Pitcher Madison Bumgarner, who was nearly unhittable for the entire 2014 MLB postseason for the San Francisco Giants, has been named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year.
The Giants rode on Bumgardner’s arm all the way to their third World Series championship in five years in October, when they beat the Kansas City Royals in seven games.
Bumgarner, who is just 25, gave one of the all-time great postseason performances during the seventh game, when he surpassed all expectations by pitching five innings of relief for Tim Hudson. He was coming off just two days rest following his complete game effort in Game 5, but still held the Royals to just two hits. Even more remarkable was the fact that it only took 68 pitches to finish off the AL champions.
“It's easy to mythologize the small-town sports hero. Baseball, especially, is full of them,” SI managing editor Chris Stone wrote. “Madison Bumgarner isn't the Sportsman of the Year because he's from a tiny town, but that town goes a long way toward defining who he is and it gives his story a different texture from past Sportsmen. And while he's been an outstanding pitcher for the last five years, his Sportsman candidacy was so sudden and seemingly out of nowhere that it makes him the most unique Sportsman in recent memory.”
Bumgarner’s World Series performance wasn’t just one for the ages, but what he did over the entire postseason was astounding. He gave up only six earned runs and had a 1.03 ERA over 52 2/3 innings. He only gave up 28 hits and struck out 45 batters.
He is the first baseball player to get the honor since Derek Jeter in 2009. Overall, only 14 baseball players have been picked for Sportsman of the Year. The weekly magazine also picked the 2004 Boston Red Sox as Sportsmen of the Year.