The oral history of the earthquake that shook the 1989 A's-Giants World Series | MLB on ESPN
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- Опубліковано 20 жов 2019
- 30 years after the earthquake that shook the 1989 World Series between the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants, former broadcasters and players, including Al Michaels, Joe Torre, Tony La Russa, Dave Stewart, Dennis Eckersley and Will Clark, remember the disaster. Bob Ley and Chris Berman also reflect on ESPN’s coverage of the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
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This game really save a ton of lives! 5pm traffic in SF, there would have been a ton of people on the bridges, and freeways. They were basically empty because people were at the game or watching the game!
Sort of like the people who worked at the WTC and were out late drinking and watching the Giants on Monday Night Football on September 10th and called in sick the next morning.
@@boataxe4605 only to die of cancer 3 years later from the air quality
@@F5_cena yep.
I remember it well
@Brian T most of the people who worked at the WTC were down at ground zero looking for their fellow workers
"Prepare for three days of no services. You got 90 minutes of light left. You better make use of your time."
The words you never want to hear from your local cops.
c7rfnmn You’re right about that!!!
This is so sad
Better get my gun and ammo. Oh I live in San Francisco, never mind
I'm sure a lot of young ones, I see on the news ATM, would go into tantrum melt down at the sound of those words.
@@johnharris6655 you can still owns guns in cali
“You got 90 minutes of light left, you better make use of your time” truest words ever spoken
People suffered in the city and George was worried about the commissioner not wearing a tie in front of a camera. That's messed up man.
100 percent agreed 💯
Typical George Steinbrenner
Shut up.
Truly pathetic
Right…someone should’ve asked him how he would’ve looked if he just went through a deadly earthquake
I was a junior at a south bay high school & a lifelong Giants fan. I distinctly remember looking at the clock on my desk at home - 5:04pm. I got up from doing my homework, put my Giants cap on and started walking out of my room to the living room to watch the game when what sounded like two massive boulders being rubbed together in the sky just engulfed my ears. My mother came running into my room from the kitchen when the ground literally started doing what felt like a 3 foot wave. My mother and I got thrown about 4 feet as we could hear glass breaking all around us. I dragged her under my desk and closed my eyes hard as I waited for the roof to come crashing down on top of everything. Scariest 15 seconds of my life. I thought we were going to die.
Super sorry that u were in this situation
:(
I was in Santa Cruz and I've always talked about watching a truck in the parking lot bounce up and down 3 feet into the air. Very scary not knowing where the epicenter was and if all of California was damaged!
Wow
@@aquaminstrel you didn't see the Mexican hitting the hydro switches in the truck......
Sorry... That sounds racist after reading it. I drive a lowrider and look Mexican,so these types of jokes are everyday life for me.
Let’s have a moment of silence for those who didn’t make it.
True!!!
*shits my pants really loud to interrupt the silence* oooooopsie daisyy
what is wrong with you. @@arcata6612
My dad brought me to this game. We were on the second deck. I was 9 years old. I remember my dad thought people were stomping their feet at first because of the vibration in the stadium, then he grabbed me and held on tight. It was loud and people were frantic and then it was over and everyone started walking out. I still can’t believe I was there.
That's Awesome!!! 🐹😊 You made it!!
Congrats on surviving a quake, hope you never have to go through such horror again
Exactly what we felt... sounded like stomping.. except we were down in 28 on the ground floor...🤪
I was 9 years old, in left field ground level. It happened when people started stomping. I thought it was a machine to rock the stadium to add to the effect. I remember one gate being open for me and my dad to get out. An old man laying on the ground with people stepping over him. It was pandemonium. We sat in the parking lot for a while and then headed back to Oakland across the Alameda Bridge.
Crazy to find someone my same age that was there.
I've contacted my son every year on this day to reminisce about our experience in the upper deck. Watching these videos brings it all back. It was like a lifetime of memories cramed into 15 seconds.
The sudden violent shaking after a rumble and the noise the ground (or earth) was making was instantly terrifying. I won't forget grabbing Ryan and think the upper deck was going to collapse and holding him tight.
When it stopped the crowd roared for a long time, we sat for a while.
My dad was at this game in the upper deck. Candlestick the season before had been renovated to improve the structural integrity of the upper deck and the overhangs to ensure they would be less likely to collapse should their be an earthquake. I think it is a miracle they decided to do that, because if not, considerable lives would've been lost including my dads and I would not be here.
IT IS EXCELLENT THAT THOSE INSPECTIONS AND UPGRADES TOOK PLACE!
SADLE TODAY,THESE ARE THOUSANDS OF BRIDGES AND ROADS SUPPORTING TRAFFIC AND LOADS NEVER INTENDED TO BE APPLIED. AND THE WAY THINGS LOOK,NOTHING IS GOING TO BE DONE FOR A GREAT WHILE!
THERE ARE OVERPASSES IN MY CITY THAT REINFORCING REBAS CAN BE SEEN IN MUTIPLE SUPPORT SOLUMNS(FROM TOP TO THE BASE,AND FROM SIDE TO SIDE) AND EVEN WITH THE OPITE LAWSUITS AND ALL OF THE 'RONA MONEY,NOT A ONE EVEN BEING CONSIDERED!!
SO I SUPPOSE WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR CULTURE OUR INFRASTRUCTURE CAN GO TOO. SO SAD!
Being a 10 year old kid at that time was something crazy. Earthquake Series will forever be remembered 🤙🏼 Rest In Peace to all those that lost their lives 🙏🏼
Agreed!!!!
You almost have to feel sorry for the A's here. Their *one* moment of glory in almost 4 decades, the *one* time they don't choke... and all anyone remembers is the earthquake.
You’re right about that!!!
The only other series to be postponed for 6 days or more because of rain was the Giants vs A's when both teams were on the east coast.
I’ll never forget a guy who had the rear end of his car crushed by debris, it was still drivable and instead of getting it fixed he got vanity plates with the time the quake hit on them.
" I'll tell you what , I think were having an Earthquake ! "
Ill tell what I think were having a earthqu...
It's like the opening to a natural disaster movie.
Word cut short
I was working on the 16th floor of the kaiser center in Oakland . My plan was to meet some friends in a san fran bar if they couldn't get tickets to the game. They got tickets so i wasn't driving along the lower Nimitz freeway into san fran when the upper roadway collapsed and have live to tell the tale.
THANK GOD that the earthquake happened in broad daylight so that the fans could be evacuated from Candlestick Park in a safe and orderly manner. THANK GOD that Interstate 880 had only light traffic that day!!! God rest the souls of those who died in the quake.
I was 19 when this happened. We were concerned when it happened but when the news got out about the freeway collapsing we were devastated. Such widespread damage was mind numbing. When they said that casualties were minimized because of the game we felt such relief for the people who would have died. It was a wild roller coaster ride all in the span of a few minutes.
I remember this vividly. I live 370 miles from San Francisco, and I remember clearly feeling it roll through us. And I don't mean like I barely felt it. We FELT it, it felt like a decent quake even by the time it came through southern California.
I remember this like it was yesterday. I was in the East Bay and it sounded like the world was ending.
it happened in front of my eyes .... up close and personal ..... longest 15 seconds of my life, I start crying every time I think about this day - October 17, 1989 - and the horror that I felt still echoes in my mind and getting hypersensitive from each shock since ....
Me too 😢
I was born in SF I guess I just got used to it, waking in the middle of the night being told " go back to sleep it's just an earthquake ".
@@gchukma really true. Grew up in LA. Earthquakes just happen
@@gchukma Wow, can't in my wildest dreams imagine hearing those words or feeling the ground move. And I'm not going to. Live in Iowa and staying here lol.
I was watching game live. I had moved out of the Bay Area six months earlier, after living my entire life there. And saw, on TV, the bridge I should have been on, the freeway I should have been on, and the hospital I should have been making a delivery to at 5pm, all get wrecked. But I was safely out of the way, and I'm still around. Luck.
Man NBC should do baseball again with Al Michaels. TBS can go away with there ridiculous commentary.
That was on ABC
@@jimmythompson1979 yeah but ESPN doesn't even show Baseball on ABC any more.
@@runrafarunthebestintheworld I think because you said NBC.
@@JohnDoe-nj3vj Yeah because once ABC stopped doing baseball to move over to ESPN Al Michaels moved over to NBC to do baseball coverage and do NFL coverage.
@NO PATS JIM There is such a thing as the internet to look it up. Lol
I was 13 and remember it and remember the series. It was crazy to see as a kid. The news for weeks was just devistation. A lot of good players in that series. Both teams were loaded.
This was a reminder that baseball isn't more important than human life but it also reminds us that baseball can be a great way to take our minds off of a horrible tragedy
Also to keep ppl safe off the streets in such occasion and for press to give needed intel for citizens
@@splashnskillz37 yes those to
Just like 9/11, when that day brought everything to a stop that day. Including sports
The Yankee Clipper, Joe D- lived in SF and despite his fame, he waited in line for services. Somebody came up to him and said he can go to the front. He declined, but then the guy told him, it's not because of your fame, senior citizens were able to go to the front of the line. Only then, did Joe D. go to the front of the line!
1989 I was 11yrs old living in Woodland CA and remember it like it was yesterday. Watching the W.S on tv then they announce, " We're having an earthquake". A few seconds later I felt the earthquake that was about 80 miles away in SF. 🧒🏻📺📈📉 🌁
I was at UC Davis which is close by. I knew right away it was a big earthquake.
I was in this earthquake. Lived in the east bay and just got home from work. My condo started rocking and I just grabbed the back of the couch and hung on. It was fifteen seconds but felt like fifteen minutes. I'll never forget that day.
I'm from Concord, California and was a 3 years old A's fan watching this series on TV with my mom when the shaking started. I'll never forget seeing a pair of vases we had swaying back and forth. Luckily we were unharmed but I'll never forget that day; it's actually my very first memory.
"You got 90 minutes of light left, you better make good use of it." Surreal.
For Dave Stewart it would have been particularly hard because his family was actually from the Bay area. He grew up there and his family still lived there.
True!!!!!
A Hotdog saved a man's life. Hotdogs don't get nearly enough respect as they deserve ✊🌭
I wasn't at the game but I was just south of SF IN Burlingame
It’s funny.... the next year Vincent banned Steinbrenner from baseball for bribing a private investigator. 🤣🤣🤣
Was that for the dave Winfield fiasco ?
Eric Sigersmith yep. 😂😂
I was on a bike ride through China Camp and grinding my way up a steep hill. The telephone and power lines went to swaying back and forth and didn't stop. It thought I was just me being out of shape for the hill. When I got to the top of the hill, it had stopped. It was quiet, and the sky was filled with birds flying aimlessly about.
Why does this only have 20 thousand views
For real and war eagle
I’ll never forget that night. I finished my homework early, then begged my parents to let me watch the World Series…just when they were still reporting the earthquake from Candlestick Park. As I watched, transfixed by events, my dad ran up the long distance bill, as he and his brothers tried desperately to reach their sister and her husband, who lived in Pleasanton. As it turned out, that freeway was on her daily commute, but she had gotten home before the quake.
I was about 80 miles from Fisco when the quake hit in the upstairs portion of our home. I literally heard the roar of it coming and then watched the walls of our house ripple as it moved through.
Dave Stewart is a HALL OF FAME Human!
True!!!
I was at home when I heard the news on this Quake I was 17 living in AZ and in my last year of High School.
I was 8 years of age when this happen here in Oakland I remember my mother was making tongue tocos me , my brother, and sister we were watching reruns of a tv show called silver spoons. The earthquake in 1989 felt horrible I was crying. Oakland and San Francisco were badly affected by this earthquake
I spent 6 months in Oakland working on a computer project. I flew back home a month before the earthquake. My motel was just off that expressway where one level collapsed on the other level, and I drove on it often. Boy, was I glad I got outta dodge in time.
I was living in Sunol California at the time. I still have my game 5 ticket which is strange its self because the baseball commissioner printed on the ticket was Bart Giamatti. And he was deceased. All in all it was a very strange World Series and very traumatic for my parents who are watching it live in Mississippi.
I was 21 years old watching this game from New Jersey. I can remember this like yesterday.
I was 7. I remember this like it was yesterday.
I remember watching the game and noticed how the sport announcers transitioned almost automatically to reporters. These guys who probably haven't covered a non sports function in 20 years knew what had to be done. To get as much information out to the public on what they should be doing. Very commendable.
For that to happen on that day, at that time, in that city, in that ballpark where two of the teams are from the same area in question, just think of the odds of that happening! If you think Kirk Gibson's HR in the '88 series was a real life Hollywood script, then game 3 of the '89 WS was a real life Hollywood box office thriller
My late Mother lived across from the Red Cross on Post Street. When the quake hit it knocked power out all over SF & her building had an electric door lock and no one would be able to get back in if they went out.
We were watching the beginning of the game on Edison Avenue, 10 miles from downtown Sacramento & it made the pool water jump 30 feet across the driveway & it hit the front door of the apartment we were in.
I set up three TVs on the lawn outside my apartment and for 24 hours a day for a week people in my building an out shot there and watched every bit of news coverage. I had two tickets to the series. I was unable to go because I had to stay over if I had gone to the series I would’ve on the cypress and wouldn’t be here today and I recognized the fire in the marina because it started literally right across the street from Moreno junior high school where I went to school in 1964 to 65 and I thought the whole city was burning down I lived in San Francisco for 17 years on and off.
The day I will never forget. I was driving truck heading to Berkeley from Walnut Creek. I was stuck in heavy traffic when the overpass that I was on just rolled up and down I set my brakes and held on for some reason I glanced to my left and heard a loud explosion and I saw the Oakland overpass collapse I witnessed fire and smoke coming from the overpass. It will remain in my mind forever
63 people lost their lives in this earthquake. It would have been a lot worse if the World Series wasn’t between the two Bay Area teams.
That is what you call divine intervention
I was 12 years old, born and raised in S.f. mission district, i was scared shitless when the quake hit.
Same age here but other side of the country. Watched live. Crazy
I was 8 years old and I remember it well. Hamster in a shoebox is the best way I could describe it.
I was exactly 4 months old when the quake hit. I dont remember it of course, but the story was my mom scooped me out of my crib seconds after feeling the quake and held on for dear life in the doorway of our apartment building
I was there in San Francisco in July of 89 my first time visiting The City. It was hard to imagine anything happening to the most beautiful and breathtaking area in the entire country! I went back East for my sophomore year in undergraduate school and a girl I dated at the time ran into the college library were I was working and told me about the quake from watching the World Series! I couldn’t reach my friend who lived in Sacramento for like 2 weeks! Many mixed emotions as I watch this video and the profound sadness I felt about that marvelous city! But also encouraged by the bravery shown by all citizens to help out! God bless San Francisco!
And they say sports are bad, it literally saved lives
How little are your skis?
Ps
Your face
I will never forget that day. We were cut off from the world and had no idea what was going on. Nothing. I was in Monterey county. The biggest world series ever suddenly meant nothing.
Wow. Just stumbled onto this UA-cam vid…I was teaching in Alaska at the time and my cousin, who had season tix to the G’s, told me I could have a set of 2 free tix for either the NLCS playoff game with the Cubs or wait to see if they got into the WS and get 2 free tix to see them play the A’s if they made it. I opted for waiting to see if they got into the WS. I flew down from Alaska and took my 70 yr old mom to the game. We were in the Right Field Upper Deck when the quake hit. One point that I did not hear mentioned in the video: There was no stampede out of the stadium because the radio announcers at the time started talking directly to the fans in the stadium. Back in the 80’s, most people had transistor radios to listen to the play by play while they watched the game. KNBR and KSFO radio announcers Lon Simmons, Hank Greenwald, and Ron Fairly literally started speaking to the fans in the stadium urging everyone to stay calm and seated. They kept the crowd updated and everyone got out in an orderly fashion. We sat in our car in the parking lot for about 2 hours and then we were able to drive out. My mom lived in Alameda so I had to drive down south to the Dumbarton Bridge, the only open bridge. It was very eerie driving back. Lights were all out and it was rather foggy. It took us about 6 hours to finally arrive back in Alameda. An event I shall never forget!
One of the greatest documentaries I've ever seen ESPN sports documentaries are some of the greatest in the world
I tried finding the exact quote, but couldn't. Before the series a reporter made a comment to the effect with two teams from Claifonria playing in the World Series worst thing that could happen is an earthquake before the National Anthem of Game Three. Wonder what his reaction was when it happened.
No cell phones back than. Must have been terrible to contact people
9:40
I couldn’t agree more with what he said ... Toupee I mean Touché
jfc Steinbrenner
4 commercial interruptions in an 11 minute video. Wow UA-cam, Wow ESPN. Just wow
I just looked up this topic on UA-cam and just found this video was posted 8 hours ago (its currently 3:16 AM CST). COINCIDENCE??? PROBABLY
It was the 30th anniversary. Just so happened to coincide with the ridgecrest quake. We’re used to it lol
I was there upper deck... my family and I were some of the first people to leave after it happened and I remember they had all the exits blocked at first because of confusion and wouldn’t let anyone leave immediately. We were freakin out for like 10 minutes...
That's scary
Was john burkett on this team?
Which I guess the guy climbing the fence was doing in that video, he was simply exiting because the exits (at the time) were blocked off.
I lived in Granada Hills CA at the time and felt it way down here. And we too lost power for a few hours
The 1989 World Series was also known as the BART Series, which had a dual meaning:
BART is the acronym for Bay Area Rapid Transit
BART also refers to the late Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, for which this WS was dedicated to...he was known for banning Pete Rose from MLB for life due to gambling and dying from a massive heart attack eight days afterward
SMH.... They did Pete dirty.
Forgot about that!
Yes, now that you mentioned it!!!
Dennis Eckersley went from looking like the guy who would be shotgunning a beer in the back of his pickup, to the guy preaching about vape pens in his wine cellar.
I still remember this like it was yesterday. I was in 8th grade and had taken the bus home, so I was the only one home (we lived a little north of SF). I had the World Series pre-game on & remember when it hit, because the cameras started moving around and then you heard the announcer say they’re having an earthquake before it went to snow. I unplugged the tv & went under a sturdy place to wait it out. It seemed to last forever, but i think it was only about 15 seconds.
I remember watching this live
I lived in Sacramento and we felt the earthquake there
According to my mom, my grandpa freaked the eff out when this happened. He was convinced the Russians were finally firing on us.
What an ironic comment.
I was 8 years old and watching it. Remember the TV cutting out and going blank.
Bay Area World Series! Wow Oakland San Francisco
The Bay Area is so amazing in October
True!!!
My friend was playing for the Giants at that time Robbie Thompson
1982 brings back great memories.
I watched this game live. I remember hearing Al Michaels' voice cutting on and out, and the only word I really heard was "earthquake".
I lived in the SF Bay Area in 1989 when the earthquake happened. I was in the 6th grade. I still get anxiety every time I cross any bridges.
I do not think this could have been written any better. I was in Sacramento at this time watching it on tv.
I just wanna say something about Commander Nelson. He was killed less than a year after the earthquake in 1990 in a motorcycle accident.
Wow thats crazy
My family and I (northern VA) had just days before returned PCS from several years serving overseas. My father and mother had come to visit us in our new home, and Dad wanted to watch the Series game that day. So the TV was one of the first things we unpacked from our HHE. Later I was unpacking boxes in the basement and wondered why Dad had "turned the TV off"...because the game "noise" had stopped so abruptly. The TV was still on. He said the program just suddenly went off the air. The rest is history.
I remember that series! I was a Oakland A's fan. They turned this into a Movie. I can't remember the name of the movie
I was watching this game and remember how mad I was that I had to watch earthquake coverage instead of the game. In all fairness I was only 11.
Understandable
Total different situation, but I was about 12 and my older brother and I loved watching the show x files
And it was a season finally of like a 2 season arch and was really excited
10 minutes and glued to the TV it cuts to the oj Simpson chase
I didn't give a hoot or know who he even was
And this is I think like 94 or 96
The show stayed on the breaking news and never finished at or played a re run I was so pissed
Never watched another x files again
Still remember that quake like it was yesterday. An 8yr old playing a PAL soccer game in Vallejo without a care inthe world. To be young again....
Was watching this game with my grand parents as a young 8 year old and was bummed when cancelled after tv went out and came back on.
I was six years old and sleeping and learned about what happened years later. Such a tragedy
Al Michaels is the GOAT. Gonna be a said day when he isn’t calling games anymore 💯
I was 15 years old watching this game in Jacksonville Florida
A girl I went to school with was caught in the Cypress section freeway collapse. Her parents kept getting status reports on how the rescue was going. They had brought in ultrasonic listening equipment to listen through the concrete of the collapsed upper deck. They were trying to pick up the heart beats of any survivors. They said the only sounds they were picking up was the sound of watches ticking.
My mom was at Cal-Poly Pomona at the time and she panic and survived the quake. And as well the 94 quake.
I was in Chicago when all of this broke loose. We live near the New Madrid Fault line. But I was glad that it was not the Madrid fault line that caused the SF quake!
I was at the game top deck first row, it was a wild ride. Heard a roar and than it hit. The cement below me split and came back together. I got up and told my husband I am out of here. He followed me trying to get me to stay, kept walking. We left before they closed the lot and got on freeway. We ended up picking up some girls on the side of the highway trying to get back to their hotel, They were from Chicago and freaked out. Got them back and than tried to call my parents in Santa Cruz and no answer. Drove home to Monterey took 9 hours. This was a day I will never forget.
The Earthquake in the year 1989 in San Francisco & Oakland California
I think the title already let us know. Keep up the good work. 👍🏻
Even though sixty-three people were killed in the earthquake; the death toll could have been much higher had it not been for the world series baseball game. People had either left work early or were staying late to enjoy group viewing parties; as a result, rush hour traffic in the Bay area was rather light for a Tuesday. Still; I was horrified seeing a one-mile section of the Cypress Street viaduct on Interstate 880 collapse onto itself and a 50-foot section of the upper deck on the Bay Bridge collapse onto the lower deck.
@@michaellovely6601 Yup, and the brick building collapse on Townsend street, and the fires and apartments collapsing in the Marina District. It was all terrible
I never felt a single thing as I was at youth football practice. We only found out about the quake when we got home and saw the family huddled around the TV watching the news. Back then there were no cell phones so unless you were tuned into the radio you had no clue. That was a huge surprise considering it happened right down the highway.
Why do I get the feeling Michael B. Jordan would play Commander Nelson if they ever make a biopic of this?
Eleven year old me and my Mom was there a week before the earthquake. I so wanted to be at that game.
Dang that was crazy
I was 6 years old, this was the first major catastrophe that I witnessed on the news live.
Movie version please!
I was a senior play high school football when we were practicing and I felt the ground shake in the car it was so scary
I remember that. My parents had flown to Seattle for a conference and they said that they felt the earthquake. It shook them out of their bed.
I was watching the game on tv and when the screen went blank I heard an and announcer say earth quake.