| | Good news from the San Francisco Bay Area: The bridge still stands.
In other developments, the neighborhoods are not on fire, and the light
switches work when you flick them on.
|  | | Barry Bonds was a hero in San Francisco during Game 1. |
In other words, they have survived the first flurry of commingling
postseasons. The A's have now left for New York, the Giants are hot on their
jetstream, and now the jubilee train heads east for the kind of overheated
baseball weekend New York has done more often, and best.
There has, however, been an interesting development in the A's/Giants
ballfest.
The 49ers are playing the Raiders on Sunday, and it is plainly a
second-string story.
This is a remarkable phenomenon, given that the Bay Area has always
placed its football first, second, fourth, and seventh, in its sporting
amusement top 10. The other six are, football training camps, baseball, the
NCAA Basketball Tournament, in-line skating through a crowd of old people,
the NFL Draft, and trying to pretend our co-workers aren't smoking reefer.
That having been said, the resurgence of baseball as a fashion statement
has caught the Bay Area flatfooted, especially given the natural
gravitational pull of Raiders-49ers. That game rekindles the classic cultural
Frisco-snob/Oaktown-tough staredown that passes in this part of the nation
for Balkan hatreds.
Giants-A's has never reached even that level of "Why I Oughta," although the two teams' owners pretty much loathe each other ... and
probably for equally valid reasons, we suspect.
Indeed, most folks want nothing more than to see another Bay Bridge
World Series, even if it means rehashing those hilarious days in '89 watching
out-of-towners sprint for the airport while fearing that Satan would reach up
out of the San Andreas Fault and pull the unwary into the earth's core.
|
“ |
Of course, Raider and 49er fans will object, usually with a brick
through your windshield, claiming that this is no smaller an event for the
Bay Area than Vatican City's take on a papal election. They will grow
indignant over even the perception that their game has diminished in stature,
but the fact is, it was mostly a local deal before, and the locals are
watching and talking baseball. ” |
Nothing of the sort happened, of course. Just two more games nobody in
America watched.
But we digress. The gain in local baseball lore has come mostly at the
expense of Raiders-49ers. Oakland is 3-1, one of its best starts in years;
San Francisco is 2-3, which is two more wins than anyone thought them
capable.
Add to that general disagreeableness with which they confront each
other, and you get the kind of special moment the Bay Area has been stoking
for since the NFL schedule came out in April.
But now? Just another football game like so many others, proving nothing
except which parking lot can hold more Jagermeister empties.
Of course, Raider and 49er fans will object, usually with a brick
through your windshield, claiming that this is no smaller an event for the
Bay Area than Vatican City's take on a papal election. They will grow
indignant over even the perception that their game has diminished in stature,
but the fact is, it was mostly a local deal before, and the locals are
watching and talking baseball.
Truth is, the 49ers are already trying to rebuild their reputation. The
Raiders, for their part, hate the Broncos and Chiefs far more than they can
ever hate their neighbors.
Besides, Jason Giambi and Ellis Burks have the run of the bar right now.
Giambi is Oakland cool, a perfect '70s Raider, all the way down to the
tattery on his arms and the wink at the world. Burks, for his part, is the
perfect idea of what San Franciscans think of themselves --- elegant yet
enduring, style without ostentation, and balls that ring off the foul pole.
Against this, match the flavorized Raiders ... no speeding, no
motorcycles, no popping in to local watering holes to hang with the regulars.
God, they might as well be the Detroit Lions. And while you're at it, match
the 49ers in their discombobulation, far off the lead and trying to figure
out what Terrell Owens is thinking up now.
It's no contest. As much hooting as the A's have taken for saving their
fan interest until the last possible day, the fact is that the crowds are
there now. Some of them may even allow themselves to be seen next season,
too.
And if both teams make the World Series ... well, there's plenty of
bottled water and flashlight batteries to go around for everyone.
Ray Ratto, a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. | |
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