{"id":7198,"date":"2010-11-01T17:56:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-01T21:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=7198"},"modified":"2018-12-10T15:45:21","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T20:45:21","slug":"a-world-series-serenity-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"A World Series Serenity Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Will,<\/p>\n

I trust you had a good time as a Giants fan last night. Is it too much to hope you\u2019ll remain one? As our kind readers have assured me, the San Francisco bandwagon has room for all. I can\u2019t imagine why you\u2019d want to leave it\u2014the Giants are too much fun. Last night they put a lanky kid named Madison Bumgarner on the mound. He recently bought a bull calf for his wife\u2019s birthday. (She requested it.) He\u2019s twenty-one years old, their number-four starter, but he pitched a game for the ages.<\/p>\n

Of course, he had help. We\u2019ve been talking about pitching and hitting\u2014what about fielding? Josh Hamilton probably had the highlight last night, with a slip-‘n’-slide catch in center to save an RBI single, but the Giants played a monster defensive game. Cody Ross continued his postseason heroics by making a grab on the slide. The infielders spun double plays with abandon (and a little good playacting, fooling the umps on at least one occasion). And I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever forget the sight of Freddy Sanchez flinging himself up and back to snare a shot that seemed destined for right field. Fully extended, leaning back blindly, somersaulting to protect the precariously held ball\u2014it was a leap of faith.<\/p>\n

Faith in himself and in physics, in the determined arc of a batted ball. Who needs gods when you have such gloves? The Giants\u2019 first two wins had commentators giving credit to the alignment of the stars. ESPN\u2019s Jayson Stark invoked the heavens<\/a> so many times that I started to think he was serious. In game 4, the Giants proved once and for all that the answer to their success is simple: They\u2019re really, really good, better than the Rangers! They\u2019re lucky, too. Luck is part of the game. The Giants control what they can control, and they shrug off the rest.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Which is more than you can say for the Rangers. When Derek Holland came on last night and started throwing ball after ball\u2014after walking three in a row in game 2\u2014I wanted to hide my eyes. He settled down, but still, he was a reminder that baseball is not really a game of wins, but of losses. Hits are hard to come by. Sometimes\u2014as Cliff Lee found out in game 1\u2014curveballs don\u2019t curve. Every time one player succeeds, another fails\u2014and sometimes an entire team with him. When Sanchez made that miraculous catch, Jeff Francoeur was out. The Rangers may be next.<\/p>\n

Pitchers bear the burden of our wish to be perfect, because sometimes, somehow, they are. Cliff Lee is set to pitch next for Texas, which means that, despite our fine hospitality to you, you\u2019ll be rooting for the Rangers. You want perfection. You want to worship.<\/p>\n

No one would accuse the Giants of being perfect. Even if Lincecum pitches a no-hitter, he\u2019ll be a human freak, not a god. I\u2019m hoping the Giants close out the series tonight. They play with exuberance and they seem to play with joy. That\u2019s enough, more than enough.<\/p>\n

Yours,<\/p>\n

Louisa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Will, I trust you had a good time as a Giants fan last night. Is it too much to hope you\u2019ll remain one? As our kind readers have assured me, the San Francisco bandwagon has room for all. I can\u2019t imagine why you\u2019d want to leave it\u2014the Giants are too much fun. Last night […]<\/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":[1231,1230,1229,1175,1174,1116],"class_list":["post-7198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-sports","tag-cody-ross","tag-freddy-sanchez","tag-madison-bumgarner","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-texas-rangers","tag-world-series"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA World Series Serenity Prayer by Louisa Thomas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"November 1, 2010 \u2013 Dear Will, I trust you had a good time as a Giants fan last night. Is it too much to hope you\u2019ll remain one? As our kind readers have assured me, the San\" \/>\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\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A World Series Serenity Prayer by Louisa Thomas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"November 1, 2010 \u2013 Dear Will, I trust you had a good time as a Giants fan last night. Is it too much to hope you\u2019ll remain one? As our kind readers have assured me, the San\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/\" \/>\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=\"2010-11-01T21:56:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-12-10T20:45:21+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\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Louisa Thomas\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4159719ef9f9c1858a7d84e23c6635bd\"},\"headline\":\"A World Series Serenity Prayer\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-11-01T21:56:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-10T20:45:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/\"},\"wordCount\":537,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Cody Ross\",\"Freddy Sanchez\",\"Madison Bumgarner\",\"San Francisco Giants\",\"Texas Rangers\",\"world series\"],\"articleSection\":[\"On Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/\",\"name\":\"A World Series Serenity Prayer by Louisa Thomas\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-11-01T21:56:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-10T20:45:21+00:00\",\"description\":\"November 1, 2010 \u2013 Dear Will, I trust you had a good time as a Giants fan last night. Is it too much to hope you\u2019ll remain one? As our kind readers have assured me, the San\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A World Series Serenity Prayer\"}]},{\"@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":"A World Series Serenity Prayer by Louisa Thomas","description":"November 1, 2010 \u2013 Dear Will, I trust you had a good time as a Giants fan last night. Is it too much to hope you\u2019ll remain one? As our kind readers have assured me, the San","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\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A World Series Serenity Prayer by Louisa Thomas","og_description":"November 1, 2010 \u2013 Dear Will, I trust you had a good time as a Giants fan last night. Is it too much to hope you\u2019ll remain one? As our kind readers have assured me, the San","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2010-11-01T21:56:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-12-10T20:45:21+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\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/"},"author":{"name":"Louisa Thomas","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4159719ef9f9c1858a7d84e23c6635bd"},"headline":"A World Series Serenity Prayer","datePublished":"2010-11-01T21:56:00+00:00","dateModified":"2018-12-10T20:45:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/"},"wordCount":537,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Cody Ross","Freddy Sanchez","Madison Bumgarner","San Francisco Giants","Texas Rangers","world series"],"articleSection":["On Sports"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/","name":"A World Series Serenity Prayer by Louisa Thomas","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-11-01T21:56:00+00:00","dateModified":"2018-12-10T20:45:21+00:00","description":"November 1, 2010 \u2013 Dear Will, I trust you had a good time as a Giants fan last night. Is it too much to hope you\u2019ll remain one? As our kind readers have assured me, the San","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/01\/a-world-series-serenity-prayer\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A World Series Serenity Prayer"}]},{"@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\/7198","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=7198"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131763,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7198\/revisions\/131763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}