In fact, all four of the Giants starting pitchers were developed within the organization, and this widely described as “ragtag” crew has beaten all that Texas has to offer, even the rooting support of former President George W. Bush, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch last night.

Texas was shut out for the second time in the Series and is batting a miserable .211 in the matchup. For the first six innings, Bumgarner faced only one batter over the minimum, and threw only 106 pitches in his entire eight-inning outing. As a 21-year-old phenom, he is one of the youngest ever to start a World Series game.

The Giants next assignment is to face Cliff Lee again, and even though they mastered him the first time around with their own ace, Tim Lincecum, I think Cliff Lee will revert to form. My prediction is Giants in six, though, as previously noted, you can never tell what’s going to happen in baseball.

Hamilton’s story of battling back from drug and alcohol addiction to reach the pinnacle of the baseball world is both praiseworthy and cautionary. He was headed to the major leagues in 2001 when he was involved in an automobile attack and sidelined from playing with a bad back. During the recuperation period, he was bored and became addicted to cocaine, pills and alcohol. He was unable to get a grip on his addiction until he became a born-again Christian.

These days Hamilton serves as an inspiration for many others. He was named to the American League all-star team for the past three years, and this year he led the majors in hitting with a .359 average. He is considered a prime candidate for the MVP award.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated baseball frustration, Cablevision continues to quarrel with Fox News, resulting in a blackout of the World Series for its subscribers. The offer to reimburse its subscribers for the $10 cost to sign up for a special broadcast on another channel is little comfort.

Tonight’s game begins at 6:30 PM, and it remains to be seen whether the Rangers will have the resiliency to bounce back.

That’s what so great about baseball. You never know what to expect. Cliff Lee has been untouchable during the playoffs, compiling a 7-0 record with a 1.26 ERA. He represents a force comparable to the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera, as near to a sure thing as you can get.

But last night, it was not to be. He was outpitched by the Giants’ Tim Lincecum who retired 15 of 16 batters and, at one point, led by a score of 8-2. Not a bad way for the Giants fans to celebrate the opening of the World Series.

The Giants this year have been a collection of players from all over the league; the New York Times nicknamed them a “merry band of misfits.” But these misfits sure know how to play the game of baseball.

Time will tell if they can continue their winning ways and bring a title to San Francisco. A word to the wise: momentum in baseball can change at the drop of a hat — in the words of the famous Yogi Berra, “it ain’t over until it’s over.”

State legislation reflects the divide with San Francisco a major promoter of gay marriage and California’s avant-garde environmental legislation. Texas is all about oil, need I say more? Well, maybe a little. George W. Bush is the number one Texas Rangers fan.

The series starts tonight, and I’m rooting for the blue, San Francisco. It may be one of the few victories we win this year.

The article exploring this red/blue baseball divide also notes the mayors are big baseball fans and former players, with Dallas’s Tom Leppert being right-handed and Gavin Newsome being left-handed. Well, maybe you can take the analogy too far.

In any case, I’m looking for a spirited contest. Neither team has won a World Series before, and it will open tonight in San Francisco. You can expect frenzied rooting from both sets of fans. The two teams were underdogs in the ALCS and NLCS against the more experienced Phillies and Yankees, but that’s baseball.

Superteams collect all the star players and leave those in minor markets, such as Minnesota, Memphis, Cleveland and Toronto, out in the cold. With the movement of LeBron James to the Miami Heat, joining superstar teammates, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, everyone in that town is looking for a championship.

Meanwhile, other players have gravitated towards major markets in New York, Boston, etc.

I say, let them go. You can’t buy a championship in any sport — games are just too unpredictable when you have a contest at such a high level. And the strong teams make the game exciting, even if you’re not rooting for one of them.

Owners have the right to spend freely to please their fans. In fact, I wish more teams would do so (are you reading this, New York Mets). And as the commissioner, David Stern, notes, strong teams are not an anomaly. How about the Boston Celtics with Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, or the Lakers with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen?

Owners should stop trying to tinker with their sports and just let the action take place on the basketball court.

That’s one reason why the articles on today’s sports page were so pleasing. They showcased football players who have made it big yet still find time to engage in other pursuits, perhaps for a career after they leave the game.

For example, Shawn Andrews, a linebacker for the Giants, is well on his way to becoming a professional music producer. He has built recording studios in his homes, taken voice lessons and experimented with music software on three separate laptops.

Yes, his stature is imposing as any linebacker’s in the NFL must be. But his pleasure in more creative pursuits should serve as an image for every aspiring athlete. Sports, even if you make it to the top, provides a limited career option, and you need to think about your post-sports career even before (or if) you excel.

So produce on Shawn. And let’s also see if you can help get the Giants a Super Bowl!

The Texas Rangers provided that competition during the past couple of days, and the team has overcome the 2010 Yankees for once and for all. 51,000 plus fans crammed into Rangers stadium in Arlington, Texas last night to witness the triumph of their team and its entry into the World Series for the first time in its 50-year history. Now baseball is competing with Friday night high-school football for attention by Texans, and, in some ways, that is good for baseball.

The victory, a convincing 6-1 drubbing, belies a game that was a lot closer and was locked at 1-1 for much of the night. The Yankees have every right to be proud of their effort, especially a stunning five-run comeback in the opening game of the series. But the hitting, a dismal .201 during the matchup, was just not enough to get it done.

One wonders how long it will take for recriminations to start among the Yankees faithful. If past history is any indication, they are starting already.

They’ve come from behind in three of the last four seasons to win the National League East, unfortunately twice against my beloved Mets, and they are not about to quit now. They proved the same with their victory last night against the San Francisco Giants, staving off elimination, and guaranteeing a return to home field advantage for the final two games of the series.

The climb is still uphill, but it was the way the team won last night that should give heart to its fans. Faced with overwhelming odds against the winner of the Cy Young Award for the last two years, Tim Lincecum, they managed to scrape out three runs in the third inning — and a good thing, too, since Lincecum was lights-out perfect for the rest of the contest. He retired his first six batters and 13 of the last 15.

Meanwhile, the Phillies ace, and probably Cy Young Award winner for this year, Roy Halladay, had less than perfect stuff, but like all good pitchers, he managed to survive by making the key pitch when it counted.

We’ll see how the contest concludes this weekend, but I wouldn’t count the Phillies out yet.

Joe Girardi was described as giving a succinct message in the pre-game pep talk — Win today, period. And the Yankees did just that. With masterful pitching by C.C. Sabathia, who made key pitches again and again, clutch hitting by staples such as Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano, and an overall professional effort, the Yankees cruised to a 7-2 triumph.

What happens next remains to be seen. But no baseball aficonado would count the Yankees out. The team is used to playoff pressure, and, after all, they are the reigning world champions. Folks like Jeter and Mariano Rivera are nothing if not cool and efficient.

They will face some obstacles, however, in the Rangers’ pitching, especially a confrontation with a relatively unbeatable Cliff Lee in game seven if they make it that far. And playing on the road during the playoffs already gives Texas an inherent edge.

That may explain why baseball players are so superstitious, why pitchers inevitably jump to avoid standing on the foul line when they leave the field.

And the sport of baseball is unfolding true to the form in the current American League and National League Championship Series. The Texas Rangers now lead the Yankees three games to one, and the San Franciso Giants lead the Phillies two games to one.

It’s exciting for the home regions involved, where baseball must be on the lips of every San Franciscan and Texan. Non-baseball fans are being introduced to the sport, and new attendees at the ballparks experience the excitement of October baseball, the building of tension and release that has no parallel in any other sport.

Meanwhile, the somewhat jaded fans in New York and Philadelphia shake their heads in disbelief at the affrontery of the upstarts. But there is little they can do. In baseball, you can’t run out the clock, even if you establish a lead in the first place. However, neither series is over until the final out is recorded.