Look, I know all about destiny. She had a child once who turned into a darn fine musical act.
Other than that, four decades as a sportswriter have wrung all the romance out of me, and so now, when I see an alleged "team of destiny," all I see is a team that sooner or later is gonna break somebody's heart. Sometimes, yeah, they win, but it's almost always because they were the better team, anyway. Mostly they're a team of destiny until they run up against a Team That's Better, and then they lose.
All of which is a windy explanation for why I'm picking the Giants in the World Series.
There are a few reasons for this, not all of which are the product of hardheaded analysis.
1. Bruce Bochy is the best playoff manager in baseball. Ned Yost is not.
2. The Giants have better pitching.
3. The Giants, once they get to the World Series, don't tend to lose it.
And last and surely least:
4. It's an even year.
Which means, of course, that the Giants won in 2010 and 2012, so it's their turn again. That's admittedly no more pragmatic than sensing destiny in the Royals, but, hey, I've never claimed that consistency of thought was a thing with me.
And don't get me wrong: I want to pick the Royals. I want the Royals to win. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if they did, considering they have the home-field advantage, they're the hot team -- 8-0 in the playoffs so far -- and they've already knocked out two teams, and possibly three, that were better on paper.
But I'm going to resist all of that. I'll take the Giants in six.
I can hear destiny laughing at me from here.
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