The Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants open up a brief two game series at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Tue Apr 26, 2022 (photo from sfgate.com)

A’s vs Giants: Bay Area Rivalry On Tap

That’s Amaury News and Commentry

By Amaury Pi-González

SAN FRANCISCO–The two Bay Area teams will face each other in a quick two-game set at Oracle Park this Tuesday and Wednesday, with both games’ first pitch scheduled for 6:45. Two teams right now on different paths. A’s rebuilding and with an uncertain future, the Giants try to prove they can win again over 100 games and advance into the playoffs over the heavily favorite LA Dodgers.

This is a friendly rivalry, with many families split with their support of their favorite team. April is usually the lowest attendance month of the baseball season but there should be no problem with attendance at Oracle during this mid-week series between the A’s and the Giants, maybe not sellout crowds but definitely plenty of people.

This regional rivalry had it’s epic moment during the 1989 World Series, interrupted by a strong Earthquake which postponed that October Classic for 11 days.

The A’s swept the Giants during that historic and memorable 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. Those were different times, the Giants were playing at Candlestick Park one of the most maligned major league stadiums in history and the A’s were playing in the middle of their very successful late 1980’s when they advanced to three consecutive World Series with the direction of their Hall of Fame manager Tony LaRussa.

In 1988 World Series the A’s lost to the Dodgers, in one of the biggest upsets in history. 1989 they swept the Giants and in 1990 they lost to Cincinnati.

Nobody was talking about the Oakland Coliseum and how bad it was because the team was winning, and winning cures everything. For many hardcore A’s fans they still talk about the great team that should had won those three consecutive World Series.

The A’s are only the second team do to such when they won three consecutive World Series in 1972,1973 and 1974. Only the New York Yankees under various dynasties, winning as many as five World Series in a row during the 1950’s.

The A’s have a rookie manager in Mark Kotsay and a cast of inexperienced players, mixed with veterans like Jed Lowrie and Stephen Vogt. The Giants under skipper Gabe Kapler in his second season trying to disprove most of the experts that predicted they will not win as many games again as last season.

That prediction is not fair, because 2021 was a great surprise for the Giants as many of their players (including veterans Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford) enjoyed their best season. In a way the Giants have a chip on their shoulders.

They still are not getting a lot of respect from the national baseball media. The Giants organization would like nothing more than to win this year’s World Series, and in the process, tie the A’s with a fourth World Series title.

The history of these two major league franchises is similar in many ways. With the A’s today threatening to possibly leave Oakland for Las Vegas, if the plan for the new Howard Terminal stadium is not approved.

In 1992 the Giants under owner Bob Lurie who agreed to sell the Giants and move them to Florida almost came to fruition. The Giants have longer roots in the Bay Area, they arrived from New York (1958) 10 years prior to the A’s arriving from Kansas City (1968).

Oracle Park is one the most attractive major league parks. I broadcast their inaugural game in the year 2000, doing their Spanish play by play, today, the park that has shared four names: Pac Bell, ATT, SBC Park and now Oracle Park, is 22 years old, hard to believe.

It is always fun to see the A’s and Giants playing on the same field.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Baseball Hall of Fame Museum and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com