A TALE OF THREE CITIES: NEW YORK, L.A. AND SAN FRANCISCO IN OCTOBER OF ‘62 (66 page)

Joe Morgan's game-winning home run of 1982
was part of an era in which San Francisco, long doormats
culturally, politically and athletically, began a comeback.

That season, the Oakland Raiders, winners of
the 1977 and 1981 Super Bowls, moved to the Los Angeles Memorial
Coliseum. They captured another Super Bowl in 1984, but fell on
difficult times. By 1994, their silver-and-black ensemble were
little more than gang colors in south-central L.A. They returned to
Oakland in search of lost glory but never found it. A 2003 trip to
the Super Bowl was the closest they got, but they were humbled and
have fallen into disrepair since.

With the Raiders gone, the unlikely San
Francisco 49ers took over the Bay Area in a manner similar to that
of the New York Yankees when the Dodgers and Giants left New York.
For decades, the 49ers had been a decided "second fiddle" to the
Los Angeles Rams. The Rams played to enormous throngs in the
historic Coliseum. Winners of the 1952 NFL title, they were the
toast of L.A. Under coach George Allen in the 1960s they were
perennial division champions, although they could not make it to
the elusive Super Bowl.

In the 1970s, the Rams continued to be a
powerhouse. In 1975 they featured one of the best defensive teams
in pro football annals, and in January, 1980 played as the "home
team," a close Super Bowl loss to Pittsburgh at Pasadena's Rose
Bowl. But it was during this time when owner Carroll Rosenbloom was
mysteriously drowned; a power struggle for club ownership was won
by his widow, Georgia Frontiere over Rosenbloom's son; and the club
moved from the Coliseum to suburban Anaheim.

Rosenbloom's death and the subsequent events
revolving around Frontiere and the Anaheim move, seemed to sap this
once-proud franchise of its greatness. This occurred at the same
time coach Bill Walsh, quarterback Joe Montana and safety Ronnie
Lott turned the 49ers into the greatest dynasty in the history of
the National Football League.

The 49ers won four Super
Bowls with Montana at quarterback. Walsh left after the third, but
they captured two more under his replacement, George Seifert. The
fifth, won in the 1995 Super Bowl over the San Diego Chargers,
featured Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young. When Seifert left,
coach Steve Mariucci replaced him. The 49ers and Young maintained a
championship-level performance through the 1997 campaign. The 49ers
success between 1981 and 1997 must be considered the greatest
sustained run of excellence in pro football history. Perhaps the
most incongruous aspect of this achievement is that it was all done
at that symbol of ineptitude,
Candlestick
Park!

In 1992, the Giants sunk to the
lowest point in their up-and-down history on the West Coast
(76-92). It got so bad that the club started handing out a
Croix de Candlestick
to fans who braved the freezing
elements to the conclusion of losing games. Nobody could be paid to
go out there.

They
seemed headed to Tampa/St.
Petersburg, Florida, where they would have been destined to an
existence at Tropicana Field as the Tampa Bay Giant Devil
Rays.
Such a move "would have put the
Giant-Dodger rivalry on its deathbed," said the
New York Times
.

West Coast fans can add the rivalry
"to a list of endangered species," lamented Dave Anderson of
the
Times
.

This desultory fate was averted by Peter
Magowan, a Safeway supermarket magnate who bought the club and
immediately brought in Barry Bonds as a free agent. Bonds, the son
of former Giants star outfielder Bobby Bonds and the Godson of
Willie Mays, was a product of San Mateo's Serra High School. Serra
may have no equals when it comes to producing star athletes, who
include Bonds, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, former
Angels All-Star Jim Fregosi, ex-USC football coach John Robinson,
and Hall of Fame Steelers wide receiver Lynn Swann; just to name a
few.

Bonds, a two-time National
League MVP at Pittsburgh, won the 1993 Most Valuable Player award
with San Francisco. The Giants put on an amazing display and
exhibited one of the
all-time greatest
turnarounds
in sports history, going from
72-90 in 1992 to 103-59 in 1993 under new manager Dusty
Baker.

After leading the National West Division all
season, San Francisco was caught at season's end by Atlanta,
featuring the great pitching exploits of Greg Maddux, John Smoltz
and Tom Glavine. In a reversal of 1982, San Francisco could have
pushed themselves into a first place tie on the last "black
Sunday," but Mike Piazza and the Dodgers humbled them, 12-1 at
Dodger Stadium to send them home. Atlanta captured the
division.

But the very nature of the Dodgers-Giants
rivalry was completely turned around beginning in 2000, when San
Francisco moved into Pacific Bell Park (since re-named SBC and
later AT&T Park). For years, the Dodgers had been better on the
field, but substantially better at the gate. The main reason for
this was their marvelous Dodger Stadium, a symbol of excellence
compared to the atrocious Candlestick.

In the 2000s, for the very
first time, the San Francisco Giants displayed all-around
superiority over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Dodger Stadium remains an
aging jewel, but Pac Bell, built on the shores of the bay, with
visuals that include the downtown skyline, the Bay Bridge, and the
lights of Oakland shimmering across the water; with yachts and
ferries delivering party-happy fans to its gates; and every
superior amenity imaginable; gave the Giants a rivalry edge over
the Dodgers. After years in which the superiority complex of San
Francisco was a mere façade for their inferiority, they
finally
were
superior.

This superiority manifested itself not just
by the obvious greatness of their stadium, but by the club's
outstanding play on the field. In 2000, second baseman Jeff Kent
won the National League's Most Valuable Player award as the Giants
captured the division title. In 2001, Barry Bonds broke the
all-time Major League home run record with 73. In 2002, the Giants
won the National League pennant before losing a thrilling
seven-game World Series to the Anaheim Angels (an ironic twist in
which ultimate victory by NoCal over SoCal was not to be). Bonds
captured four MVP awards in the 2000s and, in 2007, broke Hank
Aaron's all-time career home run record when he hit number 756.

The Giants not only overshadowed their
rivals in Los Angeles, but finally seemed to have won the war of
San Francisco Bay, long dominated by the Oakland A's, who had won
four World Series to San Francisco's none. Oddly, while the A's won
ultimate victory on numerous occasions, consistently out-performed
the Giants over the years, and often out-drew them, particularly in
the "Bask Brothers" years of Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco
(1988-90), the Giants always remained the "in" team of the Bay
Area.

Obviously, being a San Francisco team was an
advantage over an Oakland team, but in their heyday the Raiders
were everything, the 49ers nothing, while the Warriors saw fit to
leave The City (their uniforms even called themselves that) for the
East Bay, if not printing the actual name "Oakland" on their
chests.

The sense of nostalgia and special feeling
that San Francisco developed for the 1962 Giants explains as well
as any other factor why the Giants, through good times and bad,
remained the "in" team, no matter how great the A's were. However,
the Giants have always had a "close but no cigar" moniker, a shadow
of sorts, hanging on them since arriving from New York in 1958.
This shadow grew darker when Bonds's steroid use became a public
scandal, shedding doubt on his home run records.

San Francisco
Chronicle
columnist Charles McCabe's
assertion that "total victory is unsettling," while shattered by
the 49ers' utter dominance, still applies to the Giants. They have
never won any of three World Series they have played in since the
move to the coast. With Boston's 2004 World Championship, the
Giants' 1954 title remains the third-oldest among all baseball
franchises, behind only the Chicago Cubs (1908) and the Cleveland
Indians (1948).

Therefore, while the Giants
of the 2000s have unquestionably been more successful and exciting
on the field, and equally successful at the gate, they cannot lay
claim to
total
victory over the Dodgers since they have no World
Championships to show for themselves.

The Dodgers have remained an inconsistent
team since their 1988 World Series victory over Oakland. They have
won division titles and wild card berths; competed for division
crowns; but too often flounder late in the season, a disturbing
sign of a weak organization. Their post-season record is
abysmal.

Free agency and the 1997-98 sell-off of the
club by the O'Malley family to Fox is a continuing disaster for
this proud organization. Their soul left when Peter O'Malley,
claiming that Bill Clinton-era tax policies prevented him from
being able to maintain family ownership, allowed them to become a
corporate entity. Fox may be a fine company but they were a "fish
out of water" when it came to baseball ownership. They sold their
interests a few years later, but there is little to be impressed by
subsequent caretakers. For years, Dodger heroes were
well-recognized stars known for their longevity in Los Angeles. By
the late 1990s and 2000s, a star Dodger was little more than a
hired hand playing out his contract.

As Bonds's steroid allegations and his age
reduced his greatness, the Giants became an also-ran again. The
Dodgers appear poised to regain the upper hand in the rivalry.
Attendance at Dodger Stadium and the re-named Angels Stadium, as
well many other cities, is extraordinary, averaging near-sellouts
each game. Once-a-week-pro-football-size crowds pay their way into
these arenas six, even days per week. However, until another World
Championship banner is hung with care at Dodger Stadium, their soul
will be in the purgatory seemingly plunged into when Peter O'Malley
sold them to Fox. Until the Giants can hang their first one, they
will remain slightly second rate.

****

What has never been second rate and probably
never will be are the New York Yankees. The Yankees were without
question the greatest organization in all of sports in 1962, and
have only strengthened their position since.

Great athletic dynasties over the past
century have included the Green Bay Packers, the Dallas Cowboys and
the Pittsburgh Stealers; the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles
Lakers; the Montreal Canadiens; Notre Dame, Southern California and
UCLA; and the U.S. Olympic team. None remotely compares to the
Yankees.

In 1963 and 1964, the Yankees won their
fourth and fifth consecutive American League pennants, but a slight
chink was found in their armor. In the 1963 World Series they were
manhandled four straight by Dodger pitching. In a thrilling
seven-game set, St. Louis defeated the pinstripers in 1964.

Subsequent ownership by CBS marked the
so-called "Horace Clarke era." Between 1965 and 1975, the Yankees
floundered between dead last and quite good, but with no
post-season appearances to show for it they became "New York's
other baseball team." The 1969 "Amazin' Mets," led by Tom Seaver,
reversed seven years of complete ineptitude to win a World Series
that is still viewed as a pure miracle, as in the kind miracle
actually performed by the hand of God.

In 1972, a former Purdue assistant football
coach named George Steinbrenner, who had inherited his father's
Florida ship-building company, bought the Yankees. His was not an
auspicious start. He was convicted of illegal campaign
contributions to Republican Richard Nixon, and oversaw the club's
two-year residence of Shea Stadium (1974-75). With Yankee Stadium
re-modeled and new manager Billy Martin leading the way, the
Yankees won the 1976 pennant. With free agent superstars Reggie
Jackson and Catfish Hunter no longer wearing Oakland green but
Yankee pinstripes, the Bronx Bombers captured the 1977 and 1978
World Championships with victories over Tommy Lasorda's
Dodgers.

The 1980s and early 1990s were a time of
difficulty for the Yankees. They went through a succession of
managers but could not reach the Promised Land. In 1996, manager
Joe Torre and young shortstop Derek Jeter propelled them to the
pennant and then victory over Atlanta in the 1996 World Series. The
club's dynasty of 1996-2000, which included four World titles in
five seasons, remains one of the greatest accomplishments in sports
history.

Over a decade's time, the rivalry between
the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox grew in intensity until it has
reached its current peak as the single fiercest and intense among
all athletic teams; college, pro or international. While the
cultural, social and political dynamics that have marked
Dodgers-Giants battles in New York and California remain an active
force in what stirs this pot, the same off-field factors inculcate
the Yankee-Red Sox war.

The conservative-liberal divide of San
Francisco and Los Angeles is no longer as prevalent. L.A. is now
reliably Democrat, although moderate enough to have elected Richard
Riordan as its Mayor. The conservative enclaves of the Southland
are increasingly pushed further away from the city-center, to south
Orange County, north San Diego County, and the Inland Empire. San
Francisco flirted with a moderate Democrat Mayor, Frank Jordan,
then took a great big bite out of the liberal sandwich by replacing
him with Willie Brown, veering farther and father to the Left ever
since.

While New York is and apparently always will
be a Democrat city, they have elected two Republican Mayors,
Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg. Boston, a strangely
schizophrenic old town that is considered racist, yet liberal (?),
views the Yankees as the embodiment of a rich, elite, Wall Street
ideology.