoval, and, from the 2008 World Series-winning Philadelphia Phillies, left fielder Pat Burrell. The starting rotation was led by Tim Lincecum, a.k.a. "The Freak"; former Oakland Athletics ace Barry Zito, who had struggled since signing with the Giants but came through this season; and Matt Cain, who pitched a perfect game 2 years later. Brian Wilson led the NL with 48 saves.
The Giants won the NL West by 2 games over the Padres, beat the Atlanta Braves 3-1 in the NLDS, and beat the Phillies 4-2 in the NLCS, before beating the Rangers, 4-1. The Rangers had won their 1st American League Pennant, and their win in Game 3 was the 1st World Series game ever won by a Texas-based team. But they were no match for the Giants.
The Giants began an on-and-off run: The Giants would do well in even-numbered years, but not odd-numbered years. They won the World Series in 2010, missed the Playoffs in 2011, won the World Series again in 2012, had a losing record in 2013, won the World Series again in 2014, missed the Playoffs in 2015, and won the NL Wild Card Game but lost the NLDS in 2016. After that, they fell apart, and rebuilt.
The Dodgers wouldn't win another Pennant until 2017, or another World Series until 2020.
*
November 1, 2010 was a Monday. On ESPN Monday Night Football, the Indianapolis Colts beat the Houston Texans, 30-17 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
There were 3 games in the NBA:
* The Chicago Bulls beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 110-98 at the United Center in Chicago. Luol Deng scored 40 points.
* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 97-88 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.
* And the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors, 111-108 at the Power Balance Pavilion (formerly the ARCO Arena) in Sacramento.
And there were 3 games in the NHL:
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2 at Madison Square Garden.
* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Vancouver Canucks, 3-0 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
* And the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-2 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
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