ANAHEIM, Calif. - On the morning after the Anaheim Angels beat the San Francisco Giants to win the World Series, only one question remains:

Was it real?

Maybe only in this Fantasyland of Orange County, Calif., where parents encourage their kids to talk to six-foot mice, where plastic surgery is as common as a flu shot in Minnesota and where the airport is named for a singing cowboy actor could something this impossible happen.

But you could look it up. And you might have to, to believe it.

It came down to Game 7 in the first World Series in the 42-year history of the Los Angeles-California-Anaheim Angels, Sunday at Edison Field, where the Angels fell behind again before coming back to beat the San Francisco Giants 4-1 in the highest-scoring World Series in history.

Four years to the month after Gene Autry, their singing-cowboy founder, died trying to bring a World Series to Anaheim, the Angels did what more powerful, favored, superstar-driven predecessors never came close to doing.

Not Don Baylor and Nolan Ryan in 1979. Not Reggie Jackson and Rod Carew in 1982. Not Jackson and Don Sutton and Donnie Moore in 1986. None of those playoff teams won a series. No Angels team since then reached the postseason until this one.

"Everyone talks about a curse, demons, 40 years to get to the playoffs," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "I've only experienced the last three, and they've been incredible."

As incredible as it may have seemed in Scioscia's first two years as manager, nobody saw this 75-to-1 long shot coming in when the season opened. Certainly not coming out of the best division in the American League, after a franchise-worst 6-14 start to the season_and not after falling behind 5-0 in the seventh inning of a must-win Game 6 the night before.

Real?

Somebody pinch these Angels. Just don't be surprised if there's nothing to touch_apparitions where players appear to stand. Or if the faint singing of "Back in the Saddle" can be heard around Edison Field.

"As we've gone further and further in this, it seems like it's becoming more and more of a dream," said Darin Erstad, who caught Kenny Lofton's fly ball in center field for the final out of this Wild Card Series. "It sure doesn't feel real now."

These Angels, after all, won a World Series on Sunday night despite finishing second in their division and facing October's landlords, the New York Yankees, in the first round of the playoffs. They won it all despite never winning a postseason series in franchise history before this month, despite starting a rookie pitcher in Game 7, on short rest, against a guy who was 6-0 in the postseason before this Series and despite using two rookies in relief to get the game to closer Troy Percival in the ninth.

They beat the Giants four games to three despite being outscored in the Series 44-41 and despite trailing in all seven games.

Real?

"Not yet," said catcher Bengie Molina, wearing his gear an hour after the game. "I'll tell you tomorrow when I wake up."

Real?

The team with a Rally Monkey for inspiration, the Walt Disney Co. for an owner and the heavens for a trademark might need a few days to answer that question.

With daylight savings time just ended, the only thing missing when the Angels took the decisive lead in the third inning was a sunset to ride off into.

After pulling off the greatest comeback in World Series history in an elimination game, the Angels even threw in one more mini-comeback Sunday before storming ahead of the Giants, spotting San Francisco a run in the top of the second inning on Reggie Sanders' sacrifice fly before tying the score in the bottom of the second on Bengie Molina's run-scoring double.

It gave the Angels' eight come-from-behind victories among 11 postseason triumphs, including all four World Series wins. They also came from behind in each of three postseason series, losing the opener each time but going 11-2 in the rest of the games.

The swing of emotion, from desperation to elation, between the seventh inning Saturday and the final out Sunday, might never have been more extreme in a 25-hour span of a World Series_certainly not since a ground ball went through Bill Buckner's legs in Game 6 in 1986 to snatch victory from the Red Sox and give the New York Mets the opening they needed for a seventh-game victory.

"It's awesome," Molina said. "Not everybody could do that, I tell you that_come back from five down and then the next day hold them to one run. I haven't seen that happen very often. It's a great feeling."

Series MVP Troy Glaus delivered the game-winning, two-run double Saturday in the Angels' 6-5 victory.

And then in the third inning Sunday, it was regular-season MVP candidate Garret Anderson's turn for first-time heroics in the Series. The cleanup hitter, with eight singles and three RBIs in six Series games before Sunday, doubled his RBI total in one swing with none out in the third inning on a bases-loaded double off Giants starter Livan Hernandez.

Real?

Just ask San Francisco superstar Barry Bonds. Not even the greatest player in the game today could do anything to touch these Angels on this night, not even when they pitched to him.

Rookies John Lackey and Brendan Donnelly pitched to Bonds his first three trips to the plate, allowing him a meager infield single for the game. Rookie Francisco Rodriguez walked Bonds with two outs in the eighth before striking out Benito Santiago to end that inning.

And, perhaps, end Bonds' last chance at the elusive World Series ring that remains the only thing missing from his trunk of baseball achievements.