Its World Series Time Baby

As the World Series gets under way, Jock Talk has decided to let ESPN down the match-ups, while we lay out some of the story lines left on each team.  Lets start with a team close to Jock Talk's heart, the Texas Rangers.

The Rangers are full of heart wrenching story lines.  Beginning with their pitching staff, which showcases a 29 year old who just finished his first full season as a starter with 15 wins and a 3.35 ERA after serving as a reliever for the first 4 years of his career who is also a race car driver (CJ Wilson), a 31 year old starter who led the AL in 10+ strikeout games, resurrecting his career in Texas following 2 years in Japan after being released and unable to find work (Colby Lewis) [side note: the 10+ K stat was true in July but I am too lazy to try to find out if it is true in October so lets just assume :end side note], a pitcher with more wins (3) than walks (2) this postseason (Cliff Lee) [side note: in the entire history of baseball, our countries most historic game, there have been eight 10 strikeout-0 walk games thrown in the postseason and Lee has thrown half of them :end side note], and arguably the hardest thrower in the AL (Rookie star closer Neftali Feliz).  Nolan Ryan has done a tremendous job finding solid pitching for a historically pitching inept franchise and acquiring the missing piece in Lee.
Offensively, the Rangers host one of the most well known drug-addict-turn-clear superstar stories in all of sports ("Outstanding Player" Josh Hamilton), a veteran leader to changed positions late in his career to help the team (Michael Young), a host of young fanstasy baseball studs (Elvis Andrus, Ian Kinsler, Nelson Cruz), an aging slugger who is playing like its 2005 (Vladimir Guerrero), and the most interesting of all, a manager who tested positive for cocaine during the 2009 season at age 57 (Ron Washington) [side note: if there is a single person on this planet who believes that a 57 year old man randomly decided to try cocaine for the first time in the middle of the season, you are a fool :end side note].  The Rangers may be the most interesting in all of sports, not just baseball.

The Giants also have several interesting story lines.  Tim Lincecum is a 25 year old back-to-back Cy Young award winner getting his first taste of postseason and world series action.  Lincecum struggled by his standards for most of the year but finished the season strong and has been lights out in the playoffs.  Matt Cain is arguably the most underrated starting pitcher in all of baseball and forms a great 1-2 punch with Lincecum.  Then we have Brian Wilson.  I'll save myself some typing by directing you to this video.  The offense is led by several veterans (Freddy Sanchez, Pat Burrell, Aubrey Huff, Edgar Renteria, and Juan Uribe have a combined 51 years of service between them), an up and coming superstar catcher (Buster Posey), and a player they were given for free who leads the NL in postseason home runs (Cody Ross).  Ross was placed on waivers by the Marlins late in the season.  At the time the Giants were competing with the San Diego Padres for the NL West crown.  The Giants didn't want the Padres to acquire Ross so they claimed him off waivers.  San Francisco told the Marlins they didn't want him but were forced to take him.  He has turned out pretty well for the Giants.

Let the games begin!