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San Francisco • Bruce Bochy is crazy superstitious. It's a little-known fact about the unflappable San Francisco Giants manager.
Mere mention of anything about a dynasty during the World Series made him uncomfortable. He felt equally uneasy when his name got linked to the best skippers of all-time — those Hall of Famers he well could join someday.
Bochy doesn't have to worry about a jinx now. After winning its third championship in five seasons, the new label for his team looks as if it will stick.
"Dynasty" blared the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday.
The Giants closed it out with a 3-2 win in Game 7 at Kansas City on Wednesday night, sealed by Series MVP Madison Bumgarner's five shutout innings as a reliever this time.
"A lot has to go right. First off, it starts with the talent," Bochy said. "I mean, you need that, which we have. Then you have to deal with a lot of things maybe during the season. Every manager says, 'Hey, we're fine, we have a good chance to get there if we stay healthy.' But that doesn't always happen."
In a remarkable every-other-year pattern, San Francisco somehow finds its best form in even years (2010, 2012, 2014). With new faces and old ones, with castoffs and misfits and some key midseason acquisitions.
Few clubs have captured three championships in a five-year span. The last National League team to do it was the St. Louis Cardinals with Stan Musial from 1942-46, so the Giants are the first of the free-agency era.
The Oakland Athletics won three straight crowns in the early 1970s, and the New York Yankees captured four in five years from 1996-2000.
Still, San Francisco was never considered a favorite or the best team in the regular season any of these times. Twice in this stretch, the Giants missed the playoffs altogether —
Celebration turns violent
The celebration in San Francisco's streets following the Giants' World Series victory started off peaceful but quickly turned raucous and violent, as revelers vandalized police cars and businesses and pelted officers with bottles. Fans initially gathered in the streets and uncorked champagne, dancing and hugging strangers after Wednesday's night win. Four police cars were damaged by graffiti and five others had windows smashed, Police Chief Greg Suhr said. Three police officers went to a hospital with minor injuries.