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Bay Bridge Series

Major League Baseball cross-bay rivalry between the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants

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Bay Bridge Series

Oakland Athletics San Francisco Giants
Location	San Francisco Bay Area
First meeting	World Series: October 9, 1905 Columbia Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Giants 5, Athletics 0 Regular season: July 2, 1997[1] 3Com Park, San Francisco, California Athletics 8, Giants 1
Latest meeting	August 6, 2023[1] Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California Athletics 8, Giants 6
Next meeting	July 30, 2024 Oracle Park San Francisco, California
Trophy	Athletics 3 Giants 3
Statistics
Meetings total	164[2]
All-time series	Athletics, 87–77 (.530)[2]
Regular season series	Athletics, 74–70 (.514)[1]
Postseason results	Athletics, 13–7 (.650)[2]
Largest victory	Athletics, 16–0 (June 26, 2005)[3] Giants, 18–2 (June 4, 2000)[4]
Longest win streak	Athletics, 7 (June 8, 2007–June 27, 2008)[1] Giants, 6 (June 11, 2010–May 22, 2011)[1]
Current win streak	Athletics, 2[1]
Post-season history
1905 World Series: Giants won, 4–1 1911 World Series: Athletics won, 4–1 1913 World Series: Athletics won, 4–2 1989 World Series: Athletics won, 4–0

The Bay Bridge Series, or the Battle of the Bay, is a series of baseball games played between—and the rivalry of—Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics of the American League and San Francisco Giants of the National League. The series takes its name from the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge which links the cities of Oakland and San Francisco. As of 2018, the winner of the annual series retains a trophy fashioned from a piece of the original bridge.^[5]

Although competitive, the regional rivalry between the A's and Giants is considered a friendly one with mostly mutual companionship between the fans, as opposed to Cubs–White Sox, or Mets–Yankees games where animosity runs high, though sections of each fanbase does harbor towards the entirety of the other. This, however, is limited as many people see the opposing team as no threat to their own; hats displaying both teams on the cap are sold from vendors at the games, and once in a while the teams both dress in uniforms from a historic era of their franchises. Many fans actively cheer for both teams when they are not playing against the other. A's fans cite the Giants blocking a potential move to San Jose as a point of contention.

The series is also occasionally referred to as the "BART Series" for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system that links Oakland to San Francisco. However, the name "BART Series" has never been popular beyond a small selection of history books and national broadcasters and has fallen out of favor, likely because BART does not provide direct or easy access to Oracle Park in San Francisco. Bay Area locals almost exclusively refer to the rivalry as the "Bay Bridge Series" or the "Battle of the Bay."

Originally, the term described a series of exhibition games played between the two clubs after the conclusion of spring training, immediately prior to the start of the regular season. It was first used to refer to the 1989 World Series which the Athletics won and the first time both teams had met since they moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, it also refers to games played between the teams during the regular season since the commencement of Interleague play in 1997. Through the 2023 season, the A's have won 74 games, and the Giants have won 70.^[6]

The Giants and Athletics met in the 1905, 1911 and 1913 World Series as the New York Giants and Philadelphia Athletics. The Giants won, 4–1, in 1905, and the Athletics won in 1911 (4–1) and 1913 (4–2), respectively. Hall of Famers such as John McGraw, Roger Bresnahan, Christy Mathewson, Joe McGinnity and Rube Marquard took part on the Giants side while the Athletics had Connie Mack, Chief Bender, Eddie Plank, Rube Waddell, Frank Baker and Eddie Collins.

The San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics met for the first time in the 1989 World Series. This series was interrupted minutes before Game 3 on October 17, 1989, when an earthquake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter Scale, struck the San Francisco Bay Area. The resulting damage to both Candlestick Park and to a lesser extent the Oakland Coliseum, along with the emotional and economic damage to the area, delayed the resumption of the series for 10 days, the longest interval between games in World Series history. The earthquake caused the collapse of a portion of the Bay Bridge, the centerpiece of many promotions for the "Bay Bridge Series"; however, experts have suggested that the Series actually helped to save countless lives, as many would-be commuters from both sides of the Bay had left work early or stayed in the cities to watch the game. As a result, traffic on the roads below collapsed portions of the Bay Bridge and Cypress Street Viaduct portion of Interstate 880 in Oakland (while this disaster killed one person on the Bay Bridge and 42 people on the viaduct, local officials initially assumed that the death toll would be well into the hundreds) was significantly lighter than it would normally be at rush hour.^[7]

The Athletics swept the Giants to win their most recent World Series championship.

Both teams met for the first time in the regular season in June 1997.^[8]

The Giants' Barry Zito started 0–4 against his former team, finally beating the Athletics on June 12, 2010 at AT&T Park.^[9]

The A's have been considering relocating to San Jose, California, for 13 years but have reportedly met resistance from the Giants. San Jose is located in Santa Clara County, which is considered to be the Giants "territory".^[10] The Athletics claim that former owner Walter A. Haas, Jr. agreed for the Giants to take over the Santa Clara area when the Giants were considering moving to Florida and needed revenue. The Giants contend that the agreement was not based upon actually relocating the team to Santa Clara as the A's contended. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, who was fraternity brothers with A's managing partner Lew Wolff at the University of Wisconsin, stated that the A's would not be able to survive as a franchise if they remained at the Oakland Coliseum. The Giants claimed that the territorial rights were "explicitly reaffirmed by Major League Baseball on four separate occasions," when former managing partner Peter Magowan bought the team in the early 1990s. The Giants stated "upon purchasing the team 20 years ago, our plan to revive the franchise relied heavily on targeting and solidifying our fan base in the largest and fastest growing county within our territory. Based on these Constitutionally-recognized territorial rights, the Giants invested hundreds of millions of dollars to save and stabilize the team for the Bay Area, built Oracle Park privately and has operated the franchise so that it can compete at the highest levels.

With the A's leaving Oakland after the 2024 season for Las Vegas in 2028 (and West Sacramento in the interim), due to issues with their stadium, the rivalry in the form of the Bay Bridge series and Bay Area series will end in 2024 (the final Bay Bridge Series game will take place on August 18, 2024). Instead of being focused on the Bay Area, the rivalry will continue as one over Northern California. When the team does move to Las Vegas as planned, however, the teams may still meet in 6 games annually due to the other West division teams being paired up in Interleague rivalries (barring a swap of the forced pairings). Even still, the teams would at least still meet in an annual 3-game series with alternating venues each season.

After plans for Cisco Field were shuttered due to the Giants blocking the plan with the decision upheld by the United States Supreme Court, the A's attempted to build their new waterfront stadium. With John Fisher not willing to come into an agreement with the City of Oakland, the A's instead purchased land near Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders (who also formerly played in Oakland) and T-Mobile Arena, home of the Vegas Golden Knights in April 2023. The plans later shifted to a new stadium built on the Tropicana Las Vegas and were approved by the Nevada State Legislature and Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo by June.

Despite the rivalry, following the Athletics plans for relocation, Athletics and Giants fans during a July 25, 2023 game at Oracle Park chanted "Sell the Team" as part of an event known as "Unite the Bay" in the hopes that the rivalry would be saved.

Note: Giants records only from 1958 when they moved to San Francisco, as are Athletics records from 1968 when they moved to Oakland.
As of October 2, 2023.

Updated to most recent meeting, August 6, 2023.

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• Subway Series, currently New York Yankees vs. New York Mets
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• Beltway Series, Washington Nationals vs. Baltimore Orioles
• Citrus Series, Miami Marlins vs. Tampa Bay Rays
• Ohio Cup, Cincinnati Reds vs. Cleveland Indians
• Show–Me Series, St. Louis Cardinals vs. Kansas City Royals
• 49ers–Raiders rivalry the former series between the 49ers and Raiders. The series ended in 2020 after the Raiders relocated to Las Vegas.
• Kings–Warriors rivalry A local rivalry between the two NBA teams in Northern California.