Major League Baseball

Giants' good-luck charm? Huff's lucky thong

Published Oct. 28, 2010 7:46 a.m. ET

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The 1987 Minnesota Twins had Homer Hankies as a lucky charm. In 2002, it was the Anaheim Angels' Rally Monkey. Now, the San Francisco Giants are hoping a pair of skimpy thong underpants will help win the team its first World Series since 1954, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

First baseman Aubrey Huff, the garment's wearer, has credited the thong with lifting his team to a playoff berth and ultimately to the World Series, which the Giants started with an 11-7 win against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.

The thong in question is red and covered with glitter. "Over time, it's actually gotten pretty comfortable," Huff said. There's a precedent. Yankees slugger Jason Giambi wore a gold thong under his uniform in 2008, and he thought it got him out of a slump.

Huff started wearing the undergarment at the end of August, when the Giants' record stood at 72-60 and the team was five games behind the first-place San Diego Padres. Huff figured the team was going to need 92 victories to win the division, which meant winning 20 of its final 30 games.

He looked at the thong, looked at his teammates and decided that desperate times called for desperate measures. Huff put the thing on, walked around the locker room and announced, "Boys, this is going to get us to 20-10."

Whether it was the Giants' lights-out pitching or the influence of Huff's karmic undergarment, by the final day of the season the team was in a position to clinch a playoff spot with a victory over the Padres.

"I looked at our record, saw we were 19-10 since I'd put the thong on, and I said, 'No problem, we got this,'" said Huff.

The Giants have since gone on to topple the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies en route to the team's first World Series appearance since 2002. The long-suffering Giants have been to the World Series three previous times since the team moved to San Francisco from New York after the 1957 season -- and lost each time.
 

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