A California clash

It won't be all cool with a West Coast World Series

SAN FRANCISCO -- Save the cliches about Valley girls and Sunset Boulevard. Store the cracks about sushi and smog.

There will be no mention of duuuude in these parts.

The 2002 World Series is an all-California get-together for the first time since 1989, a West Coast clash of wild cards. Baseball purists are positively blanching at the reality of a World Series being played by two teams that couldn't even win their division.

Those are the same purists who will tell you that the only real baseball is played on the East Coast.

Well, not this year it isn't.

The San Francisco Giants and Anaheim Angels start the World Series on Saturday in Southern California and will never have to worry, no matter how long the Series goes, about time zones or jet lag or what to do all day while waiting around for the game. They'll start all of the games at about the same time, finish, probably, before midnight Pacific time every night and get to bed at a not-obscene hour. When they have to hop on a plane, that's what it will be. A hop.

This Series will not be as snuggly as the Subway Series was in 2000. But it's a heck of a lot more convenient than, say, Los Angeles-New York. And despite the image of California cool, there's plenty of antagonism to go around.

Going back to Cali Golden State World Series Matchups 2002 Giants vs. Angels   • Game 1: Saturday, 8 p.m. ET 1989 A's 4, Giants 0   • SI Flashback: Swept Away 1988 Dodgers 4, A's 1   • SI Flashback: Destiny's Boys 1974 A's 4, Dodgers 1   • SI Flashback: Triple Crown

"It really is like two different states. Northern California and Southern California are completely different," said California native and Giants first baseman J.T. Snow, who grew up in SoCal. "And I'll tell you something. The people up here don't like the people in Southern California much."

It's a California thing, evidently, driven by the Hollywood image of the L.A. area (suburban Anaheim included) vs. the coolness of the Bay Area. The Dodgers and Giants never have been friendly, going back to their days in New York. When the Angels come north to San Francisco for Games 3, 4 and possibly 5, they'll no doubt get the welcome reserved for the hated Dodgers.

That, alone, should make it interesting enough.

"Both the Angels and us play the game the right way," Snow said. "I think there's going to be a lot of excitement up and down California."

San Francisco and Anaheim were not very high on most people's picks lists back in February. The Giants haven't been to a World Series since 1989, and they were going up against the defending World Series champs in their own division. The Angels ... well, they've never been in the big show. And they played in the toughest division in baseball.

But the two teams did what they had to do to get to the Series. They stayed close most of the season, didn't let anyone run away from them and, when it counted, they played their best baseball. The Giants got rid of Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs and, Monday night, said good night to St. Louis in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series in a thrilling 2-1 win. The Angels dumped the Yankees in the first round and, Sunday, thumped Minnesota to wrap up the American League Championship Series in five games.

"Isn't it sweet?" Giants right fielder Reggie Sanders asked on the field at Pacific Bell Park after the Giants wrapped up the NL pennant. "Who would've known?"

Sanders knew at least half of the Series equation, evidently. He won a World Series ring last season with the Arizona Diamondbacks and had a chance to stick around for this season. Instead, he took San Francisco's offer. So now he gets his second World Series trip in two years.

As with most Series, the storylines run deep in this one. There's the California thing and the wild-card thing and Barry Bonds' first trip to the World Series in his remarkable 17-year career. Giants manager Dusty Baker may be managing his last days in San Francisco, if you believe the talk out there. The Angels are trying to take the last step in shrugging off four decades of failures.

Behind all of that, though, is pure baseball. The Giants are a resilient team centered around decent pitching and the ever-present specter of Bonds on offense. The Angels, too, have some bounceback to them. They have one of the best pitching staffs and the best all-around hitting in the American League.

The Angels are an NL team playing in the AL, a team that eschews the long ball for situational hitting and running and scoring. The Giants are not exactly smash-ball, playing in the cavernous confines of Pac Bell Park. But they have Bonds, the best home run hitter of this lifetime.

"The Angels are a team that doesn't quit. They have a fundamentally sound team defensively, offensively, good team speed, good young bullpen that nobody knows that much about," Baker said before Game 5 of the NLCS. "And young pitchers, which is to their advantage, and most people don't know that much about them."

The Angels and Giants aren't exactly polar opposites, to be sure. But they are on opposite sides of the state.

That should be plenty good enough for this World Series.

John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.

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