The Stick

Outside Candlestick Park (known then as 3Com Park), Aug-1997.

The playing surface and outfield bleachers.

Chronological Tour: Stop 127

• Location: Jamestown Avenue at Harney Way, Candlestick Point, San Francisco, Calif. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1960 as Candlestick Park
• Additional names: 3Com Park (1997); Monster Park (2003)
• Closed: 1999 (for baseball), 2013 (for football)
• Demolished: 2015
• Home team: San Francisco Giants, National League (1960-99); San Francisco 49ers, National Football League (1960-2013)
• Capacity: 63,000

Rating: 3 baseballs

After two seasons at Seals Stadium, home of the Pacific Coast League’s San Francisco Seals, the Giants moved into Candlestick Park in 1960. Immediately, they realized what the Chamber of Commerce didn’t advertise: Thanks to the configuration of the bay, the wind blows here just about every afternoon and evening, and it’s a stiff, cold breeze. Stu Miller got blown off the mound here in an early-1960s All-Star Game and was called for a balk. Night games were three-blanket affairs; management awarded folks a pin called the Croix de Candlestick if they stayed for an extra-inning night game.

The stadium was enclosed in the 1980s for the benefit of the NFL’s 49ers, and while it eliminated views of the Bay, it also cut the wind down a little bit. However, it still got chilly at night even in August, and as a result the Giants played the second-most day games in the majors (to the Cubs) in most seasons.

Fans were coming in for game 3 of the 1989 World Series against the Oakland Athletics when an earthquake struck about 25 minutes before game time. Cracks developed in the stadium facade; fortunately, damage was minimal and the series resumed 10 days later.

In the mid-1990s, the park got into the naming-rights game, and the computer networking outfit 3Com got its name on the building (along with Internet terminals inside). However, the Giants had made arrangements by 1998 to build a new park in China Basin, near downtown and much warmer yet with a view of the Bay. Pacific Bell Park opened in Apr-2000. The 49ers continued to play at the facility, which for a while was named Monster Park after the manufacturer of audio and video cables, for an additional 14 seasons. But they moved down the Bay to Santa Clara (next to San Jose) for the 2014 season, and that left the Stick with a date for the wrecking ball.