Sports fans have a tendency to look back at the period when they were eight years old and believe that their games were never better and their heroes were never more heroic.
Well, don’t look now Bay Area sports fans. It could be that we are, right now, living through what may eventually be looked upon as the Golden Age of Bay Area Sports.
The Giants are going to Spring Training this month as defending World Series Champions…for the second time in three years. The A’s defied all prognosticators by overcoming a five game deficit with ten games to play to overtake the Texas Rangers and win the American League West. Fourteen walk-off wins had fans rattling the Coliseum’s decrepit bones.
As this was written about a month ago, the Warriors were off to their best start since their championship season of 1974-1975 and have become nearly unbeatable on the road. It could be that they will make the playoffs and the hated Los Angeles Lakers will not. The 49ers have won consecutive NFC West titles and as you read this could be celebrating the franchise’s sixth Super Bowl Championship won one week ago.
Stanford football won the Pac 12 championship and beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. Women’s basketball there continues as a perennial championship contender, and the men’s team is expected to challenge for conference honors if it can improve its shooting. The Cardinal baseball team seems to reach the post season every year.
And while Cal football must rebuild, it did just open a wonderfully renovated Memorial Stadium with new facilities certain to enhance recruiting. Both men’s and women’s basketball are strong, and the Bears baseball squad is just two seasons removed from an appearance in the College World Series.
Even St. Mary’s College and San Jose State are in on the fun. The Gaels won the West Coast Conference regular season and tournament championships last year in men’s basketball and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 three years ago. The Spartans football team, meanwhile, just tied the school record for wins in a season and beat Bowling Green in the 2012 Military Bowl.
By now you know if the NHL was able to figure out its labor issues in time to have a 2013 season. If the puck is finally dropped, the Sharks will be looking to makes their ninth straight appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. San Jose had the NHL’s best regular season record in 2009 and played in the Western Conference Finals in 2010 and 2011. The team’s captain, Joe Thornton, is likely a future Hall of Fame inductee.
Only the Raiders are down, and with a younger more forward thinking regime could make up ground quickly in a division won in 2012 season by a team with a geriatric quarterback.
So remember, whether you are eight, 88, or somewhere in between, you are living through a period of excellence across all sports not often experienced by fans in any region. Enjoy it, Bay Area, because you never know when a few poor decisions and a little bad luck will bring us thudding back to earth.
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