Busy Bay Area sports scene

It's a busy Bay Area pro sports scene of late, which will continue to get much busier.

The two baseball teams are headed to the playoffs as wild-card teams; while the two football teams attempt to fix and overcome some major internal and external hurdles; the soccer team is in midseason; and the ice hockey and basketball teams get ready to begin their long seasons and challenging roads to the postseason.

In baseball, the Oakland A’s ruled the first part of the season as the team with the best record in baseball.

But then Billy Beane made a trade that unusually backfired on him and the A’s were detoured in the wrong direction, with the blazing hot Los Angeles/Anaheim Angels overtaking and leaving them in the dust while easily winning the American League West Division title and finishing with the best record in baseball at 98-64.

Oakland ended up barely squeezing into the postseason and playing a one-game wildcard playoff today in Kansas City, where the Royals are making their first postseason appearance since the 1980s.

In the National League, the San Francisco Giants were also one of the best teams in either league early, slumped midseason, then finished strong, but not strong enough to overtake the Los Angeles Dodgers, who won the NL West title.

So, like the A’s, the Giants will play a one-game wildcard playoff game tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 1, in Pittsburgh, where they’ll face a very hot Pirates team that nearly caught the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central Division race.

Both the wildcard Giants and A’s enter their one-game playoffs as underdogs, but they know how to play postseason ball – San Francisco has won World Series titles in 2010 and 2012, when they won six elimination games, and this being an even-number year is encouraging – and that could be their aces in the hole.

In football, the San Francisco 49ers managed to win on Sunday and are now 2-2 on the early season, but they’re struggling with image problems and will continue to misfire on offense as long as they insist on keeping Colin Kaepernick in the pocket, where other teams are allowed to close him in with pressure. Let him be his athletic, scrambling and passing-on-the-run or elusive-running best.

As for the Oakland Raiders? They’re 0-4 and need some real direction and creativity from the front office, general manager and head coach if they want to salvage anything from this going-south season.

Then there’s the kicking San Jose Earthquakes, hoops Golden State Warriors, and ice San Jose Sharks, who have started and will start their seasons, and I’ll check in with in the near future.

Like I said, this is a busy time for Bay Area pro sports, let alone college and high school athletics.

Ciao!