Postseason Hero: Madison Bumgarner

A calm, cool and collected Madison Bumgarner is about to earn his third World Series ring in his first five full seasons. You can see how calm and humble Madison Bumgarner is on any of the interviews he has. This was a postseason to remember for World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner. This performance by Madison Bumgarner in the postseason is something we will probably never see again. Pitching 52 and 2/3 innings for the postseason is a single postseason record as he broke the record of 48 and 1/3 innings. His earned run average in the World Series was a sizzling 0.43 making his career World Series ERA 0.25. I can assure you there were some of you who had no idea who Madison Bumgarner was before this postseason. Obviously he stepped up in the big stage winning the NLCS MVP and the World Series MVP.

Going 2-0 in the World Series was pretty remarkable itself. But let’s not forget he closed the series out on just two days rest. Going five scoreless relief innings to close the World Series out is something I will never forget. We all came into the World Series believing this was the Royals year. It just seemed like it was their year after seeing what was going on with the Royals run to the World Series. Madison Bumgarner didn’t care. He made a name for himself with this incredible postseason. Curt Schilling, a postseason hero himself, even said this was the best postseason performance ever and it’s definitely hard to argue against that.

It’s not always easy to make a name for yourself in the World Series being a starting pitcher. You will get a max of two starts. You are not like the position players who will get at least three at bats per game. You have either one or two shots to make a name for yourself. If you want to become a legend just do what Madison Bumgarner did. Let’s not forget he is 25 years old and has three World Series rings. It’s safe to say that’s a good start to his career.  So it’s scary to think what’s next for Madison Bumgarner. Will he pitch in the World Series again? How good will he be next year?

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Alan Liang is a senior Drexel Sport Management major with minors in Marketing, Business Administration, and Communication from West Windsor, NJ. Alan scores baseball games for Baseball Info Solutions and was on co-op with the Philadelphia 76ers in the camps department. Follow Alan on Twitter @AlanLiang29.