San Francisco/Baltimore Notes

On Sunday night October 7th last year, but during this football season, both the Baltimore and San Francisco major league baseball teams hosted divisional round playoff games. Both home teams, the Baltimore Orioles and San Francisco Giants lost those games.

Due to a rain delay in Baltimore, the game won by the New York Yankees at Baltimore was on as the later scheduled game, a Cincinnati Reds victory vs the SF Giants commenced. The Yankees went on to win that series in the maximum five games while the Giants bounced back to not only beat the Reds in five games, but win the World Series.

Later today, the city of San Francisco “hopes” to become the fifth city to win the World series followed by the Super Bowl. The city that offers the opposition, Baltimore, was the first to accomplish the feat back in 1970 when the Orioles won the World series followed by the then, Baltimore Colts winning the Super Bowl. The Orioles are still that city’s baseball team but its football team is called the Ravens, who came to Baltimore from Cleveland after the 1995 season.

The 49ers, San Francisco’s only football team, have never played against a Baltimore team in post season. There has never been a Giants vs Orioles World Series though a “stretched” link is the great New York baseball Giants manager, John Mc Graw starred as a player for the original Baltimore Orioles.

The closest to a San Francisco vs Baltimore post season clash and this is very close, was in the 1975 NBA Finals. In that finals series, Rick Barry and the Golden State Warriors, just four years earlier known as the San Francisco Warriors, swept the Washington Bullets, just two years earlier known as the Baltimore Bullets, to win the NBA crown. The Warriors played their home games in Oakland but actually played both home finals game at the legendary, Cow Palace (The Rolling Stones’ last North American concert before Brian Jones’ death was there in 1966) in San Francisco.

1970 Baltimore Colts

1970 Baltimore Orioles

1975 NBA Finals, Warriors vs Bullets