The Bay Bridge Series, or the Battle of the Bay, is a series of

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

games played between—and the rivalry of—

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

's Oakland Athletics of the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

and

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

. The series takes its name from the

San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 260,000 ...

which links the cities of Oakland and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. As of 2018, the winner of the annual series retains a trophy fashioned from a piece of the original bridge. 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 The 1989 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1989 season. The 86th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Oakland Athletics and the Nat ...

which the Athletics won and the first time both teams had met since they moved to the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. Today, it also refers to games played between the teams during the regular season since the commencement of

Interleague play Interleague play in Major League Baseball refers to regular-season baseball games played between an American League (AL) team and a National League (NL) team. Interleague play was first introduced during the 1997 Major League Baseball season. Pri ...

in 1997. Through the 2022 season, the A's have won 72 games, and the Giants have won 68.

History prior to Bay Area move

The Giants and Athletics met in the , and 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 John Joseph McGraw (April 7, 1873 – February 25, 1934) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) player and manager who was for almost thirty years manager of the New York Giants. He was also the third baseman of the pennant-winning 1890 ...

, Roger Bresnahan,

Christy Mathewson Christopher Mathewson (August 12, 1880 – October 7, 1925), nicknamed "Big Six", "the Christian Gentleman", "Matty", and "the Gentleman's Hurler", was a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher, who played 17 seasons with the New York Gia ...

Joe McGinnity Joseph Jerome McGinnity (March 20, 1871 – November 14, 1929) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the late 19th and early 20th century. McGinnity played in MLB for ten years, pitching for the National League's ...

and

Rube Marquard Richard William "Rube" Marquard (October 9, 1886 – June 1, 1980) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball in the 1910s and early 1920s. He achieved his greatest success with the New York Giants. He was inducted into the Ba ...

took part on the Giants side while the Athletics had

Connie Mack Cornelius McGillicuddy (December 22, 1862 – February 8, 1956), better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and team owner. The longest-serving manager in Major League Baseball history, he holds untoucha ...

, Chief Bender,

Eddie Plank Edward Stewart Plank (August 31, 1875 – February 24, 1926), nicknamed "Gettysburg Eddie", was an American professional baseball player. A pitcher, Plank played in Major League Baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 through 1914, t ...

Rube Waddell George Edward Waddell (October 13, 1876 – April 1, 1914) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB). A left-hander, he played for 13 years, with the Louisville Colonels, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Chicago Orphans in the National ...

Frank Baker John Franklin "Home Run" Baker (March 13, 1886 – June 28, 1963) was an American professional baseball player. A third baseman, Baker played in Major League Baseball from 1908 to 1922 for the Philadelphia Athletics and New York Yankees. Althoug ...

and Eddie Collins. Such World Series match-ups might have helped contribute to the modern New York-Philadelphia sports rivalry that still continues to this day.

The Move to the Bay

1989 World Series

The San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics met for the first time in the

. This series was interrupted minutes before Game 3 on October 17, 1989, when an

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

, measuring 6.9 on the

Richter Scale The Richter scale —also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale—is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 ...

, struck the

. The resulting damage to both

Candlestick Park Candlestick Park was an outdoor stadium on the West Coast of the United States, located in San Francisco's Bayview Heights area. The stadium was originally the home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, who played there from 1960 ...

and to a lesser extent the

Oakland Coliseum Oakland Coliseum, currently branded as RingCentral Coliseum, is a stadium in Oakland, California. It is part of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Complex, with the adjacent Oakland Arena, near Interstate 880. The Coliseum is the home b ...

, 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 The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

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 The Cypress Street Viaduct, often referred to as the Cypress Structure or the Cypress Freeway, was a 1.6-mile-long (2.5 km), raised two-deck, multi-lane (four lanes per tier) freeway constructed of reinforced concrete that was originally pa ...

in Oakland (while this disaster killed 42 people, 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. The Athletics swept the Giants to win their most recent World Series championship.

Interleague play

Both teams met for the first time in the regular season in June 1997. The Giants' Barry Zito started 0–4 against his former team, finally beating the Athletics on June 12, 2010 at AT&T Park.

Athletics relocation controversy

The A's have been considering relocating to

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

, for 13 years but have reportedly met resistance from the Giants. San Jose is located in

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together f ...

, which is considered to be the Giants "territory". 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 Allan Huber "Bud" Selig (; born July 30, 1934) is an American baseball executive who currently serves as the Commissioner Emeritus of Baseball. Previously, he served as the ninth Commissioner of Baseball from 1998 to 2015. He initially served as ...

, who was fraternity brothers with A's managing partner Lew Wolff at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

, stated that the A's would not be able to survive as a franchise if they remained at the

. The Giants claimed that the territorial rights were "explicitly reaffirmed by Major League Baseball on four separate occasions," when former managing partner

Peter Magowan Peter Alden Magowan (April 5, 1942 – January 27, 2019) was an American businessman. He was the managing general partner of the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball from 1993 to 2008. He was the chief executive officer of Safeway Inc. ...

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."

Future

With the A's threatening to leave Oakland due to issues with their stadium, the current Bay Bridge series and Bay Area series might end. 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 Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

, the A's have attempted to build their new waterfront stadium. With the city of Oakland not willing to help fund the stadium, the A's have been looking for areas outside of the Bay, including

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

and Portland.

Results

;" , Giants , style="};" , 4–2 , 2-4; 4-3₍₁₁₎; 2-6 , 1-3; 1-2; 0-3 , First time in which regular season series is not a tie , - , 2002 , style=";" , Athletics , style=";" , 4–2 , 6-10; 5-3; 0-7 , 3-2; 2-6; 2-1 , Both teams qualify for playoffs
Giants lose

2002 World Series The 2002 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB)'s 2002 season. The 98th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Anaheim Angels and the National Lea ...

, - , 2003 , Tie , 3–3 , 3-5; 6-4; 5-6 , 0-6; 7-8₍₁₀₎; 5-2 , , - , 2004 , Tie , 3–3 , 6-4; 7-8₍₁₀₎; 5-2 , 3-7; 6-2; 9-6 , , - , 2005 , style=";" , Athletics , style=";" , 4–2 , 3-4; 3-6; 0-16 , 8-4; 2-3; 1-3 , , - , 2006 , Tie , 3–3 , 0-1; 4-2₍₁₀₎; 6-0 , 4-3; 7-8; 10-4 , Barry Bonds ties Babe Ruth for second on the all-time home run list with 714th home run; A's reach ALCS , - , 2007 , style=";" , Athletics , style=";" , 5–1 , 3-15; 2-4; 4-1 , 5-3₍₁₀₎; 6-0; 2-0 , , - ,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, style=";" , Athletics , style=";" , 4–2 , 1-4; 1-0; 11-1 , 5-1; 4-0; 5-3 , Athletics extend win streak at San Francisco to 7 games , - , 2009 , style=";" , Giants , style=";" , 5–1 , 1-5; 4-1; 6-3 , 0-3; 2-5; 1-7 , , - , 2010 , Tie , 3–3 , 1-6; 0-1; 0-3 , 2-6; 4-5; 2-6 , Home team wins all six meetings
Giants win 2010 World Series , - , 2011 , Tie , 3–3 , 2-5; 2-4; 1-2 , 1-2₍₁₀₎; 0-3; 4-5₍₁₁₎ , Home team wins all six meetings for second straight year , - ,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

, style=";" , Giants , style=";" , 4–2 , 5-4; 9-8; 2-4 , 6-8; 0-4; 6-2 , Giants extend home win streak in series to 11 games before it is snapped
Both teams qualify for playoffs
Giants win 2012 World Series , - ,

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

, style=";" , Athletics , style=";" , 3–1 , 1-4; 3-6 , 9-6; 2-5 , Series changed to four-game format with two in each city except in years the AL West plays the NL West (2015, 2018, etc.) , - ,

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, style=";" , Athletics , style=";" , 3–1 , 0-5; 1-6 , 2-5; 6-1 , Both teams qualify for playoffs
Giants win

2014 World Series The 2014 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2014 season. The 110th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion San Francisco Giants and the Ameri ...

, - , 2015 , style="};" , Giants , style="};" , 5–1 , 4-5; 14-10; 5-4 , 3-9; 1-2; 3-4 , , - ,

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

, style=";" , Athletics , style=";" , 3–1 , 1-7; 12-6 , 8-3; 13-11 , , - ,

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

, Tie , 2–2 , 5-8; 10-4 , 6-1; 2-11 , , - ,

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

, style=";" , Athletics , style=";" , 4–2 , 5-1; 3-4₍₁₁₎; 5-6₍₁₀₎ , 1-7; 4-3; 6-2 , Athletics win inaugural Bay Bridge Trophy , - ,

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, style=";" , Giants , style=";" , 3–1 , 10-5; 5-4 , 2-3; 9-5 , Giants win Bay Bridge Trophy; both teams have earned the trophy once , - ,

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

, style=";" , Athletics , style=";" , 5–1 , 0-6; 0-6; 14-2 , 8-7₍₁₀₎; 7-6; 15-3 , Due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, season is shortened to 60 games and each division will play its interleague counterpart for 20 games, which is why both teams play three times in both cities instead of two. Athletics reclaim the Bay Bridge Trophy. , - ,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

, style=";" , Giants , style=";" , 4–2 , 1-4 ; 6-5; 2-1 , 0-2; 5-6 (10); 6-2 , On August 21 and 22, the Giants make history by becoming the first AL/NL team to hit lead-changing pinch-hit homers in the eighth inning or later in back-to-back games. Giants win Bay Bridge Trophy; both teams have earned the trophy twice. , - ,

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

, style=";" , Giants , style=";" , 3–1 , 7-3; 6-4 , 2-8;1-0 , , - ! Regular season , style=";" , Athletics ! style=";" , 72-68 ! at Athletics
Athletics, 39–31 ! at Giants
Giants, 37–33 ! , - ! Postseason Games , style=";" , Athletics ! style=";" , 4–0 ! at Athletics
Athletics, 2–0 ! at Giants
Athletics, 2–0 ! , - ! Postseason Series , style=";" , Athletics ! style=";" , 1–0 ! ! ! , - ! Overall ! style=";" , Athletics ! style=";" , 76–68 ! at Athletics
Athletics, 41–31 ! at Giants
Giants, 37–35 !

References

{{Navboxes , title=World Series championships , list= {{1905 New York Giants {{1911 Philadelphia Athletics {{1913 Philadelphia Athletics {{1989 Oakland Athletics Oakland Athletics San Francisco Giants Interleague play Major League Baseball rivalries Sports in the San Francisco Bay Area Annual events in Major League Baseball