Remembering the Stick

Described by famed baseball scribe Roger Angell as looking like "a festive prison yard" during the 1962 World Series, Candlestick was loved and hated by sports teams and fans alike for its 43 years of existence. Built on a landfill above a garbage dump in a city rocked by an 8.6 earthquake only 54 years earlier, it was notorious for the tornadic winds that came off the bay, probably costing Willie Mays at least 100 career home runs. The fogs that rolled in looked like something God sent to pass over His Chosen people. And of course, there was the famous 1989 World Series earthquake that postponed the opening game for 10 days. But it was also home to the greatest run of sustained excellence in pro football history: the 1981-1994 49ers, as well as the exploits of baseball stars such as Mays and Juan Marichal.

Steven Travers is the author of more than twenty books, including the best-selling Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman, nominated for a Casey Award as Best Baseball Book of 2002; and One Night, Two Teams: Alabama vs. USC and the Game that Changed a Nation. He was at Candlestick when the stadium was rocked by the 1989 World Series earthquake, witnessed the 49ers winning their first NFC title there in 1981, and was busted for trying to bring beer into the stadium as a teenager. He lives in northern California.