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Giants dramatics keep us riveted

Open field

What a Bay Area Major League Baseball bonanza we’ve been treated to if you’re a follower living in any direction around our spectacularly beautiful Bay, with both the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s winning the National and American West Division titles, respectively, and then playing inspired postseason baseball.

With both teams facing 0-2 deficits in their prospective playoff first rounds of the league championship series, the Giants did the improbable – actually, accomplishing what has never been done in the National League, and never in history for playing on the road – beating the central division-champion Cincinnati Reds three straight games to take the series.

Now San Francisco is the place where the National League best-of-seven-game championship series has begun and, of course, keeping in character, the Giants lost Sunday night’s opener to the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals in front of their home fans, who, so far in three playoff games, haven’t witnessed a winning ending.

But this has become the ongoing postseason scenario for the Giants, which is opposite of the script they followed in capturing the 2010 National League pennant and World Series championship – providing powerful drama that’s not for the faint-at-heart and light-drama lovers.

This is for gritty fans, who want their team to win one in front of the locals – maybe it happened last night – while continuing their victorious road show.

This is classic theater at its best, and not only for sports fans, but for theatrical patrons as well, because baseball is not governed by time or chapter constraints.

It’s loaded with action, suspense, drama, humor and even romance in a sporting way involving a love for the game and the journey toward glory.

While the Giants continue their challenging quest for a second World Series title in three years, the Oakland A’s fell painfully short of setting up another possible “Bay Bridge Series” after falling behind 0-2 in their American League playoff series with the Tigers at Comerica Park in Detroit, before returning to the Bay Area and winning two straight.

Then came that faithful fifth game at the Oakland Coliseum, which slipped the grasp of the A’s and ended their magical journey to a title and to the doorstep leading to a shot at playing in the World Series.

But what the A’s accomplished with their underdog achievements was high-level theater and set the stage for future fun.

Ciao!