‘Baysball’ Fans Celebrate Together : Revelry Replaces Rivalry--for 1 Night

Rival Giants and A’s fans who normally snub each other from across the San Francisco Bay wound up celebrating together when both teams clinched division titles on the same night to make local sports history.

“I feel just fantastic. Just fantastic. I haven’t been this excited since I got married,” said Guido Ferro, an Alameda real estate broker who toasted a television set Wednesday night at Ricky’s sports bar in San Leandro.

About 100 Oakland Athletics fans shared Ricky’s six big-screen televisions and 40 monitors with the same number of San Francisco Giants devotees. But the number of Giants followers dwindled after the team lost to the Dodgers, 2-1.

Two hours later, baseball fans from both sides of the Bay gulped champagne after the San Diego Padres lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1, and the Giants clinched the National League West by default. (Stories, Part III, Page 1.)

“This crowd is rooting for both teams,” part-owner Ricky Ricardo said. “Nobody talks bad about the Giants or the A’s. It’s a unique thing. With the two football teams (Raiders and 49ers), it was a different feeling.”

A’s fans got the good news a little earlier in the evening and were still going strong when the Padres lost.

“It was a big rush,” said A’s fan Dennis Prubencio, who went to Ricky’s after witnessing his team’s 5-0 victory over the Texas Rangers at the Oakland Coliseum. “I was let down last year, and I’m really looking forward to the Giants and the A’s in a Worlds Series.”

Last year, the A’s storybook season ended in heartbreak with a 4-1 World Series loss to the Dodgers. A month earlier they clinched the title with a 5-3 win over the Minnesota Twins.

At Pat O’Shea’s Mad Hatter bar on Geary Boulevard, about 170 Giants fans watched the game with guarded optimism, Manager David Touye said. But by the time the team clinched, only 50 fans remained.

Giants fans have not had a San Francisco World Series since 1962, when the team lost to the New York Yankees. It’s been as many years since their team took the pennant.

Mark Ticas, 28, said he was skeptical about the Giants’ chances after watching them lose in Los Angeles.

“After watching it, I thought they were very lucky the Padres lost,” Ticas said. “People were ecstatic.”