Considering that I am an official MLB blogger, you could easily reprimand me for being MIA in posting about baseball this season. It's been a strange year here in San Francisco. Our long-time hero, Barry Bonds, discredited by almost anybody in professional sports as a steroid-user, no longer wears the Giants' uniform that he cherished.
The team was widely expected to be a pathetic also-ran this season. Last place was a certainty, according to conventional wisdom.
Well, mid-season is here and the Giants are not in last place in their division. They are in 3rd place, five games out of 1st. But here is the most shocking fact -- of the 16 teams in the National League, the Giants have the third best road record! Only the Cardinals and the Phillies, both legitimate contenders for the NL pennant, have been better on the road.
Long-time baseball fans understand why this statistic matters. A team that has been doing badly at home will often rectify that weakness in the second half of the season. But being able to win on the road is an indication that a team is much stronger than the competition.
So, you read it here first.
The divisional champs in the National League this year will be the Phillies in the East, the Cardinals in the Central, and the unheralded Giants in the West
(I just hope somebody connected with professional baseball reads this obscure prediction. Otherwise, it truly will not mater at all what I think...)
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