World Champions Once Again
By Eryn Olson
One block from the Santa Clara campus, one fan's passion was literally flaming. Firefighters were called to extinguish a couch that had been thrown in the middle of Bellomy Street and set ablaze in celebration.
The impact of the Giants' success has been unavoidable on the Santa Clara campus during the past few weeks.
Senior Dominic Rios said, "I have talked with tons of students - many of whom I did not know beforehand - about the playoffs, only because we spotted each other wearing Giants gear. I think that's one of the great powers of sports."
Rios attended the Giants' Game 1 loss in the National League Division Series against the Reds, but on Sunday, he had so much confidence that the Giants were going to pull off the sweep, he carried a broom around with him.
A date with destiny was how San Francisco Giants General Manager Brian Sabean described his team's sweep over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday night. "Detroit probably didn't know what it was in for," he said.
The Giants swept the Tigers with a 4-3, 10-inning win in the decisive Game 4. No National League team had swept a World Series since the 1990 Cincinnati Reds. No NL team had won twice in a three-year span since 1975-76. And these Giants did both of these things with small ball, becoming only the fifth big league team to win the title after finishing dead last in home runs during the regular season.
Games were played on the screens in Benson Center. Some professors ended classes early so no one missed any of the action. The Santa Clara Facebook page even changed half of its logo to the Giants' logo.
Freshman Alex McAfee watched the game in the fourth floor of Graham Hall. "There were at least 15 of us watching the game," he said. "It was super intense during the last inning. When (Sergio) Romo threw the last strike to Miguel Cabrera, the place exploded."
While nearly every TV on the Santa Clara campus was tuned in to the games, the rest of the country was seemingly less interested. The Giants' sweep of the Tigers set a record low for the World Series' television ratings.
Despite this, people were quick to hit up the social media sites. MLB said there were 1,202,706 comments for the Series finale, and 171,024 comments were within five minutes after the final out. The total 10,671,781 social media comments for the postseason marked a 131 percent increase from last year.
Some Giants fans who took to social media were made nervous when in the third inning of Game 4, Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera hit a two-run homer, giving Detroit its first lead of the Series and ending its 20-inning scoreless streak. This was the first time the Giants had trailed since Game 4 of the National League Championship Series. Marco Scutaro then led off the top of the sixth inning with a single and Buster Posey homered for a 3-2 lead. Tiger Delmon Young then responded during the bottom of the sixth with a game-tying home run.
A battle of the bullpens had both teams deadlocked until Ryan Theriot led off the 10th with a single and scored with two outs on a hit by none other than Scutaro, the most valuable player of the NL championship series.
The Giants sealed the title when Sergio Romo struck out the side in the bottom of the 10th for his third save of the Series.
The Giants victory parade was held on Wednesday. The parade was the second in three years in the city by the bay, a city that had never had a World Series Champion before 2010.
Contact Eryn Olson at eolson@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852. The Associated Press contributed to this report.