Listening to Dickey talk got me thinking about the rich history
of Bay Area sports. There have been great years and lean years and
downright ugly years
– this past one being particularly gruesome.
By the sheerest chance, I found myself sitting next to Glenn Dickey in the press box at last Saturday’s 49ers-Redskins game. Dickey has been a fixture on the Bay Area sports scene for decades, and I was happy to find he was talking to another writer about the old days.
“Everything I know about football,” said Dickey, somewhat reverentially, “I learned from Al Davis and Bill Walsh.”
What he didn’t say was that everything he learned about shaving, he learned from the Amish.
Regardless, listening to Dickey talk got me thinking about the rich history of Bay Area sports. There have been great years and lean years and downright ugly years – this past one being particularly gruesome.
Now we’ve been talking pretty much non-stop in this space about how bad this past year has been for the local franchises. I want to pull a 180 and talk a little bit about the great years. Following is one man’s opinion of the 10 best years to be a Bay Area sports fan – and never mind those stretches that made us all want to wear paper bags over our heads.
But before I get started, a quick note. This list is based entirely on how the pro teams did. I want to encourage you longtime residents of Gilroy, Morgan Hill and Hollister to come up with your own favorite years, based on the accomplishments of your own favorite local teams and athletes. Drop me a line at dp*****@sv**********.com or call the Green Phone at (800) 687-0836 with your own suggestions for “The Greatest Year Ever.”
Here are mine:
10. 1968. The Raiders made it to the AFL Championship Game a year after losing in the Super Bowl, while the Warriors made it to the Western Division Finals. Not a particularly stellar showing, until you consider that 1968 was also the year the Kansas City Athletics became the Oakland A’s and the Oakland Oaks of the old ABA were born.
The Downside: The 49ers, Giants, A’s and Oaks all missed the playoffs.
9. 2002. In a year in which every team made the playoffs except the Warriors (who else?), none managed to win it all. But the Giants got to within six outs of a World Series title and the Raiders made it to the Super Bowl. What’s more, Jeff Garcia led the Niners to perhaps the most exciting comeback in franchise history with a 39-38 win over the Giants in their NFC Divisional Playoff.
The Downside: The A’s once again couldn’t get past the Divisional Series and the Sharks once again couldn’t get out of the Western Conference playoff bracket.
8. 1980. The Raiders won their second championship. They also cemented their reputation as the team for out-of-control lunatics who scare the bejeezus out of everybody else when John Matuszak and Co. pushed Bourbon Street to its own not inconsiderable limits during Super Bowl week. The Niners were still a year away, but Bill Walsh and Joe Montana were on board and primed for greatness.
The Downside: Everyone else missed the playoffs and pretty much stunk.
7. 1958. The year the Giants moved to San Francisco, marking the beginning of the Bay Area as a first-rate sports destination.
The Downside: This was also the year the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles.
6. 1988. The Niners won their third Super Bowl when Montana drilled John Taylor in the back of the end zone with 38 ticks left to complete a comeback over the Bengals. Meanwhile, the A’s lost to Kirk Gibson and the Dodgers in the World Series, the first of three straight appearances in the Fall Classic for Oakland.
The Downside: The Giants and Warriors missed the playoffs.
5. 1975. The Warriors won their one and only NBA Championship, while the Raiders made it to the AFC Championship Game and the A’s failed to win the World Series for the first time in three years (but made it to the AL Championship Series).
The Downside: The 49ers and Giants missed the playoffs. Also, disco and Gerald Ford.
4. 1972. The A’s won the first of three World Series in a row, but the reason this year gets the nod over 1973 and 1974 is that the 49ers and Raiders both made the playoffs (losing in Divisional Playoffs) and the Warriors – playing their first year in Oakland – made it to the Western Conference Finals.
The Downside: The Warriors moved to Oakland.
3. 1976. The Raiders’ first Super Bowl win after bowing out in the AFL or AFC Championship seemingly every year. Oh, and the Warriors nearly made the NBA Finals for a second year in a row.
The Downside: Charlie Finley broke up the young, talented A’s, who missed the playoffs along with the Niners and Giants.
2. 1981. The Niners’ first Super Bowl win, and maybe more importantly on a mythological level, The Catch against Dallas. What more could you want out of a year? Not that it really matters towards the sheer greatness of 1981, but the A’s made AL Championship Series, somewhat improbably.
The Downside: There is none, not even the Warriors sending Robert Parish and the pick that would become Kevin McHale to the Celtics for the pick that would become Joe Barry Carroll. Okay, maybe the worst trade in NBA history is a downside.
1. 1989. What can you say? Ho-hum, the Niners won another Super Bowl and we were treated to the first ever Bay Bridge Series, with the A’s beating the Giants. Even the Warriors, in the midst of the Run-TMC era, made it to the Western Conference Semifinals before losing to the Lakers.
The Downside: Well, there was that little thing about an earthquake …
Honorable Mention: 1950 (Niners’ first year in the NFL), 1960 (Raiders’ first year in the AFL), 1962 (Giants six inches of loft on Willie McCovey line drive short of winning World Series), 1963 (Warriors move to San Francisco), 1967 (Raiders lose in Super Bowl, Warriors lose in NBA Finals), 1969 (Oaks win ABA Championship), 1973 (A’s win World Series), 1974 (A’s win World Series), 1984 (49ers win Super Bowl), 1990 (A’s lose World Series, 49ers a Roger Craig fumble away from Super Bowl), 1991 (Sharks’ first year in NHL), 1993 (Niners lose in NFC Championship Game, Giants win 103 in Bonds’ first year but miss playoffs), 1994 (Niners win Super Bowl, Warriors win 50, Sharks make Western Conference Semis), 1995 (Raiders move back to Oakland), 2001 (Bonds hits record 73 home runs, Raiders, A’s, Sharks make playoffs).
