Torture II

OK, that was ridiculous.

Nothing has come easy this season. As Joe Posnanski noted in this week's Sports Illustrated, the Giants played more close games this season than any team in the past five years. On some nights, the offense was non-existent. They had an amazing tendency to hit into double plays at the most inopportune times (not that there is ever an opportune time to hit into a double play). Their RBI leader had 86 - a number that won't get you on the cover of Sports Illustrated, much less into the Hall of Fame.

But pitching? Man did they have pitching. And even the pitching wasn't entirely consistent. On some nights, Tim Lincecum looked like the best pitcher in the game (which he was the past two seasons). And then, there was that month where he didn't win a game, and didn't look good doing it. But in the playoffs, he's come up big, as just about every pitcher has at one point - Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Madison Bumgarner, Brian Wilson, the rest of relief corps. It wasn't always pretty, but overall they were great.

And then, you've got the guys like Cody Ross and Pat Burrell - guys that weren't even there at the beginning of the season, but who have come up huge when they needed to. Along with other guys like Aubrey Huff, Freddy Sanchez, Ray Fontenot, Pablo Sandoval, Juan Uribe...hardly household names, but already close to being legends in the city by the bay.

It hasn't been easy being a Giants fan over the years. There have been some good times, and even in the bad times there have been wonderful announcers like Jon Miller, Hank Greenwald, Lon Simmons, Duane Kuiper, and Mike Krukow. But there have been hard times, and there have been heart-breaking moments - crushing defeats, defeats grabbed from the jaws of victory.

Thinking that fate is on your side in the world of sports is a fool's game. But something does feel special about this year - and there's no doubt that the sporting Gods owe one to the fans of the San Francisco Giants.