The fan favorite Bay Bridge Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s finally gets a proper trophy – The Bridge.
Today NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California, the television broadcasters for Bay Area baseball, announced that the winner of the regular season duel between the two teams would now be awarded with a trophy. The Bridge trophy is constructed with steel salvaged from the demolished East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
This year will mark the 21st year that the Giants and A’s have battled for the best team in the bay. Since the inception of interleague play in 1997 the A’s lead the Giants 59-55 in regular season matchups.
The rules are as follows:
- The Bridge will be awarded to the team that wins more games in the regular-season Bay Bridge Series.
- If the series finishes tied, the winner of the final game shall win The Bridge.
- If one or more games is postponed and the series has not yet been clinched, The Bridge will not be awarded until the postponed game(s) can be made up. If the postponed game(s) can not be made up, the standing of the series at the end of the season shall determine the winner of The Bridge. Whether or not postponed games are made up, if the series ends in a tie, the team that wins the final game will be awarded The Bridge.
“I can not think of a better symbol of our cross-bay rivalry than a trophy fabricated from the steel of the original San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge,” said Giants President & CEO Larry Baer. “The Giants-A’s interleague games are always great fun for our fans and we are excited to get this season underway. We look forward to proudly displaying The Bridge at AT&T Park.”
The design of the trophy was a collaboration between Scientific Art Studio, who have also designed the iconic Giant Glove and Coca-Cola Bottle Slide, and The Crucible, an industrial art school in Oakland.
The trophy measures in just over a foot in heigh and a hefty 30lbs in weight, as would be expected from a trophy made from an actual steel beam. The design’s bronze pieces are also interchangeable and will feature the winning team’s logo atop the steel beam.
Trophy arrangement if the Giants win the series:
Trophy arrangement if the A’s win the series:
Designers also paid homage to the Bay Bridge Troll in the trophy. The troll was originally installed under the bridge’s now demolished East Span in 1989 by ironworkers repairing the damage from the Loma-Prieta earthquake. The troll stood the same height as the new trophy at 18-inches tall as a symbolic protecter of the bridge from future earthquakes.
The Giants and A’s will fight for this trophy starting this season. Their first matchup coming right before the All-Star Break on July 13-15. The series continues on July 20-22 after the break with three games at the Oakland Coliseum where the player will finally fight for more than just pride.