Baseball

As a New York Yankees fan it is easy to get to know the players in the American League.

Due to geographical circumstances and interleague play, I have learned more about some of the teams in the National League, like the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Over the past few seasons, the San Francisco Giants have not come to the Bronx and have not factored in the postseason.

It's no secret San Francisco is basking in its NLCS glorious victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. You can't walk down a street in San Francisco without seeing someone with some sort of Giants merchandise.

The Giants Dugout Stores have lines flowing for, what seem like, miles. A person could walk from AT&T Park to the Ferry Building and back and the line would not have moved. Giants fever is extremely contagious.

Baseball fans rejoice. 

The Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants have made it to the World Series, and once the first pitch is thrown on Wednesday night, we will each be able to bear witness to one of the more unique championship series that has happened in our lifetimes.

There have been many important days in Twins history. Oct. 25th, 1987 (first World Series victory), Oct. 27th, 1991 (second World Series), and June 5th, 2001 (drafting of Joe Mauer) spring to mind for many fans. But the absolute most important date had nothing to do with winning a world series or drafting a future hall of fame catcher. The day in question is July 3rd, 2000.

The 2010 World Series will commence on Wednesday evening from San Francisco.  It can last as long as nine days or as few as five.  It should be interesting to see how this unlikely World Series will play out.  

Pitching match-ups will be at the forefront, but this slideshow will attempt to go even deeper. I will examine all things that need mentioning and present fun facts for each game.  

Here are some major league reasons to watch this 2010 World Series between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants.  

Now that the Jays have hired John Farrell as their 12th manager in franchise history, the team can now begin looking into their offseason plans as they look to continue rebuilding in 2011.

The team was fortunate to come away with 85 wins last season, surprising just about everyone. They also surprised everyone by leading the league in homers.

When the starting pitchers were announced for the World Series it was no big surprise. For San Francisco it was ace Tim Lincecum getting the nod. For the Texas Rangers it was postseason superstar Cliff Lee toeing the rubber to start things off. The biggest shocker may have been the rest of the rotations for either team.

The 2010 MLB postseason has been defined by a few old faces and a whole lot of new ones. The regular season awards voting should follow the same trend.

Veterans like Roy Halladay, C.C. Sabathia, and Albert Pujols are sure to garner the attention of some voters, but a yet-unheralded group of youngsters is likely to steal many of the accolades the way they stole the show in the regular season.

One of those youngsters is Peter Bourjos.

It is quite ironic that two of the biggest topics in the news this week are the World Series and the upcoming election, which will determine our 106^th winner of the Fall Classic and our 112^th United States Congress.

There isn’t a whole lot that links the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers, who are making their first appearance in the World Series.

Using our MLB simulation engine we "played" the Texas Rangers versus San Francisco Giants 2010 World Series Best-of-Seven series 1001 times.

In the table below you will find each teams' chances of advancing to the World Series and how often they win in 4, 5, 6 or 7 games. As you can see, the most likely scenario is the Rangers beating the Giants in six games 19-percent of the time.