As a foreword, it seems proper to warn that this is far more of a fan account than that of a columnist. This stems partially from the niches that seem under-filled in the wake of the Giants winning the World Series, and partially because being a fan proved to be the only real way for me to talk about this team. After Tim Lincecum?s gem of a start in Game 1 of the NLCS, one of my friends (who knows the 2000?s Giants better than just about anyone I know) grabbed me in a hug and said ?I?m only telling this to you, but this team is going 11-4.? While giving it the deserved deference, the only other instinctive reaction was to restate the last published words I had on RealGM about this team: It?s all gravy from here, but eleven more sure would be nice. This team While simply winning a World Series provides plenty of joy in and of itself, the story of this team coupled with the players on it makes the victory all the sweeter. First and foremost, the 2010 Giants should and will always be defined by pitching. From the start of September onwards, the staff put on a display of pitching prowess that the league has not seen in quite some time. Reading quotes from vanquished opponents and incorrect prognosticators felt eerily similar to what I read after UCLA basketball games in recent years- it sure seemed like every team just happened to hit a cold streak at the wrong time. Having to hit against Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, and Madison Bumgarner in the early innings and then battle an unbelievable bearded bullpen tamed even the strongest bats. In the last two games of the World Series, the only player on the Texas Rangers to touch third was Nelson Cruz after a home run in Game 5. That?s it. I?d like to take a little time to single out Matt Cain for praise. The guy comes to the majors like a ball of fire and shortly has to take a back seat to some kid named Tim (who is actually older than Matt) who just happened to win two straight Cy Young awards. Cain never let being continually underrated and underappreciated bring him down and turned in one of the best post-seasons since the mound got lowered in 1969. In October, Cain really was superwonderful. The hitting took an eternity to come on, yet eventually took a strange niche on this team. Having a collection of mostly low-OBP players feels like a poor fit with such a nasty pitching staff, but somehow the team scrapped together enough runs to win each series. No players exemplify this sentiment better than Cody Ross and Edgar Renteria, the MVP?s of the playoff series. Ross has always been a talent, yet was waived by the Marlins and largely picked up by Brian Sabean as a defensive move to stymie the Padres. After finally getting into the lineup, Ross Wally Pipped his way into an offensive juggernaut for both the NLDS and NLCS. Renteria?s resurrection was even more shocking. After being a non-factor for even the early rounds of the playoffs, he took over the end of the World Series and garnered a well-deserved series MVP (though Tim Lincecum warranted heavy consideration). The position players also should receive a ton of credit for the quality defense they played during the playoffs, most notably Freddie Sanchez, Juan Uribe, Buster Posey, and Nate Schierholtz. Sticking with Buster Posey, the way he stepped up from the moment he got called up this season has been continually astonishing. Making an impact the way he did offensively is baseball?s version of Halley?s Comet; coupling that hitting with taking over the staff midstream and becoming a difference-maker defensively is nothing short of mind blowing. The scary thing: Gerald is only 23. As has been mentioned in this space before and bears repeating now, this Giants team is an excellent group of guys. Being lucky enough to spend time in the locker room made rooting for the team even easier and more special and exhilarating. The Demons Around the American sports world, the Giants and their fans have continually been underappreciated in terms of their status as a tortured fanbase. Part of this comes from simply being a West Coast sports team- the fact of the matter is that teams on different sides of the Mississippi get a different flavor of history in a way that mirrors the old attitudes towards the West in generations past. Some of this also flows from the fact that San Francisco enjoyed an unparalleled run with the 49ers under Eddie DeBartolo and Bill Walsh. As a team that unabashedly benefited from the lack of a salary cap, the 49ers became the kings of The City so indelibly that many around the nation largely forgot the Giants had never won. With all of that said, the demons in San Francisco have proven hard to live down for the fanbase. For the older generation of Giants fans, the 1962 World Series and other excellent 60?s teams provided the original broken dreams. Later teams brought their own pain, including teams falling just short in 1987 and 1989 (along with the earthquake), disappointment in 1993 and 1997, and the outright heartbreak in the early 2000?s. A joke that originated at the unparalleled McCovey Chronicles that has persisted through my fandom is the conceit that the 2002 World Series never happened because of some sort of natural disaster since Games 6 and 7 were so painful that the only way to process them is in a universe where they never happened. I have blocked out the entirety of that World Series and carry no direct memories despite watching every single out. In fact, it was over five years ago that I met Bill Simmons in Los Angeles at a book signing for ?Now I Can Die in Peace?, where we recounted this brutal history and he showed an understanding of the pain, writing ?Hope there?s a sequel for the Giants!? in my copy. What makes the past of the Giants even harder to swallow for fans is that so many excellent and beloved players never won a ring at all in their careers. While Willie Mays got a title in 1954, the list of Giants who never won a World Series anywhere stirs up a persistent sting, from Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal to Will Clark and Robby Thompson to Barry Bonds, Rich Aurilia, and JT Snow. There have been remarkably few Ray Bourque moments for Giants fans, which compounded the anguish. The faithful did not even get to see their favorites succeed in other colors. The simple beauty of the 2010 Giants is that none of them could be consumed by those demons like the fans because none of them were there. Matt Cain, the longest tenured Giant, was freshly drafted out of high school and knee-deep in the minors in 2002, and the only members of the on the field crew that have been Giants since then are components of the coaching staff. Hell, almost half of the contributors on this team were not on the major league roster at the end of last season. While the fanbase felt footsteps at every corner, the players had no reason to. Moreover, this was a team too strangely situated in their careers to feel that sort of pressure. The 2010 Giants are a mix of the insanely young (Posey, Bumgarner, Lincecum, and Cain) journeymen with little postseason experience (Huff, F. Sanchez) and vets who had done it before in other places (Renteria, Burrell, Rowand, Uribe). The history of the NBA is littered with players and teams who had to ?pay their dues? with post-season pain before reaching the pinnacle. This team (not the only exception, of course) went through little of that beyond this torturous season. What This Means More than anything else, this World Series signifies both redemption and a cleansing of past pain. Both Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy received a hearty portion of grief from fans and media alike, much of it deserved. Each of them, along with a scouting staff that deserves a ton of credit for some excellence in the draft (particularly in terms of pitching) should get both a hat tip and a nice little grace period now. Outside of the front office, this win officially takes the cloud off of some of the more notable collapses in recent history. The 2002 World Series that never happened stands as an uncomfortable but livable bump in the road while the wilderness from 2004-2009 moves from frustration to fascinating prologue. That said, the biggest impact of this win is the freeing of hardship and guilt for both longstanding fans and players alike. While the Giants had 1954 to look back at organizationally (and a player in Willie Mays who bridges the NY-SF gap), San Francisco and its fans have persisted without a championship for their entire joined existence. Fans like my grandfather lived their entire adult lives without seeing their team, the San Francisco Giants, win a championship while many others get the peace later in life that Red Sox fans felt years ago. Fans in their mid-50?s like my parents lived in a world of near-misses and disappointment while twentysomethings like myself were forged out of the brutal end to the 1993 and 2002 seasons. I spent a good deal of a sleepless night thinking about all the people who now get the satisfaction of rooting for a World Champion. However, I kept on getting drawn from the happiness for the fans back to the outright joy for the players who gave their careers to this organization without ever getting diamond rings for their toil and skill. Willie McCovey, the dedication and class you continually showed on and off the field taught us all how excellence did not have to be accompanied by brashness or arrogance. There?s a reason the yearly award for the most inspirational Giant forever bears your name. This win is for you. Barry Bonds, your dual identity in San Francisco and everywhere else along with a mixed legacy may keep you out of the Hall for a long while, but your effort and skill (both with and without ?help?) kept the Giants relevant and close to the mountaintop for a decade. This win is for you. Willie Mays, you are still the best living ballplayer and it?s a shame you never got to win more than one championship. Hearing that you were so excited at the end of the game you had to leave the room shows just how much you still mean to this organization and how much it still means to you. This win is for you. Will Clark, your natural ability and sheer awesomeness helped propel this franchise closer than they had come in more than a decade. It always hurt that you, Robby (Thompson), Matt (Williams), Kevin (Mitchell), John (Burkett), and the rest never got to hold the big one as a team. This win is for you. Solomon Torres, Felix Rodriguez, and Jose Cruz Jr, you guys have been pariahs for long enough. This win is for you. Robb Nen, the smoke on the water and the fire in the sky. This win is for you. Rod Beck, your fire and love for the game inspired an entire generation of Bay Area kids and adults alike. Shooter, we miss you and this win is for you. There will be plenty of time in between now and when pitchers and catchers report to analyze just how good this team can be going forward and what their place is in baseball history. For now, let?s just soak in the present and reflect on how much better looking at the last 52 years feels now.