Giants set for a San Francisco treat

• The Giants' World Series parade is sure to bring out the wildest of San Francisco on Halloween.
• An estimated 1 million people attended the Giants' last championship rally in 2010.

SAN FRANCISCO — City officials are expecting a similar turnout for today's parade celebrating the San Francisco Giants' World Series title as the estimated 1 million people who packed downtown to hail the club's 2010 championship.

There are plenty of reasons to salute the Giants.

Among them:

If you must wear the garish combination of the team's orange and black motif, you might as well do it on Halloween.

The Giants were thoughtful enough to dispatch the Detroit Tigers in four games, sparing their fans the difficult choice of trick-or-treating or watching them play a Game 6.

Speaking of Halloween: If you're still undecided on a costume, a panda outfit suddenly is fashionable thanks to the World Series MVP performance of Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval, aka Kung Fu Panda.

Everybody may love a parade, but baseball fans cherish a good argument even more.

And while general manager Brian Sabean says, "I think we're old school and new school at the same time," those who rail against the use of sabermetrics may point to the Giants' success as supportive evidence because the club long has been known to rely on old-fashioned scouting.

That's not to say the Giants ignore advanced metrics, and in fact they have personnel dedicated to crunching and deciphering numbers. But their perception as the polar opposite of the cross-bay Oakland Athletics of Moneyball fame fuels a juicy argument.

In any other setting, bushy-bearded relievers Brian Wilson and Sergio Romo look like escapees from a ZZ Top concert. At this parade, there may be thousands sporting their hirsute look. If you want to feel like a caveman for a day, this is your chance.

The rally thong popularized by slugger Aubrey Huff two years ago no longer is a must-wear item. Even in this famously anything-goes town, that's a relief.