“Why is Candlestick Park so windy? Because of the Giant[s] fans.” This was the first joke I ever learned. When I was growing up, no one ever talked about a game at Candlestick Park without discussing the weather. A “good game” day was when the wind didn’t pick up and swirl ground trash into the air. “The Stick” was an outdoor sports and entertainment stadium located in the Bayview District. It was home to the Giants from 1960-2000, and to the 49ers from 1971-2013.
When the New York Giants relocated to San Francisco in 1958, the City promised them a new stadium. The baseball team played at Seals Stadium[1] for two seasons while Candlestick Park was under construction. The location for the new stadium was chosen because it was the only space owned by the City that could house both a stadium and provide parking for 10,000 vehicles. The architect was John Bolles, who designed the stadium in the shape of a horseshoe. A mistake, it turns out, because of the evening winds. The Stick was the first stadium built with reinforced concrete. It included a radiant heating system of hot water pipes beneath the lower box seats, but because the pipes were buried in concrete, they did little to offset the cold air. Renowned attorney Melvin Belli was so angry that his $1600 season box seat was so cold he sued the Park and got his money returned. The Giants tried to offset the wind and cold air by playing more day games than any other Major League Baseball team except the Chicago Cubs, who did not have lights until 1988. Visiting teams constantly complained that the visitors’ dugout was noticeably colder than the Giants’ dugout. But at the time that The Stick opened, there were 5 Hall of Famers playing at the same time, and no amount of cold weather or wind could stop the fans from coming. Willie Mays[2] was quoted as saying that he was robbed of over 100 home runs because of the wind. In later years, the Giants gave out a Croix de Candlestick pin to every fan who exited the park at the end of a night game that had gone into extra innings.
On October 17, 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake[3] struck moments before Game 3 of the World Series between the Giants and the Oakland Athletics. Miraculously, no one in the stadium was injured, as the stadium had been seismically retrofitted the year before.
In 1971, the 49ers moved from Kezar Stadium[4] to Candlestick. Escalators and artificial turf (which was removed in 1978) were added, as well as the closing of the open end of the horseshoe design. It turned out that an enclosed stadium did not help with the wind problem.
“Why are they called the 49ers? Because they never crossed the 49 yard line.” The 49ers were a terrible team at their inception in 1946 by owner Tony Morabito. When Morabito died of a heart attack during a game at Kezar, the team was sold to Edward DeBartolo, who made his money in shopping malls. He appointed his son, Eddie Jr., as General Manager. The 49ers continued to be the worst team in the league, having a combined two year record of 4–28. At the end of the 1978 season, DeBartolo Jr. hired Stanford head coach Bill Walsh. Walsh drafted 82nd choice Joe Montana, and in 1981, the 49ers burst onto the football scene. They were not nationally recognized until the playoffs, when they were matched up with one of the league’s best teams, the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys had been good for years, earning the moniker “America’s Team”. The coincidence that their quarterback was named Dan White[5] was not lost on anyone. On January 10, 1982, in front of 65,000 people, the 49ers beat the Cowboys in a heart-stopping game that included “the catch”: Montana’s awkward throw and Dwight Clark’s amazing fingertip catch in the end zone with 58 seconds left on the clock to win the game. The team went on to win that year’s SuperBowl, and three additional SuperBowls under Walsh’s leadership.
The Giants6 left Candlestick and moved to Oracle Park in 2000. While Oracle Park is only one degree warmer, it is a lot less windy. The 49ers7 moved to their new stadium in Santa Clara in 2014.
The last event to be held at the Candlestick Park was a Paul McCartney concert on August 14, 2014. Ironically, The Stick is where the Beatles played their last concert as a band in 1966. The band members had been at such odds at that point that the concert only lasted 33 minutes.
Candlestick Park was demolished in 2015, and there are currently plans to redevelop the site into office space.
[1] Seals Stadium: see story coming September 20th
[2] Willie Mays: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3266
[3] Loma Prieta: see story coming October 17th
[4] Kezar Stadium: see story coming May 2nd
[5] Dan White and the assassination of Harvey Milk and George Moscone: see story coming November 27th
[6] Visit them at www.mlb.com [7] Visit them at www.49ers.com
