ShareThisPHOENIX - The National League West has not exactly been a hotbed of champions since the three-division format was created in 1994.
Until the San Francisco Giants won last year, the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks were the only team to hoist the flag. Before that, the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers were the last of the five current West teams to win.
Their big moment was a gimpy Kirk Gibson fist-pumping his way around the bases after his shocking home run against Oakland's Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the World Series.
Gibson now manages the Diamondbacks. He reportedly has mellowed some, though that was hard to see when he was asked his thoughts on the Giants' Series win.
"I respect their manager and respect their coaches and their players," Gibson said. "They did it the right way and we're proud of them. But we want to dethrone their (butt), and they wouldn't expect me to say anything different."
Call that the first mild salvo in what promises to be an elevated form of competition to win the West in 2011. Division games always coax a little extra concentration and emotion from players. So do games against the reigning champs. Everyone wants to topple the king.
Adding spice to the stew could be hard feelings that have developed among the Giants and their division foes in recent years.
Gibson's Diamondbacks might be the one team that has no issue with the champs. New Arizona general manager Kevin Towers is Bruce Bochy's former boss in San Diego, and they remain tight. Relations with Arizona have calmed since the 1999 brawl in which Randy Johnson's hat flew off and he mistakenly donned a Giants cap that he picked off the ground.
That fight was precipitated by the Giants' Charlie Hayes inexplicably charging pitcher Todd Stottlemyre from second base. Asked why he did it, Hayes offered this cogent argument: "I don't like him, I don't like him, I don't like him."
The issues with the other teams are not exactly Juan Marichal trying to drive the green with John Roseboro's head, but little irritations that could get bigger now that a championship banner will fly over AT&T Park.
Start with the Dodgers. There is always something festering between these rivals. Last year, Vicente Padilla broke Aaron Rowand's face with a fastball in April. Before that, Casey Blake mocked Brian Wilson's postgame arm gestures.
Some Giants fans promise to stoke the embers by flying a plane over Dodger Stadium on Opening Day trailing a taunting banner to remind everyone who won the 2010 World Series.
Several Dodgers though the idea was funny when the Los Angeles Times asked about it. Even Tommy Lasorda was oddly philosophical, saying, "Let 'em do it. What do you want us to do, shoot the plane down?"
Relations with the Rockies took a hit before a critical September series in Colorado when the Giants complained to Major League Baseball that there was no mechanism to ensure the Rockies do not replace humidified baseballs with dry balls when Colorado comes to bat. The commissioner ordered the Rockies to change the way baseballs go from humidifier to ball bag to umpire.
"OK, let's get something straight. The Rockies don't like the Giants," trumpeted the lead of a Denver Post story in January.
That might be a little overstated. Asked Sunday about the ball controversy, Colorado's Jason Giambi said, "Everybody just laughed about it and thought it was kind of ridiculous. The umpire would have to be in on it for us to hit a different kind of ball than anybody else. We didn't really worry about it."
The Giants and Padres have had a friendly rivalry pockmarked by a few minor skirmishes. Young San Diego pitcher Mat Latos mocked the Giants last summer for building a team through midseason deals rather than sticking with the bulk of the roster for 162 games. Jonathan Sanchez predicted a sweep of San Diego in an August series, which the Padres won. Latos stirred the pot recently by adding "I hate S.F." to his autograph.
It seems like the Giants-Padres rivalry could be settled with a Sanchez-Latos cage match.
In the end, hard feelings will serve as partial motivation for the Giants' foes, complementing the sight of that World Series banner. Just don't expect a brawl a week.
"I don't think the bad blood is quite there," Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said. "I have nothing against the Giants. They're obviously a great team and they deserve respect for winning the world championship."
(E-mail Henry Schulman at hschulman(at)sfchronicle.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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