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      The prize that eluded Willie and Barry for so long finally
belongs to the San Francisco Giants, thanks to a band of
self-described castoffs and misfits and their shaggy-haired ace.


      Tim Lincecum, Edgar Renteria and the Giants won the title Monday
night, beating the Texas Rangers 3-1 in a tense Game 5 and taking
the trophy home to the city by the Bay for the first time.


      "San Francisco is going nuts, we're going nuts and it feels
really good," closer Brian Wilson said.

      It was an overdue victory. Willie Mays led the Giants to their
previous crown in 1954, four years before they moved West. After
that, they never quite got it done despite the likes of baseball
giants Barry Bonds, Juan Marichal and Willie McCovey.


      "This buried a lot of bones - '62, '89, 2002," Giants general
manager Brian Sabean said, ticking off losing Series appearances.
"This group deserved it, faithful from the beginning. We're proud
and humbled by the achievement."

      Lincecum outdueled Cliff Lee in a matchup that was scoreless
until Renteria earned the Series MVP award by hitting a stunning
three-run homer with two outs in the seventh inning. Nelson Cruz
homered in the bottom half, but Lincecum returned to his wicked
self and preserved the lead.

      Lincecum won this game of Texas Hold 'em, beating Lee for the
second time in a week. He gave up three hits over eight innings and
struck out 10.


      The two-time NL Cy Young winner arrived at Rangers Ballpark
wearing a bow tie, as if he was going to a party. He had one on the
mound, for sure.


      "Pretty collected. I was very poised out there. From the first
inning on my adrenaline kind of just dissipated and I was able to
calm down," he said.


      Wilson pitched a perfect ninth for a save, completing a
surprising romp through the postseason for a pitching-rich team
that waited until the final day to clinch a playoff spot.


      Wilson struck out Cruz swinging to end it, turned toward center
field and crossed his wrists in front of his chest as he does after
all his saves.

      "All the experts out there picked us last," Huff said.
Normally rough and tough, he teared up.

      Manager Bruce Bochy enjoys calling his Giants a ragtag bunch.
Maybe Renteria, Cody Ross, Huff and Freddy Sanchez fit that
description. Cut loose by other clubs this season and before, they
all wound up in San Francisco.


      But the foundation of this team - for now, for the foreseeable
future - is totally home grown, built on a deep, talented and young
rotation, a rookie catcher with huge star potential and their funky
closer.


      "For us to win for our fans, it's never been done there, and
with all those great teams," Bochy said.


      Bonds spent 15 years wearing the black and orange.


      "There is no city that deserves this championship more," Bonds
said in a statement. "I grew up watching my dad and godfather as
Giants, lived out my dream playing in the same uniform in front of
the best fans in the world and I just witnessed the Giants winning
the World Series. I am ecstatic for the team, the city and all the
fans - you truly deserve it."


      Renteria reprised his role of postseason star. His 11th-inning
single ended Game 7 of the 1997 World Series and lifted Florida
over Cleveland. Forget that he made the last out in the 2004 Series
that finished Boston's sweep of St. Louis - this journeyman's path
led to another title, helped by his go-ahead home run in Game 2.

      "It was a tough year for me," the oft-injured shortstop said.
"I told myself to keep working hard and keep in shape because
something is going to be good this year."

      A team seemingly free of egos did everything right to take the
lead. Ross, the surprising MVP of the NL championship series,
stayed square and hit a leadoff single and Juan Uribe followed with
another hit up the middle.

      That put a runner at second base for the first time in the game
and brought up Huff, who led the Giants in home runs this year. So
what did he do? He expertly put down the first sacrifice bunt of
his career.

      Lee struck out Pat Burrell to keep the runners put, but Ross
began hopping home as soon as Renteria connected, sending a drive
that kept sailing and landed over the left-center field wall.


      "It was a classic pitchers' duel down to that home run. Nobody
in this room is more disappointed than I am," Lee said.

      And just like that, all the Giants' past troubles seemed like
ancient history.


      Bonds, Mays and several other former San Francisco stars are
still a part of the Giants family.


      Bonds got a hallowed home-run record, but questions persist
about alleged steroids use. He visited the Giants clubhouse during
the Series and got a big hand from fans when he took his seat at
AT&T Park.


      His godfather, the 79-year-old Mays, was supposed to throw out
the ceremonial first ball but the Say Hey Kid was absent because of
illness.


      The Giants won their previous title when they played in New York
at the Polo Grounds. That's where Mays raced back for perhaps the
most famous catch of all time.


      They moved West in 1958 and had tried ever since to escape a
sort of big league Alcatraz - the place where teams get stuck for
decades as also-rans. The Red Sox and White Sox got free, not so
the Cubs and Indians.


      So clang the cable car bells. Loudly, too. Baseball's best play
by the Bay.


      Exactly when these Giants turned into world beaters is hard to
say. Trailing San Diego by 7½ games in the NL West on July 4, they
meandered in the wild-card race until the stretch run, winning the
division and finishing 92-70.


      Come the playoffs, they became dangerous. Any well-armed team
is. Start with Matt Cain - three postseason starts, a 0.00 ERA.
Throw in Lincecum, the two-time Cy Young winner. Add Madison
Bumgarner, the 21-year-old rookie who helped blank Texas in Game 4.


      "This doesn't make sense. You don't realize it. It's something
that's surreal. But that's what we are, World Series champs," Cain
said.

      San Francisco posted a trio of one-run wins in the opening round
that sent Atlanta manager Bobby Cox into retirement, then stopped
the two-time defending NL champion Phillies in the championship
series. Those wins, like this came on the road.

      In the Year of the Pitcher, the World Series proved the oldest
adage in the game: Good pitching stops good hitting, every time.
Lincecum and the team with the best ERA in the big leagues
completely shut down Josh Hamilton and the club with the majors'
top batting average.


      Texas hit just .190 in the five games and was outscored 29-12.


      "They beat us soundly," manager Ron Washington said. "They
deserve it."


      Texas became the latest Series newcomer to make a quick exit.
Houston (2005) and Colorado (2007) got swept in their first
appearances, Tampa Bay (2008) stuck around for just five games. The
AL champion Rangers became the first team since 1966 to get shut
out twice in a World Series, with big hitters Hamilton, Vladimir
Guerrero and Cruz left taking half-swings or flailing wildly.


      Hamilton, the probable AL MVP, went 2 for 20 with one RBI.


      "We just got cold at the wrong time with the bats," he said.


      The Rangers' franchise wrapped up its 50th season overall, in
good hands with Nolan Ryan as president and part-owner. If only Big
Tex could teach his team to hit, too.


      By the final out, Ryan sat there glumly as did the team's No. 1
fan, former President George W. Bush.


      The Giants won their sixth title overall, joining the likes of
Christy Mathewson, Mel Ott and John McGraw as champs. They also
helped ease the gloating that blew from across the Bay, where the
Oakland Athletics won three straight crowns in the mid-1970s and
swept the Giants in the earthquake-interrupted 1989 Series.


      The Giants are tied with their longtime rivals, the Dodgers, for
fifth-most Series titles. The Yankees lead with 27, followed by the
Cardinals (10), Athletics (9) and Red Sox (7).


      San Francisco had come close before. Future Hall of Famers
Orlando Cepeda, Mays, McCovey and Marichal lost to the Yankees 1-0
in Game 7 in 1962. In 2002, Bonds & Co. led the Angels 5-0 in the
seventh inning of Game 6 before letting that lead and Game 7 slip
away.

      Many years ago, one swing of the bat prompted a call that
resonates throughout Giants history and beyond.


      "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The
Giants win the pennant!" announcer Russ Hodges shouted over and
over after Bobby Thomson launched "The Shot Heard 'Round the
World" in 1951.

      Time to redo that cry: The Giants win the Series! The Giants win
the Series! The Giants win the Series!

Gallery

Sports

The prize that eluded Willie and Barry for so long finally
belongs to the San Francisco Giants, thanks to a band of
self-described castoffs and misfits and their shaggy-haired ace.

Giants win team's first World Series

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