Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants, who won the 2010 World Series over the Texas Rangers, 4 games to 1.

Even though I’m more of an American League fan, I think they deserved it - especially after the way Tim Lincecum pitched in Game 5, doing what the New York Yankees couldn’t and striking out Josh Hamilton!

I wound up enjoying this series even more than I expected because of all the great personalities on both teams. Beforehand, the only players I knew were Lincecum, Hamilton, Cliff Lee and Aubrey Huff (because he used to be an Oriole), but for the past week I’ve been Googling Brian Wilson, C.J. Wilson, Ian Kinsler, Jeff Francoeur and Travis Ishikawa, among others - and I’ll definitely be looking for their names in the sports pages.

In fact, this series got me to love and enjoy baseball again in a way I haven’t since I was in middle and high school, when the Orioles were in their mid-to-late-’90s prime.

Maybe it was the Giants’ orange-and-black uniforms. Maybe it was “The Beard” and the orange spikes. Maybe it was realizing how young so many of the players are and feeling like my generation has finally arrived. Or maybe it was the culture clash between laid-back, anything-goes San Francisco and patriotic, law-and-order Texas.

Whatever it was, it was great fun (and I’m sorry more people didn’t take advantage of it, as evidenced by the pitiful ratings).

Here’s to another great run in 2011 - and now, back to football season!