Giants and A’s Fans Gather for One Last Battle of the Bay

Baseball fans from both sides of the Bay took to the Oakland Coliseum on Sunday, hot dogs and beer in hand, to mark the end of an era for Bay Area baseball.

The game was the final meeting of the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s, a matchup known for decades as the “Battle of the Bay” or the “Bay Bridge Series,” before the A’s head to their temporary new home in West Sacramento next season.

The mood was festive and friendly, with dancing, tailgating and a tinge of wistfulness from A’s fans. Some tailgating parties had mixed-family allegiances to both teams. Samantha Quiñones, Angelina Castro and Myra Martinez drove up from San José with several family members, both A’s and Giant’s fans, to grill and watch the game.

Quiñones described the Battle of the Bay as an authentic Bay Area experience.

“Just being able to take Bart up here and hop off and get to the Coliseum,” Quiñones said. “We really do have strong roots here in Oakland. And that’s definitely gonna be something I’m really gonna miss.”

A’s ownership is continuing to work on securing a new home in Las Vegas for the team, but getting a stadium built there is likely to take a few more years. A’s owner John Fisher announced in April that the team will relocate to Sacramento next season and play at the home of the minor league Sacramento River Cats for at least three years in the meantime.

Interleague games between the A’s and Giants didn’t start until 1997, but the competition dates back to the infamous 1989 World Series.

As World Series go, the one in 1989 was not a particularly grueling competition. The A’s swept the series 4-0, winning it in the minimum number of games. But when the Loma Prieta Earthquake struck just before the start of game three, the cross-bay contest was cemented in local history.

Television coverage at Candlestick Park was already underway, with ABC Sports replaying part of game two when the earthquake interrupted the feed. KQED’s Scott Shafer recalls being there, feeling the shaking and seeing then-mayor of San Francisco, Art Agnos, flown out of the arena by helicopter.

Dianna Jess, 84, said she has been coming to games at the Coliseum since 1972 and has been an A’s season ticket holder for 40 years. She also remembers being at Candlestick Park when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck, “All of a sudden, it just sounded like a roar in the ballpark,” Jess recalled.

With the A’s headed to West Sacramento next season, Jess said she probably won’t go to that many games, “It’s a little bit far to travel because I don’t like to drive that much.”

Self-described A’s “superfan” Andy Ngim came to the game with 40 family members. He says he doesn’t plan on going to see the team play in West Sacramento.

“Being a lifelong A’s fan and growing up in Oakland, it just doesn’t feel right,” Ngim said of the possibility of continuing to attend games in Sacramento or Las Vegas.

Sunday’s game went scoreless for five innings until the A’s Miguel Andujar hit an RBI single in the 6th inning. Next inning, the Giants’ Heliot Ramos responded with a well-hit 448-foot solo home run to tie the game. The game went into extra innings tied at one run a piece.

In the 10th, the Giants took control of the game with a 2-run homer by Jerar Encarnacion and another solo home run by Michael Conforto.

The A’s Max Schuemann kept the team’s hopes alive with an RBI single in the bottom of the tenth to bring the score to 4 to 2, but Giants relief pitcher Ryan Walker was able to hold the A’s to just that one run to finish the game.

The Battle of the Bay has spanned 148 regular season games. The A’s have the winning record in that series, with 76 wins and 72 losses to the Giants.

In that time, fans on both sides have seen tremendous victories and outrageous losses. In a June 2005 game, the A’s dominated with a final score of 16-0. In another 2006 game, Barry Bonds hit his 714th home run, tying him with Babe Ruth for second place in the sport’s history of career home runs on Oakland’s home turf.

In 2018, the cross-bay competition was memorialized through a trophy named “The Bridge.” The 30-pound steel prize was made from part of the East Span of the old Bay Bridge, according to NBC Sports Bay Area.

Before Sunday’s game, both teams had held the trophy for three years each. It’s unclear if the tradition will continue after the A’s leave Oakland.

The two teams will continue to face off, eventually as the San Francisco Giants versus the Las Vegas A’s, but it won’t be in Oakland, and it won’t be the same.