Counting down the best years

By the sheerest chance, I found myself sitting next to Glenn
Dickey in the press box at last Saturday
’s 49ers-Redskins game. Dickey has been a fixture on the Bay
Area sports scene for decades, and I was happy to find he was
talking to another writer about the old days.
By the sheerest chance, I found myself sitting next to Glenn Dickey in the press box at last Saturday’s 49ers-Redskins game. Dickey has been a fixture on the Bay Area sports scene for decades, and I was happy to find he was talking to another writer about the old days.

“Everything I know about football,” said Dickey, somewhat reverentially, “I learned from Al Davis and Bill Walsh.”

What he didn’t say was that everything he knows about shaving, he learned from the Amish. Regardless, listening to Dickey talk got me thinking about the rich history of Bay Area sports. There have been great years and lean years and downright ugly years – this past one being particularly gruesome.

Now we’ve been talking pretty much non-stop in this space about how bad this past year has been for the local franchises. I want to pull a 180 and talk a little bit about the great years. Following is one man’s opinion of the five best years to be a Bay Area sports fan – and never mind those stretches that made us all want to wear paper bags over our heads:

1. 1. The Warriors won their one and only NBA Championship, while the Raiders made it to the AFC Championship Game and the A’s to the AL Championship Series.

The Downside: Disco and Gerald Ford.

1. 1. The A’s won the first of three World Series in a row, and the Warriors – playing their first year in Oakland – made it to the Western Conference Finals.

The Downside: The Warriors moved to Oakland.

1. 1. The Raiders’ first Super Bowl win after bowing out in the AFL or AFC Championship seemingly every year. Oh, and the Warriors nearly made the NBA Finals.

The Downside: Charlie Finley broke up the young, talented A’s,.

1. 1. The Niners’ first Super Bowl win, and maybe more importantly on a mythological level, The Catch against Dallas. What more could you want out of a year?

The Downside: There is none, not even the Warriors sending Robert Parish and the pick that would become Kevin McHale to the Celtics for the pick that would become Joe Barry Carroll. Okay, maybe the worst trade in NBA history is a downside.

1. 1989. What can you say? Ho-hum, the Niners won another Super Bowl and we were treated to the first ever Bay Bridge Series, with the A’s beating the Giants. Even the Warriors, in the midst of the Run-TMC era, made it to the Western Conference Semifinals before losing to the Lakers.

The Downside: Well, there was that little thing about an earthquake …