Photo Credit: Ron Riesterer, 1986

Tonight, I traversed the short distance from my place of employment in downtown San Francisco to the very heart of enemy territory. Pac Bell Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. I loathe the fact that I had to endure the vile stench of garlic fries and the unholy chatter of “gamer babes” debating which furry member of the animal kingdom best resembles infielder Charlie Culberson. Nevertheless, I proudly wore my A’s regalia and while the Giants fans may have their gimmicks and kiss cams, I gleefully joined the loud contingent of A’s fans in a chant of “lets go Oakland!”, only to see my team fall short in a comeback attempt. Shucks. Better luck tomorrow.

Living in San Francisco, I can attest to the fact that there are many a fan in this fair city that is a true fan, both hip to the history of the Giants and respectful to the A’s and Bay Area baseball. Then there’s the other side of the coin. The Johnny-come-lately. The fan who can name approximately three players on their hometown team. The fan with the Posey jersey and the Panda hat. The smug, beard growing, Journey singing, bandwagon hopping fan who came aboard in 2010 and never jumped off. While I have no problem with casual fans, their sense of entitlement based on one championship in the last 50 years is disgusting. However, the lack of respect and knowledge of  A’s baseball is revolting. Little do they realize, that many a player has left the cozy confines of San Francisco for the sunny side of the Bay, making their way East to the Coliseum. With Travis Blackley being just the latest example, lets take a look at a few notables.

Rajai Davis

Run Rajai Run! After his acquisition from San Francisco via the waiver wire in April of 2008, Rajai spent the better part of the next 3 seasons terrorizing the base paths stealing 116 bases in 369 games while patrolling the outfield on a semi regular basis for the A’s. With his hustle and cheerful demeanor, Davis was quickly a fan favorite and a source of excitement in a series of down years for the Athletics. Mainly a bench player for the Pirates and Giants, he received his first taste of everyday play in Oakland. Proving to be no slouch at the plate, Davis enjoyed his best year in 2009 putting up a slash line of .305/.360/.423 while nabbing 41 bases. Although he never developed the ability to walk a rate enough high enough to fully showcase his speed, Rajai proved to be a useful player who the A’s essentially stole from the Giants for no price at all. Which made his success all the more enjoyable.

Keith Foulke

Although only briefly a Giant in 1997, Foulke was a part of the controversial “white flag” trade which featured the Chicago White Sox trading pitchers Wilson Alvarez, Danny Darwin, and Roberto Hernandez to San Francisco for a collection of prospects and Foulke who was the lone major leaguer in his rookie season. When White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf approved this swap at the trade deadline, Chicago was a mere 3 1/2 games off the pace of first place Cleveland. Infuriating the fan base, and essentially giving up on the season the trade was initially poorly received. Over the next 5 seasons, Foulke would mature into the best player acquired in the trade claiming the role of closer 2000 and saving 42 games in 2001. By the time he came to Oakland in 2003, he was generally regarded as one of the better relievers in the game and under the tutelage of pitching coach Rick Peterson he flourished as the A’s closer. Armed with a devastating circle change up, he spent the better part of 2003 shutting the door on the American League saving a lead leading 43 games and closing out the All Star game. Then came the ALDS. Maybe it was overuse. Maybe it was nerves. Foulke continued the line of failure by Oakland closers in the postseason and allowed a soul crushing 2 run double to David Ortiz in the 8th inning to cost the A’s a potential clinching victory against Boston in game 4. Although he would return briefly in 2008 to finish his career in Oakland, Foulke was no longer the same pitcher. Injuries and ineffectiveness would prevent him from playing a major role and he would finish out his career as an aging middle reliever throwing garbage innings in a losing season. If nothing else, Foulke like Davis, would establish himself as a productive player only after leaving the Golden Gate.

Willie McCovey

The second most heralded Giant of all time behind Willie Mays, McCovey spent the better part of 19 years entrenched as the San Francisco first basemen. Toward the end of his career he was unceremoniously discarded to the San Diego Padres, and sold to the A’s at the tail end of the 1976 season, before returning to San Francisco to close out his career. Acquired to provide depth, McCovey appeared in 11 games during the season final month hitting a paltry .208/.296./.208, with no extra base hits while  playing sparingly in place of starter Gene Tenace. Even the most knowledgeable of Giants or A’s fans would be hard pressed to have any memories of Willie Mac’s time in Oakland. However, it remains an interesting piece of trivia that a man so revered with his own cove in his namesake, and a statue in his honor was once a member of the Athletics, albeit for just a moment in time.

Other notables: Kevin Mitchell, Kelly Downs, Ernest Riles, Joe Morgan, and Dave Kingman.

There’s so much that separates these two teams and their respective fan bases, but for a group of players it was nothing more then a bridge and few miles.

Devin Pangaro can be found ranting and raving about all things green and gold on twitter @devinpangaro, and please follow my fellow Swingin’ A’s scribes @FS_SwinginAs or like us on Facebook

July 16, 2011; San Diego, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Barry Zito (75) pitches during the second inning against the San Diego Padres at PETCO Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-US PRESSWIRE

Barry Zito may be playing for the San Francisco Giants right now, but to me, he’ll always look better in the A’s famous green-and-gold colors. Sadly, though, Zito’s days in Oakland are being overshadowed by both his ridiculously expensive $126 million contract and his poor performance during his Giants tenure. In fact, you could go as far as saying that he’s not the same Zito as he once was while he was in Oakland.

Still, my support for Zito remains intact. While frequently disappointing me on my fantasy team on ESPN.com, Zito remains one of my favorite baseball players of all-time. From the years 2000-2006, Zito went 102-63 with a nifty 3.55 ERA while with the Athletics. He was part of Oakland’s famous trio of pitchers called the “Big Three,” but after the 2004 season the trio was broken up.

Zito became the leader of an A’s rotation in 2005 that suddenly did not include the likes of Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder. Still, Zito found ways to win during the ’05 and ’06 seasons, compiling a 30-23 record with a 3.85 ERA over those two years. Since departing Oakland in 2006 in favor of the Giants and their $126 million offer, Zito has gone 43-61 with a 4.55 ERA.

But for some reason, I still find myself a citizen on the planet called “Zito.” Even after posting a -0.4 WAR last year with the Giants, I’m still a fan of the big left-hander. The population on planet Zito, however, is beginning to diminish. FanSided’s San Francisco Giants blog recently chronicled the problems surrounding Zito and the growing frustration that is surrounding the southpaw.

Zito was supposed to a leader for the Giants’ rotation, but sadly, he’s in a fight for the team’s fifth and final rotation spot. He’s essentially become a $126 million No.5 starter on the verge of becoming a $126 million reliever. Zito’s contract has been criticized up and down, but you really can’t blame Zito for the high price tag. Blame the Giants, who thought giving a pitcher that much money to begin with a good idea.

Zito has been tinkering with his delivery this past offseason/spring, but as AroundtheFogHorn.com notes, the results of Zito’s new methods are not entirely inspiring. In fact, they suggest that Zito’s new mechanics are failing to work and produce solid results.

Still, despite Zito’s struggles, I remain a permanent citizen of the Planet Zito, which has been dwindling in size ever since he left Oakland for that $126 million contract in 2006. Hopefully, Zito will be able to put in some quality work this season for the Giants instead of his mini hot-streak he usually experiences during the summer months of the season.

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Follow me on twitter @oaklandace75 and for more A’s related analysis, stories, and opinions, follow us on twitter @FS_SwinginAs or like us on Facebook.

The Giants are closing in on a trip to the World Series, while A's fans are left across the bay wondering why...(Photo: Courtesy of Yardbarker.com)

I know I already addressed this issue in a previous piece earlier this month, but the San Francisco Giants are really starting to drive me nuts. The Giants have the Philadelphia Phillies within one game of elimination, and that’s really disturbing to me for some reason.

While I can’t discredit the Giants’ stellar pitching staff, the team was not a big pre-season favorite to make it the World Series. While they have yet to do so, the team is pretty much on the verge of sending Philly home packing. But my argument has nothing to do with the Giants-Phillies, but rather why the Giants were able to capture a spot in the playoffs while the A’s were left out in the cold with an 81-81 record.

The A’s heading into this season, were not a preseason favorite either, but the team did have a strong core of young pitching. In 2009, the A’s debuted a talented young rotation that included the likes of Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez, and while the team’s offense was reinforced by Matt Holliday, Jason Giambi and Orlando Cabrera, the young rotation proved to be too inexperienced to lead the team to the playoffs.

While 2009 was a season to forget, the A’s did manage to introduce some young arms into the league. Brett Anderson, 22, had a solid rookie-campaign, and despite his injuries this season, he had an even better season this year. Like Anderson, Trevor Cahill also improved upon his rookie-campaign and went 18-8 this year with a 2.97 ERA. But perhaps even more impressive was Gio Gonzalez, who struggled in 2009 but established himself as a fixture in Oakland’s rotation this season. Gonzalez, 25, went 15-9 with a nifty 3.23 ERA in 33 starts this year.

The A’s had veterans Ben Sheets and Justin Duchscherer penciled in this year for the rotation, but both eventually ended up on the DL. Sheets, 32, went 4-9 with a 4.53 ERA in 20 starts this year. Sheets lasted longer than Duchscherer, 33, who lasted just five starts before landing on the DL for the remainder of the season.

Despite these setbacks, however, the A’s rotation was led by their other ‘veteran,’ Dallas Braden. Braden, 27, threw a perfect game on Mother’s Day this year, and did a solid job this season while serving as the staff’s veteran. Braden finished the season with a 11-14 record and a 3.50 ERA.

Like the Giants, the A’s boasted an incredible pitching staff for a majority of the season, but both teams endured the misfortunes of having an anemic offense.

The A’s hit a total of 109 home runs, which ranked 28th in baseball for the year. Across the bay, the Giants hit 162 which ranked 11th in the league. They were led by the likes of Aubrey Huff, Juan Uribe and Buster Posey to name a few. Altogether, the Giants had seven players on offense who hit 10 or more home runs for the season. The A’s had four.

The A’s as a team hit .256/.324/.378 this year, while the Giants hit .257/.321/.408. Now, those offensive numbers are eerily close to each other in terms of similarity, but the Giants are the ones playing in the postseason right now.

The A’s scored 663 runs, while the Giants managed to score 697. It doesn’t take a rocket-scientist to determine the fact that both these teams were not good on the offensive side of things. When it comes down to it though, the Giants were able to make do with what they had, while the A’s were not.

The A’s played extremely well in the second-half, and while they only posted a .500 record this season, the team did improved upon last year’s squad. The Giants meanwhile, really took everyone by surprise. In the NL West, which figured to be the Dodgers’ or Colorado’s division heading into the season, the Giants made a great run in catching the San Diego Padres.

The A’s pitching was good this year, and the team has the foundation all laid out for another “Big Three,” but the Giants’ rotation was just a tad better this season.

Led by Tim Lincecum, Jonathan Sanchez and Matt Cain, the Giants have their own “Big Three” this year in the playoffs. And from the looks of it, they’re doing just fine. The Giants are on a roll, and are on the cusp of reaching the World Series, while I’m left staring across the bay wondering what to do.