It Would Leave a Giant Void

The friendly rivalry between Los Angeles and San Francisco gets serious at times, but luckily only in the realm of sport--when, say, UCLA plays UC Berkeley or USC meets Stanford. So there was a natural symmetry in the 1958 move of two old baseball rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants, to what were then California’s two largest cities.

Now that rivalry may be nearing an end with the announcement that Bob Lurie, the owner of the San Francisco Giants, may sell the team to a Florida group that intends to move it to the Tampa Bay area by next season. Somehow, seeing the Los Angeles Dodgers take the field against the St. Petersburg Giants won’t be the same. So while this newspaper normally refrains from commenting editorially on the activities of our neighbors up north (who are, after all, perfectly capable of running their delightful city without our advice), we must take a moment to lament such an abrupt termination of a rivalry that, in its own youthful way, is both historic and traditional.

Who can forget all the thrilling pennant races between the Giants and Dodgers since they came West, with Juan Marichal pitching against Sandy Koufax, with Willie Mays and Maury Wills dazzling us with speed and with Tommy Davis and Willie McCovey hitting for power?

We learned long ago--1958, in fact, when the Dodgers came here because Southern California offered a better deal than Brooklyn--that professional baseball is a business as well as a game, so perhaps the Giants’ move to Florida is inevitable. And, in fairness to Lurie, he has given the Bay Area ample opportunity to find a new home for the Giants--so they could leave cold, windy Candlestick Park--and has gotten nowhere.

There’s still a glimmer of hope that California can keep the Giants, one of its three National League teams (San Diego’s Padres have added an exciting element to the mix since 1969). Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent says the sale may yet be disapproved by other baseball owners, and San Francisco business and labor leaders have begun a last-ditch effort to raise money to buy the team and build a stadium. Go for it, San Francisco. For once, we’re rooting for you down here.