Page 6 November 6, 2014 TORRANCE TRIBUNE A Giant Bum By Adam Serrao Baseball season is officially over and the freeway series that everyone here in Southern California all so fervently hoped for did not happen. What did happen though is every Dodger fan’s worst nightmare. That’s right; behind Madison Bumgarner, the San Francisco Giants won the World Series, their third World Series victory in the last five years. The month of October hasn’t been nice to the Dodgers for over 26 years now, but this year, it wasn’t good for any Los Angeles-based team. Include the Dodgers, the Angels, the Trojans, the Bruins; you can even throw the Lakers in there. But when Pablo Sandoval caught the final out of the 2014 World Series and raised his arms high into the air with glee, insult was added to injury. Not only did the Dodgers underachieve tremendously this year, but they had to watch their archrivals from up North take home the trophy. A long-time Dodger fan from Long Beach California, Mer Valdez perhaps said it best: “The first time, I hated it. The second time, I begrudgingly accepted it. This time, I couldn’t help but respect it.” That’s right, for the third time in just five years the San Francisco Giants have won the World Series, sending chills down every Dodger fan’s spine. If you’re a true baseball fan though, you can’t help but appreciate the way the Giants have captured their titles. Sure, maybe they take a year off between each one to rest up, but they are still getting the job done. With a lot of homegrown talent and a few free-agent acquisitions here and there, the Giants and General Manager Brian Sabean have put together a team that can and seemingly does compete for a title every single year. By taking a closer look, the difference between this championship Giants team and the Dodgers become increasingly apparent. Madison Bumgarner is truly a giant. Not just the one that is painted across all of the San Francisco players jerseys, but a true giant in baseball history. With his recent World Series performance, Bumgarner not only single-handedly delivered a ring to the city of San Francisco, but also became one of the greatest playoff pitchers ever in the process. Bumgarner now has the lowest career ERA in World Series history at 0.25. He won two of the four World Series games for the Giants, saved another, and threw more inning this postseason than any other pitcher in postseason history. In his World Series career, Bumgarner is now 4-0 with 0.53 WHIP and averages eight strikeouts per nine innings. Now remember those numbers, but make believe I never mentioned the name Madison Bumgarner. If at the beginning of this baseball season, or even at the end of it before the playoffs started, I were to tell you that one pitcher in the game of baseball would pitch that effectively and attain numbers like those, who would you have guessed it would be? Chances are, not Madison Bumgarner. Clayton Kershaw, maybe? Kershaw’s regular season numbers were awfully similar to those of Bumgarner’s spectacular postseason numbers. The only difference is Kershaw was watching the World Series from his couch at home. One thing that the Giants have been able to do that the Dodgers haven’t is perform at high levels under great amounts of pressure. It was obvious earlier this postseason that once the bright lights hit Kershaw on the mound, he unwound. In this postseason alone, Kershaw finished at 0-2 with a 7.82 ERA. His career postseason numbers are 1-5 with a 5.12 ERA. Clearly, Kershaw has just not been playoff material. The Dodgers needed an arm to rely on in this year’s postseason. Much like Bumgarner, who saved the Giants time and time again, Kershaw was looked at to be the Dodgers’ savior. Instead, he was quite the opposite. While homegrown talents like Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford and Joe Panik continuously produce in the most pressure-packed situations for the Giants, Yasiel Puig is going on strikeout-sprees, Dee Gordon all but disappears and Adrian Gonzalez suddenly looks old and overmatched. The job that Giants manager Bruce Bochy has done with the Giants should not be understated either. He keeps his team focused, makes all of the right calls and exudes a confidence that keeps his team cool and collected during the most trying times. The Dodgers, however, rely on a bubble machine in the dugout to tell them that they’ve done a good job. All in all this year’s Major League Baseball postseason has told us two things. One: the San Francisco Giants actually are a really good team, no matter where they finish in the regular season standings and Madison Bumgarner may have dethroned Clayton Kershaw as the greatest pitcher in baseball. Two: if the Dodgers ever want to advance past the National League Championship series, or even get there again, they should take a page out of the Giants playbook. Produce homegrown talent and deliver when the pressure is on and the bright lights are shining. Two things the team has been relatively unsuccessful at doing over the past two and a half decades. The Dodgers (along with the Washington Nationals) are already favored to win the World Series in 2015 (15/2 odds), but unless they fix some major problems both on the field and in the dugout, fans can look forward to seeing the Giants raise yet another banner before the Boys in Blue will ever get the opportunity to. • Ojiyi and West Dominate Spartans By Adam Serrao The final score of last Friday night’s football game between the visiting South High Spartans and the West High Warriors took on a completely different look than what the first half would have told you. Brett Ojiyi may have been the primary reason why. After not playing a single snap in the first half of the game, the Spartans jumped out to a generous lead. With his presence being felt back in the lineup in the second half however, Ojiyi and the Warriors took over, scoring 31 unanswered points to remain undefeated with just one game remaining in the regular season. It was Halloween night and the West High Warriors certainly gave their home crowd a scare by falling behind early to the Spartans. The first quarter was scoreless all around as most of the players looked as if they would have rather been trick-or-treating rather than playing football. In the second quarter, though, South High decided they would take advantage of West’s complacency and get the scoring going. Quarterback Gabe Zuniga provided most of the offense for the Spartans on the night, including 85 yards rushing and a touchdown early on in the second quarter. Later, Zuniga would connect with wide receiver Zack Leets on a 20-yard touchdown pass at time expired in the first half to put South ahead 12-0 at the half. Ojiyi, who was benched for the first half due to what coach Greg Holt called “disciplinary” reasons, took the field to start the third quarter and was noticed by everyone on the defensive side of the ball. Ojiyi has been the sparkplug for the Warriors all season long and one of the best running backs in the Pioneer League if not the state. West quarterback Trevor Mallet faked a handoff to Ojiyi on the first play of the third quarter. The entire South High defense bit, Mallet scampered nearly 70-yards downfield and Ojiyi capped things off with a goal line touchdown to get the Warriors on the board for the first time of the night. The Spartans looked to remain in control of the tempo of the game until Zuniga threw an interception that the West defense returned all the way to the South 2-yardline. Ojiyi would cap things off with another touchdown run and just like that the Warriors found themselves ahead 14-12. Neither Zuniga nor the South High offense were able to get much of anything going after that. Another interception and their inability to move the ball led to a scoreless third and fourth quarter combined. All the while, West continued to put up points. Leading 24-14, Ojiyi and the Warriors struck again to ulimately put the game out of reach as he scampered into the end zone from 28 yards out to put the score at 31-12. That’s where it would stay as the Warriors notched yet another victory and Ojiyi finished with 59 yards rushing and three touchdowns in just two quarters of play. The Warriors (9-0, 4-0) will now look to finish their season off undefeated and in first place in the Pioneer League division as they take on Torrance High who is coming off of a 23-0 shutout victory at Centennial. The Spartans (6-3, 2-2) will look to get back on the winning track as they take on the North High Saxons to finish off their season in hopes of making it to the playoffs. Torrance High It wasn’t pretty, but the Torrance Tartars got their fourth victory in five games last Friday night when they took on the Centennial Apaches at Centennial. Save for one safety, Torrance was held scoreless for the entirety of the second half and still shutout the Apaches by a final score of 23-0 to remain tied for second place in the Pioneer League standings, just one game back of the West High Warriors. The second quarter was when the Tartars did mostly all of their damage. To get the quarter started, quarterback Vincent Huey hooked up with wide receiver Elijah Jones on a 35-yard touchdown pass to pull the Tartars out to a 14-0 lead. Star running back Tyree Harris decided that he would get into the mix to cap things off in the quarter as well. After a sustained drive down the field, Harris punched the ball in the end zone from two yards out to give his team a 21-0 lead going into the half. The Safety in the fourth quarter made it 23-0 in favor of Torrance and that’s where the score would stand. With one game remaining in the season, Torrance (6-3, 3-1) will get its biggest test of the year. A matchup this Friday night with the first place West High Warriors at Zamperini Stadium in Torrance will decide which team gets at least a share of first place in the Pioneer League. A cross-town rivalry game where the winner takes all. It doesn’t get much better than that. Follow the Tartars here to see how the end of this competitive football season finishes out. North High The North High Saxons have struggled to put teams away recently, but last Friday night at Leuzinger they did just that against the Olympians. This time the Saxons began the game slowly, leading their head coach to believe that the team had other things on their mind. “I think mentally they were trick-or-treating,” coach Todd Croce said. “But we will take it.” On Halloween night the Saxons struggled to pull away from Leuzinger, taking a 14-14 tie into halftime. With three touchdowns in the second half, however, including a 25-yard touchdown pass from Mique Juarez to Jacob Bugayong, the Saxons were finally able to create some distance between themselves and their opponents for the first time in six games. North (6-3, 3-1) was able to hold Leuzinger to just one score in the second half to take a 35-20 victory. This week, the Saxons will lock horns with the South High Spartans in a rivalry game at South High. Should North win and the West High Warriors lose in their last game of the season, the Saxons will take home a share of the Pioneer League title this season. • HOLIDAY S P E C I A L FULL SERVICE CLUB 150+ Group Classes per Month Strength Training, Circuit Training & Cardio Educated & Experienced Fitness Professionals Fitness Programs for Older Adults BARRE classes forming now! 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