SAN FRANCISCO – Here’s where baseball is different. It’s not the Super Bowl, it’s not just one game, four quarters and thank you fan.
No, the World Series is much more than that. It is a seven-game relationship. And getting that second look, that second chance that can make all the difference in the world.
So as the Giants and Angels headed into another game of cold and mist last night at the New Candlestick, otherwise known as Pac Bell Park, the two teams are like old enemies now.
They know what’s coming and the team that adjusts the most will win this 98th World Series. In many ways this World Series is so much like the 1960 clash between the Yankees and Pirates.
The Yankees put up all the big numbers, winning 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0 in their three victories while the Pirates won 6-4, 3-2, 5-2 and 10-9 in the memorable seventh game when Bill Mazeroski’s home run turned out to be one of the greatest moments in baseball history, a moment that was so great that it was totally forgotten by today’s baseball fans as evidenced by some cheesy promotion that was held before Game 4.
Baseball’s out-of-step suits, who cater to the New Fan, the fan who loves to bang plastic tubes together, choreographed all that stuff on the field beforehand.
What happened afterward on the field in the Giants’ stirring, 4-3 victory is what memorable moments are all about.
Now the Giants have a chance in this series because they have solved the riddle of Francisco Rodriguez.
Getting a second look at Rodriguez and his slider made all the difference in Game 4. In Rodriguez’ first appearance, in the Angels’ 11-10 Game 2 victory, Rodriguez blew through nine batters.
The Giants got to him Wednesday night. This time they were ready for his lethal slider and Rodriguez will now have to throw more fastballs to set up his slider.
J.T. Snow got the big hit to start the eighth, taking the slider that runs in on lefthanders and poking it to right field for a single. A passed ball and a one-out single to left by the faceless David Bell scored Snow. In the space of one inning, the Giants turned this series around.
But that’s championship baseball. It can turn at any moment, if you make the adjustments.
“You see a guy that good for the first time and it’s really tough,” Snow said. “You just don’t have any idea. But you don’t sit around thinking it’s hopeless. Deep down, you have to think you’re gonna get him.”
You have to think that. If ballplayers didn’t think that, they would have quit this game a long time ago. That is the difference between those who make it and those who don’t. You always have to think that next time you’re going to win the battle.
As reliever Tim Worrell, the Game 4 winner, told me, “No matter how bad the situation is, I always believe that I am one pitch away from getting out of trouble.”
The other Giants hitters know they will get their pitch because Barry Bonds is not going to get his. They know they will get their chance to be a hero.
The Giants have a second chance now because they’ve made the most of their second look at Rodriguez.
Rodriguez was stoic afterward, but not shaken. “You’re going to have your bad days, you’re going to have your lucky days,” he said. “This wasn’t my night but I had great stuff.”
Rodriguez has overcome so much in his life, given up by his own mother when he was a baby in Caracas, Venezuela. He knows about second chances and how to make the most of them. That’s why he loves this country and has a special place in his heart for the Statue of Liberty, which he plans to visit after the World Series.
But first, it is his turn to adjust.