It’s truly amazing how unpredicatable the game of baseball can really be.
In Issue 8 of the Loquitur, I posed the question to readers asking who would win the World Series and in how many games.
150 people responded to the poll. 86 percent voted for the American League Champion Detroit Tigers, coming off a four-game sweep of the Yankees. Only 14 percent predicted the NL Champs, the upstart San Francisco Giants, who had won five previous elimination games, would win.
Of all 150 people, not one said the Giants would win in four games.
The 2012 World Series came and went in a flash.
Pablo Sandoval belted three home runs in Game 1 to give the Giants the advantage. Goodbye, Tigers in four voters.
In Game 2, dominant pitching by Madison Bumgarner kept the game scoreless into the late innings. Two runs via small ball would be enough in the Giants’ 2-0 win. Goodbye, Tigers in five voters.
Game 3 featured more of the same: excellent pitching combined with timely hitting. Goodbye to the majority.
One night later, the Giants finished the job in Game 4 with a 4-3, 10-inning win to claim their second World Series title in three years.
It truly defied the odds. The Giants were down 2-0 in the best-of-five NLDS. They were down 3-1 in the best-of-seven NLCS. They had come back from the dead to win this title.
Once again, baseball proved two things in the Postseason.
First, Destiny’s Darling, the team hottest at the close of the regular season, won the World Series again.
And second, you truly can’t predict baseball. Clearly the 150 people in the poll and myself (I also had Tigers in six) were not expecting a Giants’ sweep.
But that’s what still made the World Series great. Sure, it was over in a matter of days and was the shortest in terms of games since Boston Red Sox swept the Fall Classic in 2007.
But it still delivered the unexpected and proved once again, against all odds, that it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.
