Tuesday BP: The lost preseason Bay Bridge Series

Good morning, baseball fans!

There’s been a bit of a tradition in Spring Training lately for the San Francisco Giants. As camp winds down and the season gets ready to start, the Giants and Oakland A’s pack their bags, head home, and play some games in their real stadiums.

It’s like preseason for Oracle Park and RingCentral Coliseum (what an awful name).

It always gets us excited for the actual season — suddenly there’s baseball being played in real stadiums, just the way we’re used to.

But that was taken from us this year. With the lockout leading to an abbreviated Spring Training, the Giants and A’s don’t have time to make it back to the Bay Area, get settled, play their final preseason games, and wait for the season to start.

They’re keeping the tradition of playing each other in the final two games, but they’re at Scottsdale Stadium, and it just doesn’t feel the same. Today’s preseason finale isn’t even on TV!

Oh well. Real baseball is right around the corner.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story listed the regular season games between the Giants and A’s as not happening this year, but thankfully they’ll occur in April and August.

How many days until Opening Day?

Three! If ever there were a week to be looking forward to Friday, this one’s it!