San Francisco Giants Are The Face of a New Kind Of Dynasty

By Bill Zimmerman on October 31, 2014

The San Francisco Giants won their third World Series in five years, which has sparked the obvious debate over whether or not this team is now a dynasty. In the true sense of what we think of when it comes to dynasties, the Giants are certainly not one.

Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls were a dynasty. The Big Red Machine of the 1970s was a dynasty. Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics were a dynasty. A dynasty is a team that has won multiple championships with sustained success for several years. Many people think that you also need to win back-to-back championships during that stretch to cement becoming a dynasty.

The other thing is that dynasties are connected to players. When you think of those Bulls teams in the 1990s, you of course think of Jordan, Scottie Pippen and maybe even Phil Jackson. There is always a dominant player attached to dynasties — a face of the team. They are led by a star player or players who have risen above all others in the sport to dominate over the span of several years.

The Giants certainly don’t fit that mold, but does that mean they aren’t a dynasty? With the way sports are changing and with free agency becoming such a vital part of building a team, keeping a core group of players together is almost impossible. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to win consecutive championships. We haven’t seen a team win multiple championships in a row since the New York Yankees did it from 1998-2000.

That’s where we need to start looking at a new kind of dynasty in today’s sports landscape — an organizational dynasty.

An organizational dynasty doesn’t fit how we look at traditional dynasties, but that doesn’t mean it’s less impressive. The Giants are the new modern-day organizational dynasty. The Giants’ success isn’t based on a core group of players, it’s based on organizational vision and foundation that makes the on-field success possible.

The Giants aren’t loaded with Hall-of-Famers. Buster Posey might be there some day, perhaps Madison Bumgarner if he continues to pitch like he did this year, but they are definitely not loaded with a star-studded roster. In fact, only a handful of players have made key contributions on every team. Only three players have made major contributions all three years and World Series runs — Posey, Bumgarner and Sergio Romo.

But something else has been consistent. Manager Bruce Bochy and GM Brian Sabean have been there for every championship. At the beginning of the series, we talked about how critical these two men were to the Giants’ success. After spending 10 days with the Giants in both San Francisco and Kansas City, you really see how great of an organization the Giants are.

From Sabean to Bochy to the coaches, scouting department, and everyone else on down, this is a first-class organization that is every bit a dynasty, not just in the traditional sense. The Giants do have a face of this dynasty, but it’s in the image of Bochy and Sabean. These two men know exactly how to create a cohesive team and pull all the right strings to have them succeed.

The Giants may not win 100-plus games a year, they may not have back-to-back championships, and they may not have 3-4 Hall-of-Famers; but, they have an organization that has excelled in the current baseball marketplace, they spend their money wisely, they find the right players and use them at the right time, they have done it better than anyone else over the past five years — and they have three World Series championships to show for it.

Maybe that means we should change how we perceive a dynasty.

Bill Zimmerman is covering the World Series for www.RantSports.Com. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.