The Week That Was:

Won 2, lost 1 against the Nationals.
Won 2, lost 1 against the Rockies.

28-23 for the season; 2nd place in the NL West.

The Week That Will Be:

Mon: in Oakland against the A's.
Tue: in Oakland against the A's.
Wed: at home against the A's.
Thu: at home against the A's.
Fri: at St. Louis against the Cardinals.
Sat: at St. Louis against the Cardinals.
Sun: at St. Louis against the Cardinals.

Once upon a time, long ago, in a time we now call the '80s, our jeans were acid washed, our mode was Depeche, and our teams ruled the sports world, and it all came to a head in 1989. The 49ers kicked off the year by winning Super Bowl XXIII and were on their way to winning it again the following year. The Warriors drafted Tim Hardaway, putting the "T" in Run TMC. And then there were the Giants and the A's.

Back in those days, when only the rich kids had cable, the Giants would broadcast their games on KTVU Channel 2. FOX didn't have much content then, and KTVU filled their air with a lot of local programming and scores of glorious Giants games. Meanwhile, the A's were broadcast on Channel 36, which always came in fuzzy. And that's the way it was--the Giants played the Padres on Channel 2 and the A's played the Royals on Channel 36. Each lived in their own universe and never the twain did meet.

Until they did.

In the 1989 All-Star Game, the starting line-up for the National League featured three Giants: Big Daddy Rick Reuchel, Will Clark, and Kevin Mitchell. Not to be outdone, the A's had three of their own in the American League starting line-up: Dave Stewart, Mark McGwire, and Terry Steinbach.

If the Bay Area beamed with pride for the midsummer classic, we went mad in October--The San Francisco Giants v. the Oakland Athletics in the World Series. The Bay Bridge Series. The Battle of the Bay. If that wasn't Bay Area enough, before Game 3, we threw in an earthquake and knocked down the Bay Bridge. Emperor Norton and Jack London helped in the recovery and clean up. Hella.

The A's went on to sweep the Giants in that World Series, and it was the last time those two teams ever met.

Until the Abomination of 1997, when, for the first time in the history of the game, teams from the two leagues faced each other in the regular season, in games that counted--interleague play had arrived. Sadly, it's still here. The Giants are playing in Oakland, which means they will field... er, have a designated hitter. When the series shifts to San Francisco on Wednesday, the A's won't have a designated hitter. It's silly stuff. The A's win yesterday marked their 48th win over the Giants since the introduction of interleague play--the Giants have beaten the A's 45 times.

Of this week's Giants v. A's games, the one to watch will be tonight's. Ryan Vogelsong was due up today, but Vogie broke his hand last week which means he'll be out for at least a couple months. In his stead, the Giants will be calling up a kid from the farm--Mike Kickham, a left-hander from Triple-A Fresno, will get his chance at the bigs today. He's had a good month in Fresno, posting a 3-1 record and a 1.72 ERA in May, and tonight we'll see if it carries over into the majors. He's gotta be all sorts of excited and nervous, but there's one thing Kickham won't have to worry about: batting. His own batting, that is. Cuz, you know, he'll be in an American League ballpark and thus the DH, and all that interleague silliness.

It's a 4-day week, Tuesday is a Monday, the Giants are playing the A's. It's gonna be a weird week, people--you can feel the hoodoo in the air. It'll probably be best to shelter in place at your favorite bar (Triple Voodoo seems appropriate) until Friday when the Giants hit the road for St. Louis and things get back to normal.

Et cetera: don't forget to send out your rent checks.