{"id":6830,"date":"2010-10-27T11:46:15","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T15:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=6830"},"modified":"2018-12-10T14:02:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T19:02:34","slug":"the-san-francisco-freak-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/","title":{"rendered":"The San Francisco Freak Show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/26\/the-tea-party-vs-nancy-pelosi-world-series\/\">Will<\/a>,<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Rangers made a strong bid for my allegiance too, and not just because Neftali Feliz roped A-Rod with that curve to clinch the American League championship. There\u2019s something ebullient and, yes, winning about the Rangers. They\u2019re slightly cocky, sweet, and sly, smiling like they\u2019ve gotten away with something\u2014which, as you point out, several of them have. (And don\u2019t forget catcher Bengie Molina, traded by the Giants to the Rangers over the summer; he\u2019ll get a ring regardless of who wins.) I love to watch Josh Hamilton\u2019s swing, injured ribs or not\u2014the long extension and the letting go. And I love to watch Elvis Andrus dash around the base paths\u2014so foolish, so daring. Still, there\u2019s something a little too Manifest Destiny about the team. I can\u2019t help but think of the Rangers\u2019 former owner, George W. Bush, not to mention James K. Polk.<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019ll take San Francisco, thanks. The Giants call their style of baseball \u201ctorture,\u201d their star \u201cthe Freak,\u201d their NLCS MVP \u201cCody\u201d (I don\u2019t care if that\u2019s his real name). I\u2019m smitten with a kid named Buster Posey. Willie Mays, the \u201cSay Hey Kid,\u201d would fit right in. The Giants hit home runs, or not at all. And their pitching! This team plays baseball like it\u2019s a great game of catch with diverting interruptions. The whole team is weird and improbable. After Juan Uribe homered in the eighth to break a tie in game 6 of the NLCS, Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel said, \u201cThe big blow was by what\u2019s his name? The shortstop.\u201d Never mind that Uribe was playing third base. Plus, when the game was over, I got to do my best imitation of Russ Hodges hollering, \u201cThe Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!\u201d (My grandfather was at the game where Bobby Thomson hit his famous shot and swore he\u2019d never attend another game\u2014baseball couldn\u2019t get any better.)<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>When do you know a game is over? When the story is over. When the suspense turns into celebration and postmortem, and you can see the losing team members mentally practicing their lines: not our game, not our year. A dumb answer, but there\u2019s something to it. The Yankees, their stars especially, were passive from the start, but once Hamilton homered and Cliff Lee took the mound to start game 3, the ALCS was effectively over. The Yankees payroll was a $207 million ticket to somebody else\u2019s drama. (Rangers payroll: $55 million, doled out by stat-head wunderkind Jon Daniels, the youngest general manager in baseball.)<\/p>\n<p>Between Sabermetrics and steroids, it seems to me\u2014at least from a distance\u2014that baseball has been experiencing a scientific age. Forget the burden of history, forget the curse of the past: With the right GM and some smart statisticians, even the Red Sox can win! I have a friend who sometimes forwards me e-mail exchanges from a group of particularly knowledgeable baseball fans. They and their ilk throw around terms like WAR, WHIP, and something called the Ultimate Zone Rating. It is all very impressive, but also somewhat alarming, don\u2019t you think? These stats-obsessed fans are like a group of geneticists examining a man\u2019s genome to predict the exact course of his love life.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t mean to suggest that statistics aren\u2019t important or revealing; they\u2019re half the fun of following the game. Nor do I want to suggest that an interest in them precludes storytelling. (Just read <em>Moneyball<\/em> for proof of that.) Part of the beauty of baseball has always been that the narrative arc of a game can be gleaned from little columns of agate type. Still, sometimes the numbers don\u2019t add up. Sometimes Gary Cooper doesn\u2019t get the girl.<\/p>\n<p>Play ball!<\/p>\n<p>Louisa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Will, The Texas Rangers made a strong bid for my allegiance too, and not just because Neftali Feliz roped A-Rod with that curve to clinch the American League championship. There\u2019s something ebullient and, yes, winning about the Rangers. They\u2019re slightly cocky, sweet, and sly, smiling like they\u2019ve gotten away with something\u2014which, as you point [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[931],"tags":[375,1136,1176,1173,1178,1177,1117,1116],"class_list":["post-6830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-sports","tag-baseball","tag-buster-posey","tag-giants","tag-josh-hamilton","tag-juan-uribe","tag-rangers","tag-tim-lincecum","tag-world-series"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The San Francisco Freak Show by Louisa Thomas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 27, 2010 \u2013 Dear Will, The Texas Rangers made a strong bid for my allegiance too, and not just because Neftali Feliz roped A-Rod with that curve to clinch the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The San Francisco Freak Show by Louisa Thomas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 27, 2010 \u2013 Dear Will, The Texas Rangers made a strong bid for my allegiance too, and not just because Neftali Feliz roped A-Rod with that curve to clinch the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-27T15:46:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-12-10T19:02:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Louisa Thomas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Louisa Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Louisa Thomas\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4159719ef9f9c1858a7d84e23c6635bd\"},\"headline\":\"The San Francisco Freak Show\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-27T15:46:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-10T19:02:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/\"},\"wordCount\":649,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"baseball\",\"Buster Posey\",\"Giants\",\"Josh Hamilton\",\"Juan Uribe\",\"Rangers\",\"Tim Lincecum\",\"world series\"],\"articleSection\":[\"On Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/\",\"name\":\"The San Francisco Freak Show by Louisa Thomas\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-27T15:46:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-10T19:02:34+00:00\",\"description\":\"October 27, 2010 \u2013 Dear Will, The Texas Rangers made a strong bid for my allegiance too, and not just because Neftali Feliz roped A-Rod with that curve to clinch the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The San Francisco Freak Show\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4159719ef9f9c1858a7d84e23c6635bd\",\"name\":\"Louisa Thomas\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4db822180c09844a510b357effd16ba144d343ff28baff98b6d178762aee14df?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4db822180c09844a510b357effd16ba144d343ff28baff98b6d178762aee14df?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Louisa Thomas\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/lthomas\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The San Francisco Freak Show by Louisa Thomas","description":"October 27, 2010 \u2013 Dear Will, The Texas Rangers made a strong bid for my allegiance too, and not just because Neftali Feliz roped A-Rod with that curve to clinch the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The San Francisco Freak Show by Louisa Thomas","og_description":"October 27, 2010 \u2013 Dear Will, The Texas Rangers made a strong bid for my allegiance too, and not just because Neftali Feliz roped A-Rod with that curve to clinch the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2010-10-27T15:46:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-12-10T19:02:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Louisa Thomas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Louisa Thomas","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/"},"author":{"name":"Louisa Thomas","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4159719ef9f9c1858a7d84e23c6635bd"},"headline":"The San Francisco Freak Show","datePublished":"2010-10-27T15:46:15+00:00","dateModified":"2018-12-10T19:02:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/"},"wordCount":649,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["baseball","Buster Posey","Giants","Josh Hamilton","Juan Uribe","Rangers","Tim Lincecum","world series"],"articleSection":["On Sports"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/","name":"The San Francisco Freak Show by Louisa Thomas","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-10-27T15:46:15+00:00","dateModified":"2018-12-10T19:02:34+00:00","description":"October 27, 2010 \u2013 Dear Will, The Texas Rangers made a strong bid for my allegiance too, and not just because Neftali Feliz roped A-Rod with that curve to clinch the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/27\/the-san-francisco-freak-show\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The San Francisco Freak Show"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4159719ef9f9c1858a7d84e23c6635bd","name":"Louisa Thomas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4db822180c09844a510b357effd16ba144d343ff28baff98b6d178762aee14df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4db822180c09844a510b357effd16ba144d343ff28baff98b6d178762aee14df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Louisa Thomas"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/lthomas\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6830"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131749,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6830\/revisions\/131749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}