San Francisco and Oakland
Prior to the 2019-2020 NBA season, the Golden State Warriors moved from Oakland to San Francisco. The only Warriors members who
have been continuously on the team since the start of the '19-'20 season are Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Kevon Looney, and Jordan Poole.
Poole is the only one of the four who never played in Oakland as the '19-'20 NBA season was his rookie season. Curry played ten seasons, Green played
seven seasons, and Looney played four seasons in Oakland. Aside from Curry, Green, and Looney, what other athletes have played at least four
professional seasons in both Oakland and San Francisco? After some baseball research,
some football research,
some basketball research, and some reflecting, I came up with the following list of
athletes who have played at least four seasons in Oakland and at least four seasons in San Francisco:
Interestingly, I couldn't think of or find anyone who played at least four seasons with the San Francisco 49ers and at least
four seasons with Oakland Raiders. The closest was Jerry Rice, who played sixteen seasons with the 49ers and three and a half seasons with the
Raiders. Michael Crabtree (six seasons in San Francisco, three seasons in Oakland) and Barry Sims (nine seasons in Oakland, three seasons in San Francisco)
also came close.
At the end of their third season in San Francisco, the Warriors won the 2022 NBA Finals. In addition to that championship, Curry, Green, and Looney also won
multiple championships in Oakland. Were there any other members of the Warriors championship teams who were also members of the 2021-2022 championship team
in San Francisco? Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala did not play for the Warriors during their first two years in San Francisco (Thompson was injured and Iguodala was
on the Miami Heat) but they both returned to help the Warriors win their first San Francisco title. The five Warriors (Curry, Green, Looney, Thompson, and Iguodala) have company when it comes to winning professional sports championships in Oakland and in
San Francisco.
Former NFLer Matt Millen is the sixth member of that unique group. While Millen is mainly remembered by younger generations as a
failed executive, older generations also remember him as a solid linebacker for the
Raiders and the 49ers. In fact, he won a Super Bowl ring with the Oakland Raiders (Super Bowl XV) and with the 49ers (Super Bowl XXIV).
He is the only man to win a
professional football championship with a team based in Oakland and a team based in San Francisco. What about baseball? The closest gap between
an Oakland Athletics championship and a San Francisco Giants championship is twenty-one years (2010-1989 = 21) so it's safe to say that no MLB player has
won a championship in Oakland and in San Francisco. What about the Warriors in their earlier days? The Warriors did not win a championship during their
first stint in San Francisco (1962-1971).
What about other parts of the country? Did anyone else win championships in two differents parts of an area like the
Bay Area? Greater Los Angeles area? There was a fourteen-year gap
between the 1988 Dodgers' World Series victory and the 2002 Angels' World Series victory. Mike Scioscia played catcher on the Dodgers team and
was the manager of the Angels team
but no one
played on both teams. Chicago (North Side/South Side)? No one played on both the '16 Cubs and the
'05 White Sox or on the Cubs and White Sox championship teams of the early 1900s.
Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area? No one played on
both the '00 Ravens and the '91 Redskins or on the '70 Colts and the '82 Redskins. There was a 36-year gap between the 1983 Orioles' World Series win and the
2009 Nationals' World Series win.
New York metropolitan area? In hockey, Greg Gilbert is the only
man to win a Stanley Cup for both the Rangers and Islanders.
Baseball? In the first half of the 20th century, there were three New York baseball teams (Dodgers, Giants, and Yankees) and after a few minutes of Google research,
I could not determine definitively if anyone won the World Series with two of the three teams. Mets and Yankees? Two men won the World Series with the Yankees and the
Mets. Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry starred for the '86 Mets and later helped the Yankees win the World Series (Gooden in 2000 and Strawberry in 1996 and 1999).