By Jeremy Kahn

Entering the playoffs for the third time in the past five seasons, the San Francisco Giants are facing an opponent that they last faced in 1971.

Coming off their first division championship since division play began just two years earlier, the Giants faced the Pittsburgh Pirates, who were in the midst of three straight National Eastern Division Championships from 1970-1972 under Danny Murtaugh.

Led by Roberto Clemente, former Encinal (Alameda) High School star Willie Stargell, the Pirates advanced to their first World Series since 1960 after defeating the Giants three games to one.

Over the past 43 seasons, there are many links between these two teams; however just one comes to the mind of both Pirates and Giants fans.

After helping lead the Pirates to three straight division championships under Jim Leyland, the most highly anticipated free agent of the 1992 class left Pittsburgh and returned to the place that his father and godfather played and that free agent’s name was Barry Bonds.

While in Pittsburgh, the talented leftfielder won two National League Most Valuable Player Awards, and along with Bobby Bonilla, Jose Lind, Andy Van Slyke and the pitching arm of Doug Drabek, the Pirates advanced to the National League Championship Series from 1990-1992.

Unfortunately, the Pirates season would end with heartbreak in each of those years, as the Cincinnati Reds defeated them in six games in the 1990 NLCS and to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1976.

In that World Series, they would sweep the heavily favored Oakland A’s in four straight games for their first World Series Championship since the days of the Big Red Machine of 1976.

The following season, the Pirates would face the upstart Atlanta Braves, who finished last in the National League Western Division in 1990 and became the first National League team to ever go from worst to first in one season.

That Braves team led by David Justice, Chipper Jones, David Justice and the arms of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, the Braves defeated the Pirates in a thrilling seven game series.

In would be in the next NLCS that would be a classic of all ages, as the Braves came back from a 2-0 deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning to defeat the Pirates 3-2, when former Pirates first baseman Sid Bream slid under the tag of Mike LaValliere to beat the throw from Bonds and send the Braves for the second straight year.

Following that series, Bonds left Pittsburgh for the Giants and the Pirates failed to make the postseason until 2013, a span of 21 seasons.

On the other hand, the Giants with Bonds in the lineup, made the playoffs three times, including a trip to the 2002 World Series, where they lost to the Anaheim Angels in seven games.

Between 2003 and 2013, the Giants returned to the postseason on two different occasions, where they won the World Series both 2010 and 2012, their first World Championships since moving to San Francisco in 1958.