The Battle of the Bay and Why Beating the Giants is Important
By Sean Davis
Allow me for a moment to remove my writer’s cap and simply revert to being a fan. I try to keep things in perspective most of the time here, and look at them objectively. It’s more difficult sometimes than others, there are players I simply dislike for various reasons, but typically if they do their job on the field I’m able to overlook that. At the same time if they are likable but not getting the job done I want them to be replaced. But when it comes to the San Francisco Giants, there is no objectivity.
Collin Cowgill taking out Tim Lincecum, this never gets old. (Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports)
If you are reading this and you aren’t an Athletics fan living in the Bay Area, there really isn’t any way for you to relate to what it’s like here. Aside from New York and Chicago, this is the only place where you can be on your home turf while representing your favorite team, and still feel like you’re in foreign territory. The life of an A’s fan in the Bay Area is difficult at times.
This has gone far beyond just a baseball thing, it’s become personal. Just about any A’s fan can tell a story of some time when they were out and about, minding their own business when some random Giants fan saw fit to make a sarcastic comment about the Athletics and their attendance, or their old stadium, or something negative about the team. This would be a completely unprovoked verbal attack.
Since the Giants won the World Series two out of the last three years, it’s only gotten worse and the Giants fans have become emboldened. Still, while two out of three is impressive, three out of three is much more impressive. The fact is, that while the Athletics haven’t won the World Series since sweeping the Giants in 1989, they have a much more successful history of winning championships. It took the Giants 52 years to win it all in San Francisco, the Athletics won three straight within 8 years of moving to Oakland.
Many may tell you that the Giants championships mean more since they were recent, and you can ask them if they still have their “Quest for Six” San Francisco 49ers shirts from 6 months ago. Seems a little hypocritical if you ask me since it’s been almost 20 years since the Niners won the Super Bowl. I say this as a 49ers fan, and I think those Super Bowls mean a whole lot, as do the 4 World Series titles the Athletics have brought to Oakland, as well as the 5 they won in Philadelphia.
No matter what the Giants fans might say to us, the Athletics are a more successful franchise, only the New York Yankees and their 27 World Series titles are more than the A’s 9 in the American League; the Giants have 7 in their history. Nine is still greater than 7, and 4 is still greater than 2. That is just a friendly reminder you can relay to any Giants fan who tries to downgrade the Athletics accomplishments.
For now, we turn to the field before us. One foolproof way to quiet the orange and black horde is to beat their precious team senseless. It all starts this afternoon.