Two Sets of Bay Area Walk-Off MLB Home Runs on Two Friday Nights
Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds are the two greatest sluggers in Bay Area MLB history. McGwire has the
most career home runs in
Oakland A's history with 363 and Bonds has the most career home runs in San Francisco Giants history with 586.
Willie Mays hit 646 home runs with the Giants, but "only" 459 were with the San Francisco Giants.
McGwire and Bonds were part of a special Bay Area baseball Friday night in June 1995 in which two walk-off home runs were hit
against the Southern California baseball teams within 30 minutes of each other. On that night (June 30), McGwire's walk-off
grand slam gave the A's an 8-5 win over the
California Angels, and Barry Bond's walk-off three-run home run
gave the Giants a 7-6 victory over the San Diego Padres.
The two walk-off home runs came off future Hall-of-Fame closers (Lee Smith and Trevor Hoffman).
Four years ago, another three-run walk-off home-run in San Francisco was hit in
a one-run game between the Giants and Padres on a Friday night. The interesting part was that Padres player Trent Grisham hit
the walk-off home run in San Francisco! (It was a make-up game during the strange 2020 COVID MLB season.)
Less than 10 minutes before Grisham's homer, A's outfielder Mark Canha hit a
walk-off two-run home run against the Seattle Mariners. Aside from that Friday night last year and the Friday night in June 1995,
I can't recall another time when walk-off MLB home runs were hit in Oakland and in San Francisco within 30 minutes of each other.