Halolinks: World Series Season Begins

So Justin Verlander had to be happy. No bunt single, E1, screw-your-no-hitter-we-are-trying-to-win-a-baseball-game for him to whine about last night. Nope. Verlander's perfect game, his no-hitter, and his shut-out lasted all of 2 batters as Pablo Sandoval took the second pitch he saw and went yard, scoring enough runs to best anything and everything the Detroit Tigers could do while Verlander was on the mound. Beaten by The Big Bat. Like a Real Man. Justin must be satisfied. I presume. Verlander lasted all of 4 innings and saw Barry Zito mop the floor with him as the San Francisco Giants took Game 1 of the 2012 Word Series. And, with that last sentence, the Apocalypse is right around the corner.

And Sandoval was far from over. Three dingers in one WS game, all two against Verlander, yes, but then one more against Albuquerque. OK, that was mighty impressive. More impressive even than banjo-hitting Adam Kennedy doing his 3 home run dances against the Minnesota Twins in the 2002 ALCS that launched the Halos into the World Series against these very same Giants. Methinks that Sandoval "Twist" has no fear of one Justin Verlander:

Meanwhile....

• Something to look out for: Joe West is part of the umpiring crew. Baseball is just not complete without Joe West taking any/all opportunity to make an ass of himself and create a disturbance in The Force. What shall it be this year? A horrible strike zone when he is behind the plate? A blown call on the base paths? Overruling something in the outfield and having a huge impact on a game by being flat out wrong as proved by replay? Or tossing a couple of guys in some tirade to take advantage of the national TV audience?
• Among a long MLB list of Game 1 factoids: "The winner of Game 1 has gone on to win eight of the past nine and 13 of the past 15 World Series. Since World Series play began in 1903, 61.7 percent of Game 1 winners have won the championship." One of those 2 of the past 15 Series, when the winner of Game 1 did NOT eventually win the World Series, was won by the Giants themselves. And, yeah, the team they lost to was the Anaheim Angels.
  
• The Magic Bat of Hunter Pence was sold immediately after Game 7 of the NLCS for $400. Why? Well, it turns out that the Giants do stuff like that after every game, selling game-used items. And, what the heck, the thing was broken wasn't it?
• Why is this significant? Well, consider what is happening to Pablo Sandoval's bat from last night. It's going directly to the Baseball Hall Of Fame.
• Yesterday was a pretty popular market day for pitching. Kyle Lohse announced that he expects to be leaving St. Louis. And Minnesota declined their option on Matt Capps. The Cubs claimed Carlos Gutierrez off waivers from the Twins. The Nippon Ham Fighters announced that they are going to draft Shohei Otani despite Otani stating he was going directly to MLB.
• You might have missed this earth-shattering news, but Dipoto demoted Jeremy Moore this week.

Could this be the first, original, World Series Trophy?