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null  John Schlegel The Giants' Livan Hernandez is off to a strong start, throwing 17 innings in his first two outings, good for two wins and a 1.59 ERA. (Kevork Djansezian/AP)

It was gray outside, but inside a ballroom there on Treasure Island, it was sunny with optimism. The event was a luncheon designed to get spirits going for the upcoming season, a week before Spring Training began. Already, there were thoughts of October wafting through the room.

"I'm hoping and praying for another Bay Bridge World Series," Giants Manager Dusty Baker came right out and said.

Fast forward to the first week of April. It's still a long way to October, but both teams have started the journey right. It's a little early to start planning that Bay Bridge Series, but not too early to recognize the possibility.

The Giants were undefeated in the first week and off to their best start since moving west to San Francisco. From their sweep at Dodger Stadium, to Barry Bonds' MVP-studded heroics in the home opener to Livan Hernandez's all-everything performance Sunday, the Giants couldn't have had a better first week.

The A's weren't too shabby, either. They, too, were atop their division after Week 1, riding their vaunted Big Three starters -- Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson and Barry Zito -- over the Rangers for three of four games at home before taking two out of three at AL West rival Seattle to cap it off.

Bonds, the home run king the Giants retained for life during the winter, was the National League Player of the Week. David Justice, the veteran outfielder the A's acquired to help soften the blow of losing Jason Giambi to the Yankees, was the American League choice.

It was Bay Bridge Week, or at least a pretty good one on both sides of it.

Of course, it's just one week out of 26 in the regular season. But that Treasure Island optimism is starting to grow into realism. Both teams certainly have reason to believe they can stay in contention a lot longer than just one week of the season.

Granted, both teams have daunting competition, not to mention six months of games to play. The Giants have to get past the defending World Champion Diamondbacks, along with the growing prospect of a healthy Dodgers rotation. And the A's have to contend with the Mariners coming off a record-setting 2001 season, along with as tight a division as there is in baseball.

But this could very well be the year of Bay Ball, with a chance of another Bay Bridge Series in October. Even if we've only gone from sprouting ideas in February to sunny optimism in April, that much is hard to argue.

Rookie corner
Two of the game's most intriguing rookies are manning the hot corner for teams out West. But they don't necessarily have the market on rookies cornered.

Third basemen Sean Burroughs of San Diego and Hank Blalock of Texas, both 21 years old, will get a lot of attention as they play through their maiden campaigns -- and with good reason. Burroughs has been a can't-miss prospect since his Little League days through a rapid rise in the Padres' system. Blalock won himself a regular spot in a veteran-laden Rangers lineup, and a jump from Double-A, after a stellar spring.

But the rookie out of the West who made the biggest splash in Week 1 comes from the other corner of the diamond. That's Carlos Peña, the A's first baseman who shook off a rough spring and entered the second week of the season leading the American League (and everyone else in baseball except Bonds) with four home runs.

Burroughs, meanwhile, got off to a rough start to the season off the field, missing Opening Day with the flu. He recovered to get his first two Major League hits the following day and went 4-for-16 with two errors his first week. Blalock ripped a single in his first game but that wound up being it for him for a 1-for-15 week.

The long celebration
Excuse the Arizona Diamondbacks and their fans for dragging the celebration into another season. Hard to blame them.

It had been five months since the Purple Ones were dancing on the field at Bank One Ballpark, doing the impromptu mosh on the field after Luis Gonzalez's power bloop won the World Series. Still, the scene carried into 2002 for the first three games of this season, with the World Series trophy and owner Jerry Colangelo taking center stage on Opening Day, the presentation of World Series rings the second day, and Randy Johnson being presented with his Cy Young Award on the third.

Diamondbacks Manager Bob Brenly enjoyed putting on his ring as much as anyone, but he wants 2002 to start and 2001 to end.

"To me, we're looking back instead of forward," Brenly said on Opening Day. "So the sooner we can get all these ceremonies over and done with and start looking ahead to what we have to do this season and what we have to do today, I think we'll be better off."

Frequent Friar Miles?
Any team would love to come home to sunny San Diego, but the Padres had to be as happy to get home on Sunday as any team in baseball, and not because of the perfect weather. The journey home from their Spring Training camp in Peoria, Ariz., was a veritable tour of the Western U.S. that would have made Clark Griswold of "Vacation" fame proud.

After breaking camp on March 28, the Padres traveled to Portland, Ore., to face the Mariners at the home of San Diego's Triple-A affiliate. Then it was to Seattle the next day. Then to Oakland for a March 31 date. (That's four games in four days in four different states, for those keeping score.) Then it was back to, of all places, Arizona, where they opened the season against the Diamondbacks. After that, it was off to San Francisco for three before the Padres finally made their way home.

At least they didn't have to make the trip in a green station wagon.

Short hops
The Mariners are confident Jeff Cirillo will snap out of his early slump with a vengeance. Cirillo, the third baseman brought in from Colorado with a .311 lifetime average, had a tough first week (.143, 3-for-21) and finished off the week by hitting a soft liner to start a game-ending double play against the A's. "I think he has to relax a little bit," Seattle hitting coach Gerald Perry said. "We all know what Jeff is capable of doing. He has always been a good hitter." . . . With Odalis Perez and Kazuhisa Ishii in the rotation, the Dodgers opened the season with two left-handed starters for the first time since Fernando Valenzuela and Rick Honeycutt in 1987. . . . The Angels hope their curse at first is over. First, Shawn Wooten suffered a thumb injury that'll keep him out until midseason. Then, Scott Spiezio was suspended for the first five games of the regular season. Now Benji Gil is on the DL with a sprained ankle suffered when the Rangers' Rusty Greer spiked him sliding into the bag. "I received a phone call from Woot," Gil said. "He said, 'It's not us, it's the position.' " . . . Rockies pitcher Pete Harnisch, recovering from elbow surgery, could make it back to action by May 1. He'll be in Denver with the team this week and will return to Tucson for extended Spring Training aiming for that return date.

Parting shot
"Fiddling with it? I don't own a violin."
-- Lou Piniella, after being asked if he was considering fiddling with his lineup after a lackluster opening week.

John Schlegel is a regional writer for MLB.com based in the Bay Area. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.