Memories of 49ers at Candlestick

A Giants Season Ticket Holder Remembers

This is the last season that the San Francisco 49ers will play at Candlestick Park.  Tonight is the last game.  The Giants abandoned the much maligned object for greener pastures in 2000 with the construction of their new downtown gem, PacBell Park, or whatever it's been called over the years.  With this last season, KNBR, the big sports radio station in SF has been airing a series of great memories of the 49ers playing at the 'Stick.  Fans have called in to give their memories.

Well, as a season ticket holder for the Giants' last 15 years at the 'Stick, I have some memories of my own on the 49ers playing in the same yard as my beloved boys of freezing cold summer.

During the 80's when the Giants totally sucked and the 49ers were winning Super Bowls, all "improvements" to the 'Stick authorized by the City were solely for the benefit of the 49ers.  Every baseball season was a 49ers construction zone.  Scaffolding, yellow tape, sections of the stadium blocked off.  Then, construction was miraculously completed and debris was removed coincidentally during the week of the 49ers first pre-season home game in August.  Wow, what an annual coincidence!

The worst slap in the face occurred in the late 80's when the box seats were eliminated.  Each aisle in the box seat sections were filled in with seats to increase 49ers season ticket sales.  Box seats traditionally had two to four seats across, then a bar to divide the small sections for easy seatability.  My box had two seats, then a bar.  Nobody ever climbed over me to reach the aisle.  But when the box seats were eliminated, the section rows grew to maybe 20 seats across.  This was a severe downgrade in seating that caused masses of Giants fans to complain.  The Giants, however, were powerless in the face of 49er-revenue-loving politicos and they caved to the cause of 9er gold.  In typical political spin fashion, the Giants issued a letter to season ticket holders assuring the mass of whiners that filling in the box seats with extra butt holders would actually increase the enjoyability of watching a baseball game at the 'Stick!  The Giants' security and usher staff, having fewer aisles to deal with, would now be better able to patrol the box seats and ensure safety, keeping riff raff out, and would allow ticket holders an increased ease in finding their seats!  What bullshit.  The writer of that letter needs to run for office somewhere.

Then adding insult to injury, after the boxes were completely eliminated from Candlestick Park, the Giants kept calling the lower orange seat sections....box seats!  False advertising at its bait-and-switch maximum.  The next season - and every season after that - were filled with drunken morons sitting in the middle of the section climbing all over me and guests to get out to the aisle to buy more beer.  Nothing against drinking beer, but the spill rate was unacceptable.  Having everybody in the middle of the section climb over you every inning for years was unacceptable.  But what could one do?  There was nowhere else to sit that was any better.  Developing a greater dislike for the 49ers was my solution.

I did see a handful of 49er games at the 'Stick, and enjoyed them, but any enjoyment I got out of football pales in comparison to having my favorite baseball team and venue compromised.  Sadly, my most vivid memories of the 49ers playing at Candlestick were negative.

 

Turn Out The Lights, The Party's Over

1985 was the worst season in Giants franchise history. Attendance had declined to near nothing and owner Bob Lurie, who was frustrated at the failure of the city of San Francisco to either build him a new ballpark or renovate the 'Stick, declared that Candlestick Park was not fit for baseball and that the Giants would not play there in 1986. Whether this meant an attempt to play at the Oakland Coliseum or to move the team to another city, nobody knew. What it did mean was that the last game that year would be the last game at Candlestick ever.

Kevin , Louie and I were at that last game. The Giants lost their 100th game of the year that day, and I bought the last hot dog ever sold (read the story here) just after the game. We decided that we would stay as long as we could; until we were kicked out of the stadium. People left, and the security did their sweep of the stands, just ahead of the cleaning crew. They started in left field and swept around the staduim toward right. We were told to leave, so we went down to the right field corner to buy some more time. We were told to leave again. So we headed up to the upper deck. Since attendance was so small that year the centerfield stands were essentially blocked off. But a gate held loosely with a chain and lock had a bit too much slack on the chain. So we slipped through and made our way to the upper deck in centerfield and hid in a tunnel. This particular tunnel had a crawlspace access in it, so when the security crew looked down the tunnel, he couldn't see us.

We watched the cleanup and the grounds crew water the field, then leave. We were the only ones left. We made it down to the field, ran around the bases and went into the dugout. We each used the toilet in the dugout. After our fun, we decided to leave. But we encountered a problem. All the exits were closed and locked. Oh, no. So we started trying to open doors to ticket windows and equipment rooms. We found one door unlocked. It was to a small empty room. This room had a light bulb in the ceiling with a chain. It was on. There was a rear door that led out of the park. We sang, "Turn out the lights, the party's over" as we exited. Yes, we locked the door behind us and turned out the light. Of course the Giants played at Candlestick in 1986.

Candlestick Wind Tunnel

I recently wrote about how the wind used to swirl at Candlestick. It vaulted over the hill behind the park, landed in center field, slammed into the center field stands, split in two, and rotated around the park in each direction. On more than one occasion, the two flag poles just beyond the center field fence, which were about 25 feet apart, could be seen blowing full force in opposite directions. A mind blowing sight.

Candlestick Snow Globe

Candlestick Park was notorious for being windy. Not like in Wrigley Field where the wind blows either in or out, but it would blow in every direction at the same time. It swirled. The wind would come in over the hill behind the park and drop downward into center field. It would hit the enclosed center field stands and split into two, each half of the wind rotating around the stadium until they collided behind home plate. The result of the collision was wind that swirled in every direction, filling the rest of the ballpark.

One night it was very warm, about 70 degrees, and the wind was the strongest I ever experienced at the 'Stick. At a typical Candlestick game, all the hot dog wrappers (which then were 8" squares of wax paper) and other garbage would be blown by the wind and would collect in the front rows several inches deep. Most of the garbage would end up in the left field corner, sometimes a foot or two deep. On this night, the wind blew quite a bit of the garbage up into the air, and was quite a spectacle for the fans. Random flying shopping bags and hot dog wrappers swirling everywhere.

Then a few fans in the front row got the idea to throw handfuls of collected garbage up into the air. This caught on and hundreds of fans started doing it. The result was an incredible scene and the fans were cheering wildly. Candlestick Park looked like a huge snow globe that was freshly shaken. It was so awesome I got the idea of selling Candlestick snow globes with a caption that had the word "snow" crossed out and "hot dog wrappers" written in. I never followed up on my invention and kick myself. It coulda sold thousands.

The Last Hot Dog

Woulda, coulda, shoulda. In 1985, Giants owner Bob Lurie, fed up with the situation at dismal Candlestick park, coupled with the city's apathy in finding a ballpark solution, announced that the Giants would not play at Candlestick in 1986. Whether this meant moving the team to another city far away, or playing in Oakland until a permanent stadium solution could be had, nobody knew.

What it did mean is that the last scheduled game of the year, October 6 vs. Atlanta, would be the last game ever at the 'Stick. (So much for threats.) The Giants had lost 99 games to that point, and were the last of the 16 original teams (since 1900) to not lose 100 games in a season. What a fight it would be. Down 6-0, the Giants scored 7 in the bottom of the 6th, on only 2 hits. Only to have the Braves score 2 in the 7th for the final coffin nail.

As the game ended, my friends and I decided to stay until we were kicked out. I went up to the concession stands and as the metal door was rolling down on the last open window, I yelled in to see if I could get one last hot dog. The vendor was gracious in selling one to me. This was the last hot dog ever sold at Candlestick, or so I thought. I never ate it.

To this day it is still in its original foil wrapping in my mom's freezer. Now, red wine and single malt scotch get better with age...... but a 20 year old hot dog?

The Darkest Night Game

In 1985, the Giants pushed the starting times for their Friday night games back to 8:05. I remember something about allowing more time to get to the park on a Friday evening commute. Whatever. What I do remember is a certain game against Pittsburgh. Mike and I went to the game. A three hour game would push an 11pm finish time.

As the warmups were complete and the Giants just about to take the field, Candlestick Park struck again, in typical Candlestick fashion. The power went out. It was dark. Of course the only man who knew how to fix the lights was at home in San Carlos, several dozen miles down the Peninsula. He had to drive all the way up and finally got the lights fixed. The game was delayed an hour. This meant a 9pm starting time. A three hour game would push the midnight mark. We had time, though. But fortunately for any loved ones who might have been worrying about us, the game was only slightly over two hours. We made it home in normal time. (Box Score)

A Place to Hang Your Hat, Cubbie

The windiest game I ever attended at the 'Stick was also one of only five of the hundreds of night games warm enough to wear shorts. "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" comes to mind. It was 72 degrees at night with about a 40 mile-per hour wind. The Giants were hosting the Cubs.

With the Cubs in the field, and their pitcher on the mound, a sudden gust of wind ripped his hat off his head. Now, it didn't just fall off because of a strong breeze. This was just like the old "B" westerns when a speeding bullet tore the ten gallon hat off a cowboy. In a matter of a few seconds, the hat was yanked off his head, then it bounced through the hole between short and third, evading the infielders, and hopped several feet off the ground on each bounce, tumbling through the gap in left center like a tumbleweed across the Texas desert, finally sticking permanently to the chain-link outfield fence about three feet off the ground. There it stayed, the force of the wind handily defeating the force of gravity until it was retrieved by an outfielder. A wild cheer erupted in the crowd.

Only at Candlestick.

Memories of Candlestick

The much maligned Candlestick Park has given me so many memories over my life. Many of these memories couldn't happen at any other ballpark. Wild, crazy, only-in-San-Francisco type of things. A pitcher being blown off the mound during the All-Star game or a major earthquake during the World Series are famous events in baseball history. But most of my memories come from every day, mundane oddities quite unique to the concrete donut by the bay along with the wacky mentality of San Franciscans who attend.

The insanity is just what has helped keep my sanity. I'll write about many of these memories soon.

The Really Windy City

Chicago is known as the Windy City. Accordingly, Wrigley Field is known for its wind. But it only blows in one of two directions, in or out.

At Candlestick Park, the wind would blow in all 360 degrees at the same time, in 3D. Peanut shells, anyone?