Each week sports reporters Matthew Lambert and Eric Schroeder will face off on a hot topic in sports. The world of sports is changing quickly and constantly, but we want to slow it down and take a better look at the juiciest gossip, scandal, rumor or issue that is making headlines this week. Lambert and Schroeder will take different sides and battle it out, telling you why you they are right.

This week’s topic:  Should the San Francisco Giants be considered a dynasty? 

This week, on the heels of the San Francisco Giants winning their third World Series in five years, we take a look at what exactly makes a dynasty in the professional sports world today. The question up for debate this week is a question that has been a hot topic throughout all of sports – not just baseball. What qualifies a team as a dynasty and should the Giants be considered one? Let’s talk about it…

(Recap by Matthew Lambert and Eric Schroeder)

FROM ERIC SCHROEDER

Since taking over the Giants in 2007, manager Bruce Bochy has experienced his fair share of success. After a couple of slow years at the start, he led the Giants to a World Series title in 2010 over the Texas Rangers. Two years later he followed it up with another crown, this time sweeping the Detroit Tigers, coming to this year’s seven game series victory over the Kansas City Royals.

So is it fair to say that this Giants team is a dynasty? The answer is absolutely. When you look at sports teams today, there are always players leaving, new additions and often times stability is hard to come by. The thing with Giants is that none of this has affected them. They still manage to keep winning despite turnover that would often slow other teams down.

That can be attributed to great management from Bochy as well as a great front office. These guys are able to keep their players happy and motivated.

In addition, they are able to recognize talent and either get it from the free agent market or trades and retain the talent once they have it.

An argument could be made that winning one World Series was luck or chance. Maybe so far as saying winning two was the result of injuries to other teams or an easy division that year. Three in five years though, that is domination. It takes skill and drive to accomplish something like that. It takes coming in early and staying late and dedicated players to play 162 regular season games followed by potentially 20 postseason games with only a few days of rest in there.

The fact that the Giants are able to do this shows that they truly are a dynasty in this era.

FROM MATTHEW LAMBERT

Being a St. Louis Cardinals fan, I hate the San Francisco Giants. But as much as I hate them, I respect them. The Giants have won their third World Series title in the last five seasons, with a lot of the same people being involved in winning them. Some of those people include: Manager Bruce Bochy, catcher Buster Posey, third baseman Pablo Sandoval and newly crowned MVP pitcher Madison Bumgarner.

So this brings us to the recent success of the Giants. The question that is posed is: Are they a dynasty? I say no.

According to the definition of a sports dynasty from Wikipedia, the Giants aren’t. Their definition states: “A sports dynasty is a team that dominates their sport or league for an extraordinary length of time. The definition of dynasty by academics implies a single leader over the bulk of that period, a great example being John Wooden who led a college basketball powerhouse at UCLA for over a quarter century. The word dynasty should not be used for a string of several dominant years in a row. It implies an extraordinary length of time like a decade. Such dominance is often only realized in retrospect.”

It has not been an extraordinary length of time, the Giant’s haven’t been a powerhouse like UCLA, and it isn’t long enough to dub them a team that really dominated over the last decade. So, while I believe the Giants have done well, it hasn’t been long enough to tell if they are a dynasty or not.

Some good examples of dynasty’s are: the Yankee’s from 1996 to 2003, the Boston Celtics from 1956 to 1986, the Indiana Pacers from 1969 to 1975 and the Dallas Cowboys from 1970-1982.

The Giants could be a dynasty some day. Maybe if they continue to make playoff appearances, win division titles and have World Series success. Until maybe a decade from now, I can’t say whether they are a dynasty or not.