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Bay watch A's, Giants play rare postseason doubleheaderPosted: Sunday October 06, 2002 6:08 PMUpdated: Monday October 07, 2002 1:34 AM
ACROSS THE BAY BRIDGE, Calif. (AP) -- For Vince Woznica, it was the ultimate afternoon for a baseball fan -- sun, ballpark food and playoff games on both sides of San Francisco Bay. Woznica and a buddy began their Sunday doubleheader at the Coliseum as the Oakland Athletics took on the Minnesota Twins in the finale of their AL playoff series. But they left in the dramatic ninth inning because they had to be across the bay for the start of the San Francisco Giants' playoff game against the Atlanta Braves. It's unusual for teams in one market to have home games on the same day. It's much rarer for both to be do-or-die postseason games. In fact, the last time these teams were linked in such important games, the earth shook -- literally. That was during the 1989 World Series between the Giants and A's. Woznica, 54, has season tickets to the Giants. On Saturday night, he bought a ticket on the Internet to the A's game. He showed up at the Coliseum with a Giants shirt and cap, and a transistor radio. "I'd say it's pretty close to a perfect day, unless I can do the 49er game in between it all," he said, referring to the 49ers-Rams game in San Francisco that started at the same time as the A's-Twins game. The day lost a little of its perfection for Woznica when the A's lost 5-4 to the Twins and were knocked out of the playoffs. But the Giants took a big lead against the Braves, to Woznica's delight, and went on to an 8-3 win that forced a decisive Game 5 back in Atlanta. Woznica left the Coliseum after the Twins took a 5-1 lead in the top of the ninth. He was on a BART train en route to Pacific Bell Park as the A's three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth fell short when Ray Durham fouled out with the tying run on first. After connecting to a Muni train, Woznica arrived at Pac Bell Park at 4:54 p.m. -- five minutes before the Giants' Livan Hernandez threw his first pitch. But there were a few awful moments along the route. "We were listening on BART and went into the tunnel (under the bay) when the count was 3-and-2 on Durham and our radios died," he said. "We didn't know what had happened until we got out of the tunnel." Woznica was at Candlestick Park on Oct. 17, 1989, when a 7.1-magnitude quake rocked the Bay Area just as Game 3 of the World Series was about to begin. He pulled off an A's-Giants playoff doubleheader two years ago when the A's played host to the New York Yankees, and the Giants were at home against the New York Mets on the same day in first-round series. But neither of those 2000 games had the potential to be series-enders, as did both of Sunday's games. It was Game 5 in the A's best-of-five series against the Twins. The Giants needed a win in Game 4 of their series against Atlanta to survive. Fans on both sides of the bay followed both games. Those who arrived early at Pac Bell Park watched the end of the A's game on the giant center-field scoreboard, or craned to see it on press box TVs. When Mark Ellis hit a three-run homer in the ninth for the A's, pulling them within a run, one of the boats in McCovey Cove -- just beyond the right-field fence at Pac Bell Park -- tooted its horn in celebration. At Candlestick Park, now home to the 49ers, San Francisco coach Steve Mariucci delayed his post-game news conference a couple of minutes until the A's game had ended. Oakland and San Francisco usually share little except a bridge. Oaklanders and their traditionally blue-collar town always have felt ignored or slighted by supposedly haughty San Franciscans. San Francisco is the fabled "City by the Bay," the subject of songs. Oakland was once referred to by author Gertrude Stein, who spent her childhood there, as a city with "no there there." And there is no comparison between the Giants' ravishing 3-year-old bayside Pacific Bell Park and the aging Coliseum in the middle of an industrial section of Oakland. But there is no natural rivalry between the Giants and A's, the way there is in New York between the Yankees and Mets. So it wasn't that strange that David Kahn and his 15-year-old son, Jeremy, showed up at the Coliseum wearing Giants caps. The Kahns are Giants fans and attend more games there, but the playoff games at Pac Bell Park have been sellouts and they had little trouble buying a ticket for the A's on Sunday. Armed with a radio, the Kahns just hoped the A's-Twins game ended in time for them to get home and watch the Giants. "We're hoping for no extra innings, no matter what," David Kahn said. When the A's game started at 1:06 p.m. PDT, it was 80 degrees at the Coliseum. About 10 miles across the bay, a work crew was cleaning up the outfield bleachers at Pac Bell Park from Saturday's Giants game. Woznica already was looking at his watch, knowing he'd probably have to leave before the end of the A's game.
"It was worth it," he said later of his one-day baseball odyssey. "I would have liked to see the A's win, but the Giants
winning means it'll be OK."
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