This Year the Bay Area May Witness The Most Teams In the Postseason In Less Than a Year

The San Jose Sharks are currently fighting for a playoff spot and I can’t help but hope for them to make the postseason. Not just because I am a Sharks fan but because I am a Bay Area fan. If the Sharks make the postseason by this week’s end, the Bay Area will have accomplished something it never has before.  That accomplishment is seeing a Bay Area team from each major sports league make the postseason in a span of one year.

            When I mean major sports, I mean baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. When I mean major sport leagues I mean the NBA, MLB, NFL, and NHL. So far in the past year at least one Bay Area team has made the postseason from each of its respective leagues. The San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s both made the playoffs last October in pro baseball. The San Francisco 49ers made the playoffs last January in pro football. The Golden State Warriors are currently in the playoffs for pro basketball. If the Sharks make the playoffs this week that would mean that five of the six major Bay Area teams would make the playoffs in less than a year.  Only the Oakland Raiders in football failed at making the playoffs this past year which keeps the Bay Area from going a perfect 6 for 6 in postseason appearances in one year. Still in less than a year the Bay Area may have the chance to witness a local postseason team in every major sport. That itself would be a first for the Bay Area.

            How close have the Bay Area sport teams gotten to accomplishing this all in the same year. It has been close a few times.  Remember the San Jose Sharks have only been in existence since 1991 so the Bay Area has only had a major sport team in all major sports since then. Before that the only NHL team to call the Bay Area home was the Oakland Seals who were only in existence in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That franchise only made the postseason twice. They made it in 1969 and another in 1970. The Oakland A’s did not make the postseason in 1968, 1969, or 1970. They made the playoffs in October of 1971 but that is more than a year after April of 1970 when the Seals last reached the postseason. The San Francisco Giants also did not reach the postseason in 1968, 1969, or 1970. Like the A’s, the Giants reached the postseason in October of 1971 more than a year after the Seals last postseason appearance. The San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders both reached the postseason in 1970, the same year the Seals made the playoffs. The Raiders also reached the playoffs in 1969 in the same year the Seals made their first playoff appearance. While those few years in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s got four Bay Area teams involved in a span of a year, it never witnessed a team from each sport making the playoffs. Since the Oakland Seals didn’t reach the postseason again after 1970 and would eventually fold as a team in the mid 1970s, you would not see a chance for the Bay Area to see a team in four different sports compete in the playoffs the same year until the San Jose Sharks joined the league in 1991.

            Another close encounter of all Bay Area team making the playoffs in the same year was in 1993-1994.  In April of 1994 the San Jose Sharks made its first playoff appearance in its young history. That same year the Golden State Warriors made the playoffs in April of 1994. The 49ers would make the playoffs in both 1993 and 1994.  Unfortunately, the Giants did not make the playoffs in 1993 nor was it possible to make the playoffs in 1994 due to a players’ strike that ended the season in August that year. The A’s didn’t make the playoffs in 1993 either. The Oakland A’s did make the playoffs in October of 1992 but that is more than a year until the Sharks would make the postseason in 1994.  Between 1994 and 2007 the Warriors went through one of the worst postseason droughts in sports history and thus the chance of a Bay Area team in the postseason in four different sports was not reachable as long as the Warriors struggled.  Then along came the 2006-2007 season for the Warriors.

            In April of 2007 the Warriors finally reached the postseason and it was a magical one.  The San Jose Sharks also reached the postseason in April 2007.  The Oakland A’s made it to the playoffs months earlier in October of 2006. However, that was all the Bay Area witnessed that year. The 49ers and the Raiders both were in middle of playoff droughts that year as they both last reached the postseason in January of 2002. The SF Giants were rebuilding as a team in 2006 and 2007 as they went through a transition from the Barry Bonds era to the post Bonds era. After 2007 the Golden State Warriors went through another playoffs drought which made the chance for a team in each sport reaching the postseason hopeless that is until this year.

            With Warriors back in the playoffs, the Giants fresh off a World Series title, and the 49ers recently going through a heartbreaking loss in the Super Bowl, this year arguably has already been one of the best years for Bay Area Sports. However, to make this year truly special would be for the San Jose Sharks to join the rest of the Bay Area pack into postseason galore.  Then it would be at least one team in each major sports league going to the playoffs that the Bay Area can witness.  I don’t know how frequently that has happened in other sports regions across the country. I am sure it is not that often as most regions always have that one team in one sport that holds the rest of the region back such as the Warriors for the Bay Area or the Pirates for Pittsburgh. I do know though that this week could be the first time it happens for the Bay Area.  The Sharks have been the team in the Bay Area most consistently in the playoffs the past ten years so I like our chances of sports history. Let’s cherish the possibility of five of our six Bay Area teams making the postseason this past year. After that let’s hope it can happen again next year. Then let’s hope the Raiders can stop holding the Bay Area back and make it a perfect 6 for 6 in Bay Area teams reaching the postseason.