The Giants Are The Kings of Baseball
The San Francisco Giants are in the World Series for the third time in the last five years, as they battle the upstart Kansas City Royals in a match up, that at one win apiece after the first two games, promises to be a very interesting, if not downright exciting series. The Giants have already won baseball’s Fall Classic twice in the last four years, making them the early line favorites to become baseball’s “Team of the 2010’s.” Clearly, they must be doing something right when it comes to the architecture of championship baseball teams.
The Los Angeles Kings have won two of the last three championships of hockey, AKA The Stanley Cup. In the non-championship year, they were in the conference finals, meaning they were in the final four for three straight years and were champions in two of them, which puts THEM squarely in there as early favorites for hockey’s “Team of the Decade.” They too must be doing something incredibly right when it comes to team architecture.
What do these two teams have in common? All kinds of things!
Neither team is considered to be a mighty powerhouse in the grand scheme of their respective sports. Other teams are perceived to be more powerful than the Giants in baseball (Dodgers, Yankees, Tigers, Cardinals, Angels, Nationals, to name a few), or the Kings in hockey (Black Hawks, Bruins, Penguins, Blues, Sharks, Ducks, Canadiens, are all perceived as puck powers), but I can guarantee you the Giants and the Kings are admired by the fans of those sports as championship teams because they have won when it counted — in the playoffs.
Neither team is a particularly glamorous team. They don’t dazzle you with flash so much as they grind you down with substance. They each have a strong core team with several good, solid players, a few stars each, but few of the glamorous superstars that seem to be touted by all of the fans and national media. All they do is win championships.
Both teams were NOT on either of their sports’ radar over five years ago. Both were considered pretty good teams, maybe good enough to be an occasional playoff team, but neither was considered anything special until recently. Then they got good. Really good.
How did these two teams get so good? How did they go from middle of the pack, middle of the sports world to being championship caliber teams? They did it the old fashioned way, they earned it. You can’t go from zero to great without becoming a really solid team first.
Solid means being really, really good defensively, first and foremost. If you can’t stop the other team from scoring consistently, they will outscore you half the time when it’s a high scoring game and they’ll hold you down enough to win half the time in a low scoring game. You will likely be a .500 team.
Think about the phrase “keeping the other team from scoring.” That IS defense. If you CAN keep the other team from scoring when you have a lead, you will win. It’s as simple as that. In hockey, that’s great goal tending and defensive play that keeps the other team out of your net. In baseball, that’s pitching and defense and to be even more exact, it’s having great relief pitching that can close the other team out in the last innings of the game. If you play great defense or pitch well every time out there, you will be in EVERY game.
Both teams have really solid fundamentals offensively too. That’s because both teams have really strong coaches who command the respect of their team and make them do the things it takes to win games. No player is allowed to be in there to pile up the statistics and to glorify themselves at the expense of the team concept. Player egos must be subservient to team success. If a winning run or winning goal is needed, the players know what’s needed, and they put forth incredible effort to get the job done. The object for every player on each of these two teams is to do what it takes for the TEAM to win. Above EVERYTHING. That is not as common in pro sports as you would think.
But the thing that really makes these two teams into winners of championships is that cliched but still accurate term – they have the hearts of champions. The Giants, in the 2012 playoffs against the St. Louis Cardinals, were down 3 to 1 in the series, and yet had the juevos to come back and win three straight games to win the series. The Kings, in the 2014 playoff run, were down 3 to NOTHING against the San Jose Sharks, and yet staged an incredible gutsy comeback of winning four straight elimination games to win that series in a decisive 7th game on the road. These teams with character can ratchet up their games to a championship level that few teams in their respective sports can match, and when they Have to win, they win the biggest of the big games. (I can only say, look out Royals. You will have to BEAT these Giants.)
So, if any owners and general managers are out there and wondering what it takes to become a championship caliber team, I suggest they closely watch the Giants and the Kings every chance they get. Those teams play the game the right way. When the playoffs start, THEY are the teams to beat. They may not win every year, but we live in a what have you done lately world and these two teams sure have been winning a lot of championships lately. The Kings are the Giants of hockey. The Giants are the Kings of baseball.
