Drawing Parellels: The Oakland Athletics & The Golden State Warriors
By Sean Davis
We spent the entire summer basking in the glory of the Oakland Athletics magical run to the AL West championship, it was simply amazing. Now we are experiencing very much the same type of season right next door at the Oracle Arena with the Golden State Warriors. Only with the Warriors they hit the ground running and appeared poised to make the playoffs from the get go.
Aug 11, 2011; Oakland, CA, USA; General view of the O.co Coliseum (left) and the Oracle Arena before the NFL preseason game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Oakland Raiders. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports
That isn’t the only similarity though between the two teams, while both reside in the city of Oakland right now, both appear to be looking to get out at all costs. The Athletics of course have been attempting to be gain permission to move to San Jose for the last 4 years, and the Warriors have visions of building a waterfront arena in San Francisco at piers 30-32. For good measure the Oakland Raiders are always a threat to pack up and re-relocate back to Los Angeles. So needless to say this dynamic has given the common East Bay sports fan some serious abandonment issues.
There has always been an air of superiority from the Peninsula and the South Bay regions of the Bay Area towards the East Bay, perhaps leading to a bit of an inferiority complex as well. So when the Warriors held their big press conference on the pier in San Francisco, and declared that they would play there by 2017, as an A’s fan and a Warriors fan as well I was very disappointed. The impression being given was that Oakland simply wasn’t good enough, and San Francisco was superior in every way and therefore was much more desirable. For me, and many Oakland fans that hurt. I took it personally for sure.
As a result I stopped my Warriors fandom and found myself rooting for them to lose at all costs, just to stick it to them. So naturally the Warriors are off to their best start since Rick Barry played on the team.
Obviously my anti-winning mojo doesn’t work, the San Francisco Giants won their 2nd World Series title in 3 years against my will, and now the Warriors are looking like a serious threat despite my wishes. But it’s gotten me thinking about my stance on things, and it made me recall the very first article I wrote here on Swingin’ A’s entitled “A’s Fans: A Call to Arms.” In that article I declared that we needed to stop focusing on all the business goings on, and take the time to enjoy the Athletics for everything that they are right now, because soon enough things would change and never be the same again. It’s time I take my own advice.
The thought of the Athletics packing up and moving to San Jose never bothered me really, even though it would greatly increase my own travel time to their games. If they simply stay in the Bay Area I’ll be satisfied, I’d rather not consider the alternative. So why then did it bother me so much that the Warriors sought to do essentially the same thing the A’s were attempting? The short answer is, I have no idea.
If I had decided to boycott the A’s because of their desire to relocate to the Silicon Valley, I would have missed one of the most exciting baseball season’s Oakland has ever seen. I will not let that happen with the Warriors either. So what if they are thumbing their nose at the city of Oakland as they draw up plans for San Francisco? Those plans may go just as smoothly as the A’s plans for San Jose, meaning not anytime soon if ever. So why deprive myself of what could be an extremely thrilling season for the Dubs? Simply put, there’s no good reason to.