2010 World Series Pick: The lesser of two mehs

I suppose that on the one hand, it was incredibly satisfying to see the Yankees get thumped by Texas in the ALCS because it's always fun to watch the Yankees lose. Considering that it feels as though they end up winning, you know, every other year, it's important to take a little joy in those rare occasions when they get flat-out embarrassed.

So now the final series of the 2010 Major League Baseball season is a matchup that I'm fairly certain absolutely nobody had penned in when the first pitch was thrown out on Opening Day. And that's certainly refreshing to get something other than the widely expected New York-Philadelphia World Series that had been a pretty popular expectation coming into October.

There's been some fairly entertaining moments so far this postseason, and I'm willing to bet that we could be in store for a solid final chapter to this 2010 season—even if the television ratings reflect a record number of viewers. I can't say, however, I'm terribly passionate about either team really winning. For me, it's more of a case of holding old grudges.

Looking back at how the ESPN and the Yahoo experts have done so far, the Mother Ship's still been pretty inconsistent about which experts they've included with each of their series previews. The result is only three experts I've found that have had picks posted for every series. Anyway, up until this point, here's how everybody's done so far after the last round's conclusion:

 1. (1) Steve Henson, Yahoo: 5-1 [1]

2. (2) Tim Brown, Yahoo: 3-3 [1]
2. (-) Jayson Stark, ESPN: 3-3 [1]

2. (3)YOURS TRULY: 3-3 [1]
5. (-) Karl Ravech, ESPN: 3-3 [0]
6. (-) Jerry Crasnick, ESPN: 2-4 [1]
6. (3) Kevin Kaduk, Yahoo: 2-4 [1]

8. (5) Jeff Passan, Yahoo: 2-4 [0]

So Steve Henson cannot be caught in this otherwise pretty piss-poor showing from pundits. Congratulations, good sir.

Still, here's how those three experts from the ESPN gang has things playing out for the Fall Classic:

And here's how the Yahoo bunch sees things:

Which only now leaves my own final stab at baseball this year:

Texas Rangers over San Francisco Giants in six games

I'm guilty of doubting San Fran every single round so far this season, and maybe this is the wrong round to do it once again seeing as how they'll have home-field advantage and have consistently found ways to eke out the close games for months now. Still, I'm going with my heart over my head here, and while the Giants are certainly a lovable little bunch of scrappy players, I just can't forgive the city of San Francisco for their years of being Barry Bonds apologists. I understand that after that 'roid-ridden freak left town, they quickly stripped their pretty little ballpark of all imagery associated with the man. But that still came after he took over what had previously been the most prestigious record in all of sports. Sure, I usually root for a National League team (see Yankees logic in opening paragraph) just to help my argument with my uncle about which league is better, but this year, I think the Rangers are the story I'd feel better about if they emerged victorious. A Giants victory would still feel somewhat tainted. San Francisco has the better overall pitching, but Texas has the better ace and the bigger bats. Both teams seem capable of manufacturing runs, so while I'm not as enthusiastic about rooting for one team over the other, I do think most every game will manage to maintain my interest.