After watching my beloved Giants win their 3rd World Series Title in 5 years, I, like everyone else watching, was spellbound by Madison Bumgarner's brilliant performance.
I KNEW he would go this game, but I was counting on the legendary performance of Randy Johnson (maybe a couple of innings....).
As the game unfolded, at some point (the 7th?) I realized that he was actually going to try to finish this off, himself. He did so in dominant fashion.
When the dust had settled, I realized that what I witnessed equalled the legendary feats of Babe Ruth in many ways... except that I wasn't reading about it in a book or picturing it in my mind's eye while staring at a baseball card or old photo. This was happening NOW. That performance would have fit comfortably in ANY legendary venue at ANY legendary time with ANY legendary figures. The only difference was this never had the time to accumulate any dust. We watched the kind of history that we love reading about, but this time we could watch every nuance with multiple camera angles and know that it was all true. MadBum's performance was just the crowning touch on an amazing post-season run through many talented teams. (His mind-boggling numbers would look even more stellar had he not thrown that ball down the line on a bunt, earlier in the playoffs.)
Congrats to my New York / San Francisco Giants! And congrats to the man that picked them up and carried them to the glory. The man from Hickory. Madison Bumgarner... all of 25 years old.
BTW: if you want to read a wonderfully written account of his upbringing check out this excellent New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/sp...ef=sports&_r=0
My favorite line from his dad:
Quote:
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“I didn’t know if he had enough left tonight,” Kevin said. “But I did know that boy would try to steal a steak off the devil’s plate.”
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