Subject: "Tell It Goodbye" Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1999 19:06:50 -0400 From: Don Dudley Organization: Sun Microsystems To: Don.Dudley@Sun.COM Fans, I visited Candlestick Park (are there any of you out there that recognize it only as 3Com Park?) Sunday. Not for the first time -- far from it -- but along with the Pittsburgh Pirates, for the last time. The Giants finally get to abandon this windy point for a new park next spring -- Pacific Bell Park, right downtown. "Tell It Goodbye" is the theme of this final season. As of Sunday, according to the countdown signs in the park, there were 16 games remaining in Candlestick and 227 days until the next spring's opener. The last game at "The Stick" is September 30th against the Dodgers, naturally; it's been sold out for some time. The Giants then finish the season at Coors Field. Actually, if I had my choice of which park to "say goodbye" to, it would have been Tiger Stadium, but you can't always be where you want to be; I was three time zones away from Detroit, dealing with enough jet lag as it was on my way back from Japan. (The trip to Japan preempted my plan to make what would have been my first visit to the Metrodome on 8/28.) And it's certainly not as if I haven't had some memorable moments at "The Stick." In all my visits to "The Stick," I never did get a Croix de Candlestick pin, although I'm almost certain I earned one. I didn't even become aware of the concept until 10+ years after I'd been going to the park. Owing to the severe weather conditions, they give out these pins to anyone who stays to the conclusion of an extra-inning night game, a real badge of courage. It's not like they've had to give out millions of these things ;-). I've seen the crowd shrink by a factor of ten under such conditions. My most prominent memory of "The Stick" is the four-game series I saw the Giants sweep over the eventual World Champion (they had a four-game sweep of their own over the heavily-favored As) Cincinnati Reds July 26-30, 1990. I didn't even plan on going to all four games of the series -- other than an Orioles visit to Fenway in 1970, I'm hard-pressed to think of another entire four-game series I've witnessed -- but progressively each game was as good as or better than its successor and I just couldn't stop. All four games were decided by one run, three in the last at-bat and two in extra innings. Paul O'Neill put on the third most impressive batting practice display I've ever seen (Hank Aaron at Dodger Stadium in 1968 is first and Darryl Strawberry, of all people, at Fenway a couple years ago, is second). Jose Uribe played the best shortstop I've ever seen for multiple games -- the crowd screamed "Ooh-Ooh-Ree'-Bay" with each successive sparkling play. And at Sunday's finale, I had the worst seat I've ever had -- up in the next to last row of Section 62 in the upper deck in dead center. Yes, Jim, worse than those seats we had with Jim Melcher at "The Vet" in 1973. After about three innings, realizing that my depth perception was such that for multiple seconds I couldn't tell the difference between a foul popup behind home plate and a 400-foot drive to center, I found a vacant seat high in the lower deck behind home plate. So, a lot of memories from that series. Sunday, I was able to walk up and buy a seat in Row Y of Section 1, i.e., directly behind home plate and up just far enough to be in the shade, not necessarily a feature at this park ;-). On the big screen, they showed a video of Jon Miller recalling how as a kid he used to watch the games from across the Bay near Hayward with a telescope, obviously before they fully enclosed the stadium. The Giants are clinging to their faint hope of catching the Diamondbacks. NL Player of the Week JT Snow was the batting star, notwithstanding having his elbow drained within the previous 24 hours; he and Barry Bonds hit solo homers. Barry's was the 437th of his career, putting him in 24th place all-time, one behind Andre Dawson. The radio announcers salute Giant home runs with "Tell It Goodbye," as I heard on the post-game radio show replays, a variation on the vintage "Bye-Bye, Baby" call of their famed predecessor Russ Hodges. The Giants' Shawn Estes pitched very well, did not get "blown off" the mound a' la Stu Miller in the 1961 All-Star Game (that description was an exaggeration, actually, but the umpire had no choice but to call a balk), but gave up solo homers in the 8th and 9th before giving way to Rob Nen, who struck out the side to preserve the 5-3 victory. Comiskey Park on the 12th anyone? Regards, Don