Game Five

By Staff

They say that the NBA is Fantastic, but for the past few years it has been the Lakers playing some hopeless underdog. How much fun was it to watch Shaq and Kobe take apart the Nets least season. Can't say that about the World Series though. A pair of Cinderella teams are here. How many people picked the Angels to come out of a division where the other teams were the Seattle Mariners, coming off a year where they won more games than any team in history, the Oakland A's, the low-budget powerhouse of the west, and the ARod-powered Rangers? Well, maybe you took one look at the Rangers' pitching staff and picked them behind the Angels, but even the wildcard seemed unlikely for the Halos. And what of the Giants? While the Padres and Rockies didn't seemed primed for a run at the west, Arizona was the defending champions and the Dodgers always look good on paper. The wildcard might not even come out of the west. With the Angels stumbling out of the gates and Jeff Kent riding popping wheelies on his motor cycle, an Angels-Giants series was quite a longshot at the end of April.

But here they are, and what a series they've given us. Five games in, and there have been three games settled by one-run, a pair of pitching duels and a slugfest. There has been a blowout in each direction. Barry Bonds has cast off his reputation as a batter who is silent in October (although the Angels might be wise to silence his bat every time with a free pass to first). Players like Glaus, Anderson and Eckstein have appeared on the stage, finally out of the shadow of the media-hyped Dodgers. Bonds, Dunston and Santiago, with many decades of play between them, finally have a chance to wear the ring. It's a crazy dreamworld where free tacos float in McCovey Cove and small children are rescued by Snow rather than rescued from the snow.

Game Five was when the Giants lineup finally clicked. The top of the order broke out of their collective slumps, lead by Jeff Kent, who salvaged a so-far awful Series by blasting a pair of homeruns. The Angels chose to pitch to Barry, and he broke the game open in the first, giving the Giants the lead they would never surrender. The men behind Bonds kept the Angels honest, their bats too lively to tempt free passes to Barry. The sixteen runs they put on the board were the second most in Series history.

The Series now shifts back to Anaheim, with the Giants one victory away from their first West Coast world title. The Game Six matchup is a repeat of Game Two, which resulted in a slugfest. No doubt the Angels have quickly and quietly put Game Five behind them, and as they have all season, will come out ready for a fight. An interesting Game Six, when was the last time we saw that in the NBA Finals?