Barrows: Alex Smith to throw out first pitch at Giants playoff game

The 49ers get a chance to claim win number four Sunday afternoon against the Buffalo Bills, but tonight baseball gets a front seat. I realize not all of you are A's or Giants fans, and plenty of you are not even baseball fans, but much in the vein of Jim Harbaugh's comments about Bay Area teams supporting Bay Area teams, I thought an open thread would be fun. If you are looking to talk college football, head over to the Week 6 college thread, but in the meantime, if you are down for talking some A's and Giants baseball, drop in here.

The San Francisco Giants claimed their division earlier in September, while the Oakland Athletics won the AL West on the last day of the season following a three-game sweep of the Texas Rangers. As many of you know, I'm a big A's fan, but I will not begrudge the Giants a spot in the open thread. I imagine plenty of you are big Giants fans.

If you are looking for the 49ers connection, Matt Barrows is reporting that Alex Smith has been invited to throw out the first pitch for Game 1 of the Giants-Reds divisional series. The NFL attempted to fine Smith for wearing an SF Giants hat within the 90 minutes following the 49ers game. The Giants have come out in support of Smith, so everybody appears to be one big happy family.

What I found most interesting from a football perspective was that we learned a little bit more about the 49ers process leading up to the Bills game tomorrow. The 49ers apparently will generally hold Saturday meetings at the team hotel near the San Francisco International Airport sometime around 8pm. My guess is Smith throws out the first pitch, sticks around for a couple innings to avoid traffic and then heads down to the airport.

The A's kick things off at 3:07pm PT, while the Giants get going at 6:37pm PT. Go Bay Area!