The last day at Candlestick Park!

I wanted to leave at 8 but what with one thing and another we didn't actually get on the road till 8:20. The radio was reporting 100 cars lined up before the gates opened at 9, so I was a bit antsy. We drove through smoke from nearby fires. At the rest area, 9:20, there were at least two other carsful of people going to the game. My antsiness increased. Around Berkeley, University Avenue, traffic slowed to a stop-and-go crawl, and I just knew it would be this way across the Bay Bridge and down 101 to the 'Stick. I hoped we would make it in time for the game. (A couple of years ago Pagan and I tried to get to a Dodgers game and traffic was backed up that far and we never made it.)It took half an hour to get to the Bay Bridge, and then, hey presto, traffic cleared to its usual thick mess. In another half hour, by 10:50, we were at the park!

We started off looking for the tailgate party, but had no luck, so I left my hot dogs with someone else, and we went in. Then, to my vast disappointment, no one but ticket holders was allowed down on the lower deck to try to catch a batting practice ball. Grumble. This was, of course, because they were sold out and trying to avoid all the trouble they could. And here we'd brought Rich's glove and everything. However, that was the only disappointment of the day. (Well, losing to the hated Dodgers, of course, but by then no one really cared anyway.)

Last Sunday had been the hottest day of the year in San Francisco. This day was fine, too. Last night, the last night game, they gave out Croix de Candlestick pins, though it was mellow and fine. Now, when Vince and I were there in August of '94, just before the strike, I thought we would freeze to death.

Our door prize was a "tell it goodbye" pin. Nice. Also, Fox sports was handing out packs of Kleenex to wipe away the tears. We were in the nosebleed seats in section 6, almost directly behind home plate. Roni and R.J. were three sections over, also in the sky. Attendance for the day, 61,389, which is the highest ever at the 'Stick, even counting the Earthquake series. Total attendance for the 40 seasons, 54,031,242. 1993 was the biggest attendance year, and '94 was going to surpass it before the strike. They never recovered the pre-strike momentum. (That strike was STOOPID and it's a tossup if Major League Baseball will ever completely recover.)

Rich and I went to 11 baseball games this year, 10 in San Francisco and one for the Steelheads (who have moved to Vallejo in a huff.) I figure the total cost of this little hobby this year is about $750 when you count in gas and tolls and food and all.

There were 2789 home runs by Giants at Candlestick, and the last was by Marvin Benard in the first inning. That was pretty much the last time I was happy about the game, in fact. In the fourth inning, Estes walked two runs home. In the 8th, the Dodgers pitcher walked Kent and it counted as his 100th RBI this year, making it three years in a row he's done that well.

The parking at the 'Stick was 8,300 plus 200 buses, and 20,000 off-park. PacBell has about 2000 all told. It's a good-looking park, but I wonder how they're going to keep people coming. We may do one game next year, taking the Vallejo ferry, but not too many.

"Tell it Goodbye" was announcer Lon Simmons' homerun call. The woman announcer, Sherry somebody (Rich was real disappointed to see her picture, he was imagining 20s and svelte) doesn't know if she'll still have the job in PacBell. There are still knuckledraggers who call talk shows and say they don't go to baseball games to listen to a woman. I like her, myself.

Apparently when Magowan took over the team, the crowds were rowdy. He instituted more security. Our own security guy for this last day was named Tom. He was singing along and talked to everyone and at the end of the game he was up in the aisles passing out Kleenex. I asked him what the chamois mitt was for, and it's to clean off seats, and he also uses it to pad himself as he leans. We saw him go talk to one guy, and shortly thereafter the cops came and took the guy away, but I don't know what the trouble was, he wasn't being so obnoxious that we noticed.

Before the game, they put some things into a Giants time capsule which will be buried at PacBell. There was a first and last game ticket, a hunk of astroturf from those misguided years, and a rental blanket. Waitaminnit, I could have rented a blanket that long frozen night??

Then Val Diamond of Beach Blanket Babylon came out in a long red dress with a headpiece that looked like SF, and sang "San Francisco." She had to be roasting! The Grateful Dead sang the National Anthem and we had a flyby by some F18s. Neat neat neat. The first pitch was thrown out by Juan Marichal, and he did a decent job (good thing) unlike Mike McCormick on Sunday, who barely made the plate.

I note that on the roster, opening day 1964, were all four Hall of Famers: Mays at Center, Cepeda at 1B, McCovey at LF and Marichal pitching.

Admiring the "Duck the Fodgers" signs, and joining into the "Beat LA!" cheer, we started the game. As noted, after Benard's home run, things went downhill. And I forgot my bubbles. Sone of the highlights on the scoreboard: The first home run in the park was hit by Willie Kirkall on April 13, 1960. Cepeda hit a 2 run triple in the first inning vs. St. Louis, April 17, 1964. Candlestick was used as the setting for the ending of the movie "Experiment in Terror" wiht Glenn Ford and Lee Remick. In the 1961 Allstar game, the pitcher was blown off the mound by a Candlestick zephyr. In 1964, the Center Fielder lost a ball in the fog. The Beatles gave their final concert here, August 29, 1966, and John Lennon commented "It's a bit chilly."

On the radio, one announcer said the best time he had at the 'Stick was when the Pope was here. We had seen the Pope at Monterey the day before. There was a major hassle with the buses, since the operator also had buses taking firefighters to the mountains, but since we drove ourselves (10 PM to 2 AM) that was not a problem. The problem we had was getting out once the Mass was over. There was no crowd control at all and after awhile it began to seem that the only way anyone was escaping was feet first. Well. That was then, this is baseball.

The game ended 9-5 and then the ceremonies began. They introduced all the Giants who had ever played there. One of them is shaped like Lou Seal, the mascot. (I didn't see the mascot durning this, do you think...? Naaah.) Roni came over and joined us because R.J. had to go to back to school night. We moved down to the seats where the guy-who-was-arrested had been sitting, as the people in front of us wouldn't sit down and Rich needed to sit, but he wanted to see. When we got there, Dave Dravecky was announced, and it was a standing ovation for two-three minutes. Dravecky is one of my heros. He came back to pitch after bone cancer, and meanwhile on the As, Jose Canseco was whining and getting arrested and generally being a bad influence. Once the whole crew had been introduced, the very last pitch at Candlestick was thrown, Willie Mays to his godson, Barry Bonds. Then a CHP helicopter landed on the field and took home plate away to PacBell. We saw that on the screen. The players made one last walk all around the field and we clapped and cheered ourselves hoarse. They released streamers and balloons, and it was all over.

We went to Roni's up Third and the Embarcadero and it took 90 minutes, but then it was an easy trip home.

Sniff!