Giants to honor 2014 team’s unlikely to be duplicated title run originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — There’s no way for one man to win a title in baseball, but the 2014 Giants got about as close as any team could get.
Madison Bumgarner threw 52 2/3 dominant innings that postseason, including the final five of the World Series in a legendary Game 7 performance. It was a historic run, and 10 years later it’s more clear than ever that — given the way the game is changing — it will never be matched.
But as Tim Flannery looked back at that team’s stats in preparation for this weekend’s 10-year reunion, something else stood out.
“It was such a team,” Flannery said Thursday. “Everybody at one moment or more than one moment had a huge part in the club winning. Everybody had something to do with it.”
Bumgarner was the hero of Game 7, but it took a gutsy effort from Jeremy Affeldt to get the ball to him. Brandon Crawford and Joe Panik turned one of the most memorable double plays in postseason history and Michael Morse drove in two early runs.
The second-most memorable moment that month was Travis Ishikawa‘s NLCS-winning walk-off homer, but before that swing, the Giants got huge blasts from Morse and Panik. Brandon Belt‘s homer in the 18th inning in the NLDS in Washington D.C. will never be forgotten, but that game doesn’t get there without six incredible relief innings from Yusmeiro Petit, who never would have been given a chance had it not been for clutch ninth-inning hits by Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval.
It was a collective effort, with a superstar ace leading the way, and on Saturday the Giants will gather to celebrate their last team to win a title. They have been coy about details, but they’re expecting a strong turnout, including Bumgarner, who has not been seen at a big league ballpark since the Arizona Diamondbacks let him go last season.
Some of the most notable absences are expected to be with a manager (Bruce Bochy) and players who are still in-season elsewhere. Brandon Crawford now is with the St. Louis Cardinals, Pablo Sandoval is still playing independent ball, and Matt Duffy is in Triple-A with Bochy’s Rangers.
The Giants will honor the 2014 team with a long ceremony that will start at about noon on Saturday. Afterward, Jake Peavy and Flannery will hold a concert at August Hall in downtown San Francisco to raise money for the Giants Community Fund. The show will include…