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NFT: 30 for 30 last night... bay area earthquake during '89 w.s.

MarshallOnMontana : 10/15/2014 10:05 am
I was really looking forward to this one and it didnt disappoint. Extremely well done. This was one of my very earliest sports memories having just turned 8 years old. I remember it vividly.

it truly was an amazingly improbable series of events. What are the odds that the biggest earthquake in the bay area since 1906 just happens to take place during a world series game between the 2 bay area teams? Unbelievable. Its just insane. It was also interesting to find out that were it not for quake proof upgrades made to candlestick park literally within a year from this night, it is believed the entire upper deck would have collapsed killing thousands in attendance and a death toll that probably exceeds 9/11

I really recommend this to anyone who missed it. It is on again tonight at 9 on espn2. Anyone else catch this? Thoughts? Memories?
I just remember watching the pregame  
Greg from LI : 10/15/2014 10:11 am : link
And Al Michaels yelling "We're having an earth-" and the video cutting out. Called my best friend to make sure I hadn't imagined what I heard.
I love most of the 30 for 30s, I'll definitely check this out tonight  
Ben in Tampa : 10/15/2014 10:13 am : link
thanks.

It's crazy to think what a near miss it was to renovate Candlestick Park. A few months separate a scary situation from catastrophe. Wild.
Surreal experience all around  
dbe1156 : 10/15/2014 10:20 am : link
I was a 3rd year law student flying back from a job interview. They announced the earthquake and nobody thought much of it but when we landed the airport was empty which was spooky. Got one of the last cabs into town from SFO and coming in you could see the marina on fire which was scary. That night we ended up drinking and hanging out at a friends but getting there was like Escape from New York - sirens going off, no traffic lights. We all kind of bonded together having been through it but it was scary.

Was  
BigBlueinDE : 10/15/2014 10:43 am : link
in college and remember seeing it live on TV. Very scary!
I was working in the sports department of the Rochester newspaper  
Steve L : 10/15/2014 10:46 am : link
that night. They actually yelled, "stop the presses!" Only time I ever heard that. This was before you could design stuff online so they had to physically re-layout every section in the paper because of this. As awful as the quake was, it was pretty interesting to watch that happen.
I was 11  
Model4001 : 10/15/2014 10:59 am : link
Watching with my dad...one of my earlier sports memories.

The freeway collapse: the idea that you could be driving along and a whole upper roadway could just fall on you scared the shit outta me.
......  
JBGiants : 10/15/2014 11:12 am : link
I've always been curious whether someone smarter than me could calculate what the odds of this actually happening would be. An earthquake itself of that magnitude has low odds, even in that region, but to couple that with it happening just before a World Series game, and more specifically happening before a game between the two cross-town rivals like that? It's insane.
the odds are  
MarshallOnMontana : 10/15/2014 11:19 am : link
A made up number that doesnt even exist to 1.

its unfathomable
I'm a big 30 for 30 fan  
aimrocky : 10/15/2014 11:28 am : link
but this one somewhat disappointed. I can't put my finger on why it did, as I'm most interested in the stories from my early childhood (I was 6 when this happened, so I don't have any memories). The victims stories were fascinating, but that was really it. It was a shorter episode (1 hour) but it still felt like it was too long. Just my opinion.
I didn't watch all of it, maybe the first half.  
Exit 172 : 10/15/2014 11:37 am : link
But I thought it was kind of (inappropriately) produced like an action movie, with the thrilling musical score and shots of crying people and all that. It was a true story. Let it tell itself.

I also thought the segments with people like Dennis Eckersley were a bit heavy-handed. I'm sure the people in the stadium were spooked and worried, but Eckersley was talking about it 20+ years later like the people in the stadium had been through hell and back. Meanwhile, people on the highway were getting crushed to death and dismembered. If it was "more than a baseball story," why not spend more time with the really serious stuff outside the stadium? How much did we really need to hear from Will Clark, who basically just walked around the stadium with his little brother and wondered when they'd play baseball next?

I also thought it went on too long. Part of the reason I tuned out.
cnn also had a special on this yesterday  
MarshallOnMontana : 10/15/2014 11:38 am : link
Which I caught part of. Apparently one of the guys who was driving on the bay bridge as it collapsed, narrowly escaping death, moved to new york and had a job at the world trade center where he also happened to be 12 years later on 9/11. He survived that too. Insane
that's interesting....  
BillKo : 10/15/2014 2:11 pm : link
the part about the upper deck being reinforced just a year before this tragedy.

I saw a piece on the new 49ers stadium, and they showed the guy who designed Candlestick. It talked about the problems and issues he encountered and where they had to build, but I thought I remember them saying the one thing he did do was reienforced the stadium for earthquakes.
to my memory from last night  
MarshallOnMontana : 10/15/2014 2:56 pm : link
An inspection in 1983 revealed serious flaws and forced them to undertake a big project to proof it in case of a quake. Im not even sure if it was actually finished by 89 or not, but they got a lot of work done and it was well ahead of schedule. They really glossed over this quickly, but they intimated if not for this work we are looking at possible death tolls in the thousands
People out here talk about  
oipolloi : 10/16/2014 2:12 am : link
How the traffic was incredibly light that night because everybody was watching the game. Death toll would have been much higher with normal rush hour traffic

Also, most people don't realize this, but the primary thing that leads to collapses is not poor construction or old buildings but the nature of the soil. Sandy soil liquifies, which is why the Marina district, built on landfill, was devastated, while Cow Hollow, a mere two blocks away, was unscathed because it's built on bedrock. Most of the old city is on hills, which means bedrock.

Most famous image from that quake is Canseco's hot wife , dressed to the nines and in high heels, pumping gas at a self serve station while Jose just sits in the car. Don't know if they showed that in the program
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