Rivalries. They are the lifeblood that fuels sports.
This past weekend provided another perfect example of that with the Oakland Athletics battling the San Francisco Giants in this year’s final installment of the Bay Bridge Series.
The A’s took two out of three from the Giants, evening the season series at 3-3, which has happened nearly every year since interleague play began in 1997 in a rivalry where the A’s hold a narrow 29-27 lead.
The first two games of this weekend’s series showed the wonderful wave of emotion that can happen during any sporting event, especially one pitting two rivals.
When Barry Bonds walked, stole second and scored on a Pedro Feliz single in the bottom of the eighth inning of Friday’s game, it gave the Giants a 3-2 lead and had San Francisco supporters rocking.
But when Armando Benitez coughed up that lead an inning later, the A’s fans got to walk out of AT&T Park celebrating and with full ownership of bragging rights for the night.
Those bragging rights carried on for much of the day Saturday, as Oakland recovered from surrendering Bonds’ 719th career home run to take a commanding 7-2 lead.
The Giants eventually chipped away, but the feeling in the ballpark, which I experienced from section 127, was that this game belonged to the A’s.
When Huston Street entered for Oakland in the bottom of the eighth, the game seemed over. Street has been all but automatic since returning from a stint on the disabled list early in the season and the Giants offense has been less than impressive over the last few weeks.
Mark Sweeney’s leadoff single and Bonds’ walk that followed provided a glimmer of hope for San Franciscans, but there was hardly a sense by Giants fans that they would be able to walk out as winners.
A’s fans had been having their fun all day long, cheering wildly as the lead piled up. Even with two men on, it was obvious from the expression on most A’s fans’ faces that the thought of losing the game wasn’t within the realm of possibility.
Ray Durham came to the plate and twice tried unsuccessfully to lay down a bunt. After working the count to 2-2, Durham, who had stranded seven runners on base in the game so far, let loose on a swing.
His deep drive to right field barely skipped up the top of the wall and into the stands, but it was enough to make the Giants 8-7 winners and turn the tide on the whole day.
An A’s fan who had accompanied me to the game had a look of sheer shock on his face -his chin dropped to the floor and all the hazing he had done all day suddenly became obsolete.
Meanwhile, Giants fans rejoice with a similar look of shock on their faces that their team had pulled off the improbable win.
This is what makes sports so special and why rivalries are so crucial to their success.
Locally, it is sad that Live Oak and Gilroy will no longer be competing in the same league and will see their long-time rivalry come to an end.
In due time, hopefully Sobrato will join the same division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League as the Acorns and can be Live Oak’s new heated rival. And when the city of Gilroy eventually gets its second high school, it may give the Mustangs a new team to get pumped up to play against.
For now, those teams will still enjoy competing against the rest of the league, but the atmosphere won’t quite be the same as a rivalry game, which truly drive the competitive nature that make sports one of the most enjoyable things to become a part of.
