Memories of Candlestick Park

The demolition process has begun on Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

There were so many great games and so much history there.

The NFL 49ers won 5 Super Bowls while playing there, the baseball Giants lost their only two World Series while playing there.

Before game 3 of the 1989 World Series in which the Oakland A’s swept the Giants in 4 straight games, an earthquake erupted just after 5 p.m. local time.

The great winds at Candlestick Park were legendary. Once in an All Star Game, a fine pitcher named Stu Miller was actually blown off the mound with insult added as a balk was called on Miller.

The games, so many great ones. I choose the most dramatic, one from football and one from  baseball.

In the 1981 season NFC Championship game vs the Dallas Cowboys, the 49ers drove for the winning touchdown late to win (28-27) thanks to Joe Montana’s touchdown pass to Dwight Clark.

The 1962 World Series between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants went to the decisive seventh game.

The Yankees led (1-0) in the bottom of the ninth inning but the Giants had the tying and World Series winning runs in scoring position.

Pitcher Ralph Terry, victimized two years earlier by Bill Mazeroski’s World Series winning home run, got the great Giants player Willie McCovey out on a hard hit line drive to second baseman Bobby Richardson to give the Yankees an incredible 20th world Series win in 40 seasons.

Demolition has begun on Candlestick Park