By Edwin Cooney
Many years ago, I had the privilege of hearing a loving
grandmother assure her wondering grandson that not everyone has to be
interested in baseball and that it was perfectly all right if even a little boy
wasn’t interested in it at all. So
it likely is with the whole world: for camel drivers in Pakistan, sheepherders
in New Zealand, drug cartel bosses in Columbia, bullfighters in Spain and Pope
Benedict XVI in Vatican City.
However, for Americans, America has been the "world" at least
since that Democratic newspaper publisher John O. Sullivan put God and all
humanity on notice in 1845 when he declared that America possessed a “Manifest
Destiny.”
Still, as the San Francisco Giants and the Detroit Tigers
are locked in an intense if not deadly struggle in 2012, the world, and even
much of America, has other matters on their minds. Of course, it isn’t as if baseball hasn’t tried to engulf
all humanity in its peanuts, crackerjacks and beer realm. During the off season between 1888 and
1889, Albert Goodwill Spalding, a former star pitcher turned sporting goods
king, took the Chicago Colts (now the Cubs) and a group of All Stars on a trip
that included Hawaii (then a separate nation), New Zealand, Australia, Sri
Lanca, Egypt, Italy, France, Scotland and England. The players played baseball when they could but were forced
by circumstances to postpone some scheduled games. Meanwhile, they tossed balls over the pyramids of Egypt and
used the right eye of the Sphinx for target practice. They viewed private hula dancing performances, rode
rickshaws, watched rules football in Australia, and watched -- and even played -- cricket. Even though “Atlas Shrugged,” neither
Spalding nor the other baseball moguls hesitated for a moment to call the
annual American and National League Championship series that was finally
established in 1903 “The World Series.”
As for the two teams, the Giants have represented two
cities, New York and San Francisco. They have been in seventeen World Series
going back to 1905 when John J. McGraw’s Giants defeated Connie Mack’s
Philadelphia Athletics four games to one.
That was the year after the testy McGraw had had sufficient power to
refuse to play the "upstart” American League in a World Series. (The Boston Pilgrims had defeated the
Pittsburgh Pirates in a best five out of nine series in 1903 and McGraw wasn’t
going to allow his Giants to be humiliated by the “Junior Circuit’s” 1904
Bostonian champions.) The Giants of New York would win a total of five World
Series: 1905, 1921, 1922 (the previous two over the Yankees who were new to the
World Series in 1921), 1933 and 1954.
Their New York series record was 5 and 9. Since coming to San Francisco they have been in three World
Series: 1962 (when they lost to the Yankees in seven games), 1989 (the infamous
“Earthquake Series" which they lost to the Oakland Athletics), and 2010
(when they defeated the Texas Rangers in five games).
As for the Detroit Tigers, World Series competition has
visited the “Motor City” a total of ten times. Their record is four wins and six losses: 1935 and 1945 over
the Chicago Cubs, 1968 over the St. Louis Cardinals, and 1984 when they swamped
the San Diego Padres, four games to one.
(The Tigers have the dubious distinction of being the only team the
lowly Chicago Cubs have beaten in two World Series -- 1907 and 1908).
As the Giants enter their eighteenth and the Tigers their
eleventh “World Series,” they appear evenly matched. Both teams are led by splendid gentleman managers, Bruce
Bochy of the Giants and Jim Leyland of the Tigers. The Tigers are deeper in power hitting and the Giants are
deeper in starting pitching. The
Tigers can be nearly disastrous on defense and in the bullpen; the Giants’
hitting can be embarrassingly erratic.
It has become almost traditional that the mayors of World
Series cities make bets. This
year, San Francisco’s Ed Lee says that if Detroit prevails he’ll do a day of
public service benefit work in Detroit.
Detroit mayor David Bing, a former National Basketball Association star,
has agreed to do the same in San Francisco.
Between 1952 and 1980, the World Series winner even
predicted America’s political fate.
If the American League champion won the World Series, Americans would elect a
Republican. Otherwise, the
Democratic candidate would prevail.
The American League’s Yankees elected Ike in 1952 and 1956. The National League’s Pirates elected
Jack Kennedy in 1960 and the National League’s Cardinals elected Lyndon Johnson
in 1964. The American League’s
Tigers and Athletics elected Nixon in 1968 and 1972 respectively while the
National League’s Cincinnati Reds (probably much to the chagrin of Cincinnati’s
highly Republican-leaning constituency) elected Jimmy Carter in 1976. However, since the National League’s
Philadelphia Phillies elected Reagan over Carter in 1980, all World Series
political bets seem to be off!
It’s a matter of record that only twice, in 1992 and 1993,
has another member of the world community of nations, Canada’s Toronto Blue
Jays (of the American League), had the temerity to snatch America’s World
Series Championship trophy.
Hence, I offer an observation and a question.
Observation:
America’s world baseball supremacy appears secure for the time being!
Question: I
wonder if baseball’s championship trophy is still made in America?
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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