It’s an old saying but one I attribute, in my mind, to the late Seneca Valley boys basketball coach Dave Podbielski — When you work hard, good things happen.

I thought of that a lot the past couple of weeks while the San Francisco Giants made an improbable run to win the World Series, wrapped up by a 4-3, extra-inning triumph on Sunday.

Whenever things seemed doomed for the Giants, they found a way to persevere.

Not even looking at the loss of All-Star closer Brian Wilson at the start of the season, then one of the top hitters in the National League, Melky Cabrera, to a 50-game suspension the last couple of months for failing a drug test of a banned substance, the Giants still found a way to win the NL West.

The team dropped its two home games in a best-of-five, NL Divisional Series playoff, then had to fly to Cincinnati, which owned the second-best record in the league.

What do the Giants do? After being no-hit through six innings of Game 3, the Giants came on strong, winning that game in extra innings and captured the next two contests — all three at Great American Ballpark — and advanced to the NLCS.

There, they lost three of the first four and needed to grab the final three games to advance to their second World Series in three years.

Again, what did the Giants do? Took the last three games, of course.

Six elimination games. Six wins.

Only the 1985 Kansas City Royals can make that claim en route to winning the World Series.

When it came time for the World Series, though, the Giants did not put themselves in a hole. They dug a huge one for the Tigers, who were swept by San Francisco, the final two games in Detroit’s Comerica Park.

The Giants won their final seven playoff games by a combined score of 36-7 and their pitching staff posted an 0.98 ERA.

In the World Series alone, the Giants had a 1.42 ERA, outscored the Tigers 16-6 and limited them to a .159 batting average.

I likened the Giants of 2012 to the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who trailed their rival New York Yankees 3 games to 0 in the ALCS. The Yankees won Game 3, 19-8 and led 4-3 entering the ninth inning before the Red Sox came from behind, won that game and the next three to advance to the World Series.

The Sox would go on to sweep the Cardinals in winning their first championship since 1912.

Breaking a 92-year drought between titles was a huge monkey off the back of the Red Sox, who would win another title in 2007, but no question the job the Giants did in bouncing back in two playoff series was remarkable.

That’s a huge lesson to athletes everywhere that you’re never out of it if you continue to dig and work hard, even against great opponents.

And, what do you know, great things may happen.

Sam Tallarico is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.