I was out in the land of 50 million lakes in the late 90s (around the time JFK Jr nosedived into the Atlantic). Went to a Twinkie game when they sucked. Think the tickets were $10 which included a "pop" and a hot dog. I told an usher "this is a great deal" He said "you betcha! but there's an even a better one, dontcha know. Every home game in the bleachers for just $99" Then we were leaving and they let the air out of the big garbage bag. An usher said to stand behind a pillar as they did it so we didn't get blown over.
El Maracanazo en colores. Directo a favoritos en la videoteca. Joya total.📹 @FinoYossenpic.twitter.com/0huVWTVtVB— VarskySports (@VarskySports) October 4, 2023
Those crowd shots reminded me of the 2014 World Cup semi-final when Brazil fell behind Germany 2-0 And then 3-0 And then 4-0 And then 5-0 I swear in 2014 the director told a couple of the camera operators to pretend like you're on a suicide watch.
I was always down on those multi-sport American stadiums built in the 1960s-1970s (the cookie cutters like Busch, Veterans, Riverfront, Three Rivers. . . RFK too, IIRC) Looks like shitty stadium architecture is not an exclusively American phenomenon
The one in Oakland as well. Wrigley Field absolutely shouldn't count, but the Bears and Northwestern have both played there.
Also, right across the bay from Oakland (Candlestink Park). And Cleveland, Seattle, San Diego, Montreal, Toronto. Baltimore too (I think?)
Candlestick Park is long gone. Giants have played for years in beautiful waterfront park downtown SF. Niners have been playing for years at Levi's Stadium, not far from downtown San Jose. The Oakland story is pretty awful. SF built a new arena (Chase Center) and lured the Warriors away. That left the Raiders and the A's playing at the Oakland Coliseum, located at the same site as the old Warriors arena. Raiders then moved to Vegas and now John Fisher (same guy who owns the San Jose Earthquakes) is moving the A's to Vegas as well, leaving Oakland with the Roots (a USL team) as their only pro team. It's not clear yet what will become of that massive property which sits right alongside I-880.
IIRC, if Candlestick was built just a few hundred feet away, it wouldn't have had anywhere near the wind/weather issues it had. And yeah, the Oakland story is terrible. The then-owner demanded the view of the mountains be covered with more seats. These seats couldn't really sell, then things just went further south. You'd see a giant Oakland A's logo surrounded by tons and tons of empty seats. Moving a team generally doesn't solve the problem the A's have. If you move a .320 team, they're still a .320 team on the field. If you improve a .320 team to a .712 team, that's what brings the fans. Part of me still wants the A's to suck after they move.
I saw the Sounders play the Cosmos and Houston Hurricane in the Kingdome. What a wretched stadium that was.
Oakland just sucks at hosting pro teams. On the flip, it's probably more beneficial for taxpayers to not be subsidizing BIG SPORT
Candlestick was old, and (as you say) the elements could be a factor at times, but it was a lot of fun watching the Niners play there. As for Mr Moneyball, John Fisher, he's been awful for baseball in Oakland and equally as bad for soccer in San Jose. He built a modest 18k soccer stadium here which is nice enough, so I'm grateful for that, but he's never been willing to spend much for players and the Quakes have struggled for the past fifteen years under his ownership.
Fun for the 49ers. Not so much for the Giants. It was regularly cold during baseball season (or at least 'til September). {PS.. the discussion was about stadiums in the 70s and 80s, that's why I brought up Candlestick Park}
\ My brother's job used to take him to San Francisco quite a bit. One of his friends had box seats at Candlestick. The first time he invited my brother, my brother was surprised to find a couple of sleeping bags and winter coats in the back seat, and more surprised when they brought those into the stadium. They were for the late innings. After my brother told me that, whenever there was a Braves or a Cubs or an ESPN broadcast of a game from Candlestick, if I was going to be up anyway, I'd keep the game on TV and play "spot the tourist." That was the person sitting in shorts and a t-shirt at the beginning of the game who was freezing his ass off around the 5th or 6th inning, and who was usually gone by the 7th inning stretch. The natives might be similarly dressed at the beginning, but after the sun had set...
If I did the math right, since their last world series win in 1991, the Twins post season record, up to yesterday, was 6-27. So for this century, their post season record is now 7-27.
The Stick was worse than Oakland Colosseum, but was no picnic either. I recall many a night game with the elderly Black ladies -- a substantial portion of the overall crowd during the lean years of the late Seventies -- bundled head to toe in their green and gold blankies.
Its a wonder why they didn't start the games at 6:00p or even 5:30p. Okay, fans may arrive 20-30 minutes late because of work but its better than leaving early with frozen balls.
Thanks, made me a bit sentimental about the old place... "Candlestick opened in 1960 as the home of the Giants, newly transplanted from New York. It was where Willie Mays thrilled the crowd with home run after home run. It was also where a sellout crowd was rocked by a 7.1 earthquake that interrupted the 1989 World Series. "And then all of a sudden you heard like a bang," said Candlestick chief engineer Mike Gay. "And it really, really shook hard. It seemed like it lasted for five minutes." Buildings and bridges collapsed in San Francisco, but Candlestick held firm. No one was injured. In 1981, 49ers quarterback Joe Montana threw a game-winning pass to Dwight Clark so dramatic it has been known ever since simply as "The Catch." "When you came to 'The Stick,' you knew that it was going to be something special," said 49ers Hall-of-Famer Ronnie Lott, one of the stars of the legendary 49ers team that won four Super Bowls." - CBS News, August 14, 2014 It was also the site of the last ever Beatles concert in 1966... the last event there (2014) was a concert by Paul McCartney, 48 years later... ...I miss the old windy place. I'll never forget being down of the field, pretty close to the stage, when Metallica started playing Master of Puppets. Didn't find my brother-in-law until much later when he came walking by wearing one shoe, having lost the other one in the chaos.
Moneyball the movie kinda sucked. This guy nails much of my beef with it https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.at...eyball-movie-is-flawed-inconsistent-overrated
I think the big takeaway is that John Fisher is a penny-pinching tightwad and so the A's needed a genius like Billy Beane who could build a team capable of stringing together a 20-game winning streak. TBH, I've never been a big baseball fan, I'm a casual fan at best (much prefer soccer, Niners football and Sharks hockey) but my best A's experience was standing behind homeplate that night when Scott Hatteberg hit that walk off home run to make it 20 wins in a row. As a fan of an MLS team that moved (to Houston, where they proceeded to win the next two MLS titles), I know how much it sucks to lose your team. I can't help but feel bad for Oakland sports fans, losing 3 pro teams in a matter of years is brutal.