The San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics begin a three-game inter league series tonight in Oakland. Barry Zito of the Giants, a former Athletic who signed with the National League Bay Area team in part to stay in the area, is the opening night pitcher for the visitors.
Throughout the major leagues this weekend, there will be similar intercity and close-proximity match ups like the Mets and Yankees in New York and the Cubs and the White Sox in the Windy City. I am "sorry" to report that the management of the "Los Angels Angels of Anaheim" are still suffering under the delusion that they are in Los Angeles and their series with the Dodgers constitutes a crosstown-rivalry. (Unless you consider a harrowing 40 mile trip by car through a matrix of urban highways to be "cross-town". If you miss one turn off headed in either direction, you'll wind up either in San Bernadino or Long Beach and "the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Jim. This blog will self-destruct in"...sorry, got carried away there.)
The idea from the MLB brain trust came about in the mid-nineties, when baseball was suffering the backlash caused by a players union--owners dispute that led to a lockout and the perception that modern baseball players had turned into a pack of whiny millionaires who cared little about the fans. Well, fans do turn out for these match-ups and the Giants/A's games are at a near sell-out right now, although single tickets are available according to the SF Gate/Chronicle website.
All fine and well. Although baseball traditionalists like myself resent most changes, this has turned out to be a success for the most part. I mean, the Cubs and the White Sox are unlikely ever to play a meaningful game otherwise...before Inter league play, the last "meaningful" games the two teams had played was the 1906 World Series.
The thing of it is...the Giants and the A's are not rivals. Not in any extraordinary sense. I think most people go to the Giants/A's games for the chance to see a couple good local teams. But the fact is the Giants already have a storied rivalry in the Dodgers. These two teams fans have dogged each other for decades, going all the way back to their days at the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field back in New York and Brooklyn, respectively. Playing the A's for any Giants fans I know or have read about carries little ire or undue "rush" of competitive zeal. I actually rather like the A's--having got over their thumping four game sweep of the Giants in the 1989 "Earthquake" World Series. Those four games were the only time I really felt that the Giants and the Athletics were super-competitors. Four games does not a rivalry make. Compared to the atmosphere you get when the Giants and the LA rivals mix it up, especially in the old days at Candlestick Park, the Bay Area rivalry is a picnic.
There are A's fans who like the Giants and vice versa. But you be hard pressed to find anybody who both roots for San Francisco and Los Angeles. It takes more than proximity to make a rivalry; it takes resentments and attitude and a history of successes and squashed hopes. Those ingredients the Dodgers and the Giants fans have going with each other in spades.
For more info on the Giants/Dodger rivalry, check out this site:
http://athomeplate.com/rivalries.shtml
(above, hot-hitting Giants outfielder Randy Winn gets a handshake from third base coach Tim Flannery after Winn "went yard" against the A's to help the Frisco Nine to victory in a 4-1 game on Sunday. Veteran skid-stopper Matt Morris pitched a complete-game two-hitter as the Giants avoided being swept by Oakland. After an early slump at the plate this season, Mr. Winn is now batting .327)
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