Mag Editors Dub Region “The Most Thrilling Place in Sports”
Over the past 12 months, the Bay Area has been a hotbed of sports success: the Giants won the World Series, the 49ers came within five yards of a Super Bowl ring, the Warriors pulled off the Western Conference’s biggest turnaround, and the A’s piled up more wins than any other MLB team. The latest issue of ESPN The Magazine, on newsstands today, explores how the Bay Area has become the most thrilling sports region in the country—by a landslide.
In an effort to explore the deep-seated rivalries that come with being just one of two regions in the country with two baseball and two football teams, The Mag forged a first-ever partnership with Facebook to survey allegiances in every single town in the Bay Area—162 towns across 10 counties, to be exact. The results, featured in-book and available online at espn.com, might surprise East Bay residents: there’s no contest between San Francisco’s 49ers and Giants and Oakland’s Raiders and A’s—locally, the San Francisco teams win by a mile.
Providing a deep look at all aspects of sports culture in the region, the Bay Area Issue also features “The Happiness Project,” by Sam Miller, providing insight on how the mystifying field of chemistry— not advanced metrics a la Moneyball—best explains the A’s success; and “Putting on Their Sunday Best,” where ESPN Mag’s Sam Alipour takes readers up close and personal with football’s fiercest fan base, Raider Nation—in and out of costume.
Also in the issue, thanks to Stanford’s first Rose Bowl win in four decades, is “Harbaugh He’s Not…And Thank God for That,” where Molly Knight looks at straight-faced and straitlaced Stanford coach David Shaw as compared to his fiery forerunner, Jim Harbaugh.
“The Bay Area” Issue will also contain an excerpt from League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth, the forthcoming book from ESPN investigative reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and his brother, Steve Fainaru, which releases Tuesday, Oct. 8. The Fainaru brothers and ESPN have been at the forefront of concussion reporting, dating back several years and continue to aggressively report on concussions at all levels of football.
The Bay Area Issue features:
Death of a Sports Town
Oakland’s search for meaning as its three teams consider leaving the town behind.
By Tim Keown
The Hail Mary in Santa Clara
How owner Jed York—and his $1.3 billion miracle—saved the 49ers and his family’s legacy.
By Seth Wickersham
“Dude, Larry Ellison! I’m his biggest fan.”
Andre Iguodala on his Silicon Valley takeover.
As told to Sam Alipour
For more information on the “Bay Area” Issue, visit espn.com.
