The Bay Area has desperately needed a true A's-Giants rivalry for decades, but the fact that it has been decades means the Bay Area will probably never get it.
And no, security guards wailing on fans in the seats doesn't count. It's very bad form, true, and lots of bad things should happen to the perpetrator as a result, but it's not the same thing. It wasn't even the same thing when the teams met in the 1989 World Series because the earthquake happened and made everyone come together as one to meet the greater crisis.
Damn our timing.
But now that the A's are only the Chicago White Sox away from being the worst team in the American League and the Giants have finally taken the advantage from Philadelphia in the worst-team-in-baseball race, we have an opportunity here, one we should not waste.
Put simply, the A's and their new front office should begin to actively engage in a campaign of P.R., marketing and grass-roots irritation of the Giants and their front office. The provocation, of course, would be the perceived class difference between the two teams and the cities they rep, in the same ways that Brooklyn and Coogan's Bluff had theirs, and the North and South Sides of Chicago have had theirs. Nothing violent, of course, but something that evens out the fight a bit.
The A's have been in retreat too long on the issue of engagement with their bigger, richer neighbors, and the Giants' recent success has only made the A's withdrawal worse. Now the A's are cleaning out the garage – again – but the Giants are treading sludge without action and are thus perceived as the more stagnant operation.
Opportunity is here!
Sports
All the A's have to do is engage, cleverly, pointedly and humorously, with enough room for a bit of edge to meet the modern entertainment standards. It needs to be more than just a stadium and a roster rebuild, because that's been done. be Rick And Morty to the Giants' Big Brother – the new cool thing to the Giants' old-style entertainment. And the Giants can't be young and hip because punching down is never cool.
And since they are both in dreadful states, baseballically speaking, the remake can start today. All the A's need to do is want to do it, and limber up their index fingers for eye-poking purposes.
